Last week Lloyd Building Department Director Dave Barton tackled a few big items in his report to the Town Board, saying that his department has been working with the Highway and Water & Sewer Departments, trying to uncover some drainage pipes on New Paltz Road.

“It’s been an adventure as there are things out there that I could not have imagined; I was dazzled with some of the stuff that was uncovered,” he said.

Barton said the two departments have been working underneath New Paltz Road on the far side out by #720 and #721 by Dirk’s Terrace.

“They’ve jetted some sediment out of a box culvert, some corrugated metal and concrete pipes in order to figure out where the old box culvert goes,” he said. “We have a sense of where that water goes, which has been clogged for years and years. It looks like someone’s recycling bin fell over and washed down into the hole and discharges into a creek that eventually floats down to the ponds east of Lowe’s.”

Barton said he cannot thank Highway Superintendent Rich Klotz and Water and Sewer head Adam Litman and their respective crews enough.

“It was much more than I anticipated, not just the work itself but the capabilities of those guys out in the field,” he said.

Barton said New Paltz Road used to be the only route between Highland and New Paltz and he received an archaeological perspective when the Highway crew located, “a grate that was buried under what I think is at least three roads, one of which looked like a 6 to 8 inch concrete road, which we don’t do anymore because they get so slick in the rain. It looks like there were two roads on top of that and the grate they found was beneath that and black-topped over.” He noted that this led to discovering a head-wall on the opposite side of the road, “which they were able to uncover and they boxed it out today.”

Barton said the property owner on the corner of Park and New Paltz Road was contacted and agreed to let the town onto his property to search for the outlet of the pipe. He also contacted the owners of #721 and left them information and photographs to let them know what and why the town was working in the area and asked permission for the town to go onto their property.

“We found another hole and a grate in the middle of that yard that we uncovered and discovered there was water flowing through it when they were trying to jet the box culvert and now we have to find where it outlets,” he said.

Barton described the overall entire effort as herculean.

“It was a lot of work and I’m very impressed at how well the leaders of those road crews do their jobs,” he said.

Barton said further down New Paltz Road by Lorraine Meadows Road they found four catch basins that were hydraulically connected by pipes, “that go nowhere. We’re not sure why they’re in the ground...and were trying to figure out if there is a pipe buried farther down [but] to no success.”

Barton said there have been complaints about flooding in this area.

“It’s quite good that we’re doing this because there is an opportunity to move some of the water from the north side of the road through this pipe and then possibly in the future help some of the people along the south side of New Paltz Road, from Park Lane down to Lorraine Meadows, from getting flooding on their properties.” he said.

Supervisor Plavchak said he is glad the town has “attacked’ these problem areas, along with Christopher Avenue, “because first, I think we’ve learned that it does take all three of the groups [Highway, Water/Sewer, Building] to map and figure it out and second, I think the investments we’ve made in some of the equipment, whether it was the VAC trailer, the camera and the GIS system have already made a return.”

Barton agreed, pointing out that with this equipment, “we have a better sense of what’s happening in the ground out there. We’ve video record it, we’ve GIS identified all of those points, including the pipes, and have already created maps for the future and eventually, if we need engineering there, those maps will help.”

Plavchak the process has brought the town to a point where they know the work needed will be expensive, “and that’s where we can start putting in for grants and without the data you can’t do it. I think the whole thing is coming together and it was a good idea that we started the Drainage Committee.”

Trouble at McDonald’s
Barton also touched upon discharge issues at McDonald’s in the Bridgeview Shopping Plaza concerning, “water and whatnot running across their parking lot and down into the main drive in-front of the Hannaford Plaza.”

Barton said he and Deputy Building Inspector Anthony Giangrasso offered McDonald’s two options: “One, we could close them as an unsafe building, a procedure we can follow under the New York State Building Code, or they can figure out and correct where that discharge was coming from.”

Barton said the company chose the second option and had a contractor with a specialized camera on site two days later. He said they discovered that at a critical juncture a grease line and another pipe had separated.

“We ran water down the pipe without grease and discovered that the water would not go past that disconnect [but] would actually soak into the ground. Fortunately, the owner of McDonald’s was onsite that day and Giangrasso told him that he had to fix this and the owner turned to his contractor and said when can you do it by.”

Barton said all of the failing infrastructure is owned by McDonald’s and they are responsible for the cost of the repairs.

“They will have to tear up the parking lot on the east end of McDonald’s going down the hill, uncover that pipe, repair it and then they have to go farther down to a manhole where the grease separated water runs to...and because of the nature of what comes down from McDonald’s, sodas and things that are highly acidic, the catch basin is starting to pit, which could lead to further leakage in the future. They are going to repair that as well.”