Cortlandt is Looking to Shirk Responsibility for Wallace Pond
By George Pappas and Marlene Sauer
Wallace Pond, located in the northern and often forgotten section of Cortlandt Manor, is plagued with troubles that the Town of Cortlandt can resolve by taking ownership of the situation and of the Wallace Pond dam.
For decades, the issues have remained unresolved and top of mind for residents as they relate to the town’s unscrupulous actions involving (1) transfer of ownership of the Wallace Pond dam in the early 1980s (and after the state Department of Environmental Conservation notified the town that they would need to remediate the dam’s serious and significant deficiencies) to an unsuspecting property owners association; (2) lack of maintaining the water quality of Wallace Pond which they still own; and (3) the condition and rating of the dam.
Last December, the DEC reclassified and downgraded the Wallace Pond dam to a Class C rating. This new high-hazard rating (potential downstream damage in the event of a breach) means that repairs are now mandatory or the dam could potentially be removed and Wallace Pond would be drained. The Town Board has been dangling this potential threat as an incentive for neighborhood residents to vote in their “we-want-to-help-you” proposal, which calls for the residents to assume the cost burden of repairing the dam instead of the town reclaiming ownership and paying for the dam’s repair.
Cortlandt Town Board members publicly stated “over their dead bodies” will the Wallace Pond dam be taken down. However, their proposed solution would unfairly redistrict, create division and burden a smaller number of residents in our neighborhood if a special parks district was voted in. A parks district would allow the town to inflict an annual tax assessment of thousands of dollars per household for 30 years and assign perpetual responsibility for the maintenance of the dam that is owned by a defunct property owners association that individual neighborhood residents are not responsible for.
The town’s stance is only the residents in the immediate area of Wallace Pond benefit from it and, therefore, are responsible for the cost. This logic is flawed since Wallace Pond is located in a critical watershed area and all town residents have the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from its environmental significance. Wallace Pond also has historical significance as it was used for ice harvesting prior to refrigeration. The town claims that they have no interest in Wallace Pond as a community resource. How can that be, especially when they own the pond?
Neighborhood residents are unified in rejecting the Town Board’s unfair proposal and want the town to reclaim ownership of the dam and pay for the repairs to remedy this situation. The town should work cooperatively with Westchester County, the state and FEMA to obtain infrastructure and environmental grant funding. The Lake Isle dam in Eastchester and Lake Suzanne in Rockland County prove that this is possible.
The Town of Cortlandt is already receiving significant amounts of grant money and, as highlighted by the town on public television, is benefitting from several million dollars in realized savings due to program restrictions during COVID-19.
With their smiling faces and crossed arms, the Town Board’s campaign slogan is Cortlandt Forward. Forward okay, but the Town Board has a responsibility to correct haunting situations from the past and preserve Wallace Pond as a town resource for wildlife and constituents alike.
George Pappas and Marlene Sauer are residents of Cortlandt’s Wallace Pond neighborhood.
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