BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village is moving forward with getting a new engineering study completed focusing on the municipality's flooding issues.

The village board voted at their Nov. 4 meeting to authorize Village Mayor Alexandra Jacobs Wilke to circulate a request for qualifications to engineering companies to do the study.  

The study, which will update several older studies the village has on file, is expected to be the first step for the village to apply for grant funding for future storm water mitigation projects.

The need for the mitigation was recently brought to light during the Aug. 9 flooding event, when multiple neighborhoods and streets in the village, like many other areas for the region, were inundated with water from a hurricane powered storm front.

However, several neighborhoods in the village, notably those in the areas of the crosstown canal deal with chronic high water issues. Members of those communities have formed the Potsdam Flood-free Coalition to open up communication and help promote forward momentum on fixing the issue.

The resolution approved by the village board at their Nov. 4 meeting said the study will “identify and characterize measures to increase the effectiveness, capacity and resiliency in the face of Climate Change, of the Village of Potsdam’s stormwater management infrastructure.

The resolution will allocate $50,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan grant funds to pay for the cost of the study.

“We hear the urgency, from that committee (Flood-Free Coalition) and from our community,” said Jacobs Wilke earlier in the meeting during her comments. The mayor was speaking about the village conducting an updated engineering study on the flooding issue. The study would be a precursor to the village being able to apply for funding for any mitigation work.

“I understand that it's frustrating to hear that we need another study, but we really do. Our information is helpful, but outdated from the ones that we had in the past,” Wilke said.

“But my commitment should it be funded and should it be completed is to see it through,” she said.

The mayor said she and village officials have been on multiple phone calls researching grant funding streams for any future work.

Later in the meeting, Ryan Deuel thanked the board for their efforts and praised the quick turnaround on the resolution to send out the RFQ.

“I did want to voice the Coalition’s support of this resolution that is on the agenda for tonight that would release the RFQ for a storm water management infrastructure engineering study,” Deuel said. “That is really excellent news to hear so quickly on the agenda just days after we held our meeting back on the 28th.”

Deuel said the Coalition will continue to work to promote a “multi-jurisdictional approach to the flooding issues, seeking to bring town, village, school and other stakeholders into the conversation to fix the problem.