By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
On Aug. 13, the Village of Manlius Board of Trustees heard from several village residents, who voiced their concerns regarding the maintenance of Centerfield Court — a subdivision located between Route 92 and Route 257.
The residents expressed particular concern about the village’s alleged neglect of the stormwater management pond located in the development.
In January 2007, the Village of Manlius assumed ownership of the roadways and other infrastructure such as the sanitary sewer systems, closed drainage systems and the permanent stormwater management facilities, constructed for the Centerfield Subdivision Phase I project.
By accepting ownership, the village also took on all associated maintenance responsibilities.
The maintenance expected of the municipality was laid out in the 2005 “Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan for Centerfield Phase I,” (SWPPP) prepared by Dunn & Sgromo Engineers, PLLC.
Greg Hoover — a Centerfield Court resident who has dedicated considerable time, energy and resources to maintaining the retention pond — led the Aug. 13 board meeting discussion.
Hoover said the village failed to properly maintain the subdivision for a decade after the infrastructure was deeded to the municipality.
“After [ten years of] taking care of it and managing it and handling all the mowing and clearing of the pond — so that it would actually function — I came to the board in 2017 and said ‘I’m going to let it fail because it’s not really my duty [to keep it up],’” Hoover said.
Hoover estimates that he spent $30,000 maintaining the pond over the course of those 10 years.
According to Hoover, the village neglected the subdivision infrastructure until the July 2017 village board meeting, when “they [finally] realized it was deeded over to the village.”
Hoover said although the DPW did great work that year, the pond has since filled in with reeds and weeds and the neighborhood has become overgrown and unsightly.
“I want to move and my wife wants to move too; we’re really frustrated,” he said. “It’s just not a place that should look like [it does], and it just appears that it’s not important to you and you don’t care.”
Hoover presented to the board a stack of resident-signed documents — titled “Centerfield Court Homeowners Petition” — proposing, among other things, the creation of a Village of Manlius “Legally Binding Maintenance Agreement.”
Mayor Paul Whorrall said the Village Attorney Richard James will look over the proposal and that the board will meet with the DPW to discuss any work that may need to be done.
Hoover then remarked that the last time he attempted to speak to the village attorney and the mayor, they were both unwilling to discuss his concerns.
“You threatened litigation,” James said. “If you threaten litigation, I have an ethical obligation to deal with your council and not with you directly. You gave me the impression that you hired council.”
Hoover assured James that he never hired an attorney and that litigation is now off the table.
Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer Martha Dygert added that the mayor’s unwillingness to speak to Hoover was also in response to the threat of litigation.
“You threatened litigation and that means . . . we can’t discuss [the issue] with you, we have to defer to our attorney,” she said.
Centerfield Court resident Andy Schwab continued the conversation by stating that proper maintenance of the subdivision infrastructure would benefit the whole village, not just those residents looking for aesthetic improvements.
“Maintaining this on a regular basis would be a good thing for everybody,” he said. “I think it’s kind of an issue for the whole village . . . If you don’t maintain it on a regular basis, it becomes more expensive to maintain. Of course, if it fails, it becomes even more expensive to repair and correct.”
Schwab also noted that the pond plays a critical role in managing the stormwater runoff.
“The pond was made the way it was to protect the people that live over on Kevan Circle, who had a huge problem with flooding in their back yards,” he said. “We were required to make a larger retention pond than we originally wanted [in order] to remediate a problem that wasn’t really ours to remediate . . . the real concern here is what happens if that pond fails? What happens to all those people over on Kevan Circle?”
Schwab also said the cul de sac’s stone-filled median island is impossible to mow and therefore must be weeded. He suggested that the stones be replaced with dirt and grass to facilitate future maintenance.
Whorrall said he agreed with all of Schwab’s comments.
“We will look into it as quickly as we can,” he concluded. “I leave my trust in my DPW and my code enforcement officer to do the right thing.”
DPW Superintendent Chris Sherwood later responded to the discussion, saying the current maintenance schedule is based on the guidelines agreed upon in the SWPPP.
“[The retention basin] does have minimal maintenance issues that we take care of,” he said. “But [Hoover] wants cattails pulled, and we’re not going to do that every year because it’s not part of the maintenance program. We mow it two or three times a year. The things that need to get done have gotten done. It’s just not to his [standard].”
According to Dygert, the village will discuss the issues raised at the meeting and will be reaching out to those in attendance to inform them of the plan moving forward.
Manlius village board meetings are held the second Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Manlius Village Centre, 1 Arkie Albanese Ave., Manlius.
For more information, visit manliusvillage.org or call the Clerk’s Office at 315-682-9171.
