Liverpool homeowners who have paved over front lawns to create parking spaces on village-owned property will probably have to explore other options in coming years.
“What I’d like to do is inform homeowners that our intent if to return to green areas,” said Liverpool Mayor Marlene Ward at the Dec. 18 meeting of the village board of trustees. “Unless they have a particular hardship or other reason, those areas should be green.”
The issue came up as engineers and contractors prepare to implement a $2.5 million sewer-improvement project which will entail excavation along Tulip and Oswego streets, where the system’s mainlines are buried.
At least three properties along Tulip Street have been identified by village public works personnel as having paved or graveled over their previously grassy frontages.
Hearing set Jan. 3
Residents and property owners can express their thoughts about the green area issue and other sewer project concerns at a public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 3 at the village hall, 310 Sycamore St.
Rich DeGuida, a representative from the municipal engineering firm of Clough Harbour & Associates, which is overseeing the sewer work, spoke briefly at Monday’s board meeting. County and state agencies have been alerted to the plans, he said, and a root-control process was demonstrated recently on Balsam Street and Iroquois Lane.
Though workers “found quite a lot of roots” invading the joints of several of the aging clay pipes, DeGuida said, they managed to flush them. Duke’s Root Control, Inc., of Hiawatha Boulevard in Syracuse, is doing the work.
SEQR approved
The sewer system itself is in pretty good shape,” DeGuida said. The present sewer system was built in 1929, nearly 78 years ago.
The trustees approved the project’s State Environmental Quality Review Monday, and discussed at some length the issue of green areas.
Village Attorney Mark Grobosky pointed out that if the board intends to reclaim the green areas, affected homeowners must be put on notice.
Property owners are being levied about $150 per unit annually to pay off the debt service on the $2.5 million sewer project.
While the sewer improvements could be completed within five years, the term of the bond could run up to 30 years.
The sewer project will likely be discussed not only at the Jan. 3 public hearing, but at the board’s first two regular meetings of 2007. To avoid conflicts with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day, those meetings were rescheduled for Jan. 16 and Feb. 20, both Tuesdays.
Eight accidents in November
According to a memo from Liverpool Police Chief Donald Morris provided to the village board of trustees at their Dec. 18 meeting, officers issued 271 citations for violations of the state’s vehicle and traffic laws during the month of November. Seven arrests were made for driving while intoxicated and eight traffic accidents were investigated. Officers made 111 residential checks during the month, while investigating a total of 334 incidents.
Trustee Gary White, the board’s police liaison, reported that the department was notified by the Automobile Association of America that it has won a AAA Gold Award or Community Traffic Safety. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Jan. 9 to 30.
