Bonacic Secures Additional $250,000 For Flood Mitigation

State Senator John J. Bonacic (R/I/C - Mt. Hope), has secured $250,000 to help flood stricken communities in Delaware and Sullivan Counties. This is in addition to the $300,000 he secured earlier this year as part of the State budget process.

The funding must to be used to mitigate flooding in the Delaware River basin, which includes most of Delaware and Sullivan Counties. The funding can be used for stream repairs and realignment designed to mitigate future flooding, culvert installation to prevent the back-up of water, and road realignment designed to mitigate flooding. The following communities will receive the following amounts:

Town of Colchester: $72,500;

Town of Rockland: $52,500;

Town of Walton: $50,000;

Town of Hancock $50,000;

Town of Deposit $25,000.

In addition, the Senate passed legislation sponsored by Senator Bonacic which requires the State to implement the flood control measures recommended in numerous reports. "The State and Federal governments have studied flood control to the death of my constituents, but have not dedicated the dollars needed to actually implement the solutions recommended by those reports. It is time to stop the studies and put the hard dollars into requiring the implementation of the plans developed by those studies," Senator Bonacic said.

Town of Walton Supervisor John Meredith stated, "The Town of Walton is grateful to Senator Bonacic. Concerns of funding flood issues has been an issue and this funding comes at a great time. The Town will be able to remedy some trees and stumps to try and keep bridges and culverts clear as well as other projects that are going to be of benefit to all Walton residents."

The State Assembly has passed legislation requiring more studies of flood control, but have failed to order the results of those studies be implemented. "Legislators who claim to be solving the flood problems by only offering more studies are guilty of false advertising" Senator Bonacic concluded.

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