Storm Drainage on Oak Leaf Drive

by Lee Jamison

Anyone who lives in Stuyvesant's Oak Leaf Drive development, or who has friends who live in Oak Leaf Drive or who, maybe, ever went campaigning door-to-door knows that the most critical issue on homeowners minds is storm water drainage. The houses look comfortable, modest, tidy and pretty but a sharper eye soon sees signs of run-off problems.

Some of you think, after years of no formal response from the Town, that there is nothing that can be done. Some have watched repaving by the Highway Department and felt the flooding only got worse. Many have spent thousands of dollars fixing water damage to their homes. Others wonder if they can ever sell their homes. Others fear losing their homes. Some say they are ready to sue the Town.

Some folks came to a Town Board Meeting looking to air fears that their house was actually washing down the hill. A Town Official responded, "It's not my fault that water runs down hill!"