By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

Residents of Belmore Drive in the village of North Syracuse have signed a petition asking the village to take care of a mosquito problem in their neighborhood. The North Syracuse Village Board of Trustees accepted the petition at its Sept. 10 meeting.

Department of Public Works Superintendent Ed Ware said he visited the area and took photos after a recent rainstorm.

“There was no standing water there, but there is a lot of overgrown vegetation in the swale,” he said. “In my opinion, the landowners should clean the vegetation and maintain their properties.”

Mayor Gary Butterfield said the responsibility for maintaining vegetation would fall on the resident if it is on private property and on the village if there is an easement there. Ware said he would have to look at property records to determine if the areas he photographed had an easement.

Ware added that mosquitoes are common to the area anyway, so he did not think the village’s intervention would help much.

“I believe that we should do something to alleviate the homeowners’ [issues],” Trustee Fred Wilmer said. “If you were to fill it so it was more to the point of a swale that would help a lot.”

Ada Cooper, a Belmore Drive resident, said she keeps her property clean, but water gathers in the ditch each spring. She said the area is unusable for much of the day because of the mosquitoes.

“Mosquitoes are terrible. I’m allergic. I buy mosquito spray like I’m going mad,” she said.

Cooper said she also worries about her grandchildren and other local kids playing in the ditch.

Mayor addresses Dog Daze drainage issues

Mayor Gary Butterfield shared an update from the New York State Department of Transportation about the flooding in front of the Dog Daze pet shop.

David Sturgis, owner of Dog Daze, took his complaints to NewsChannel 9’s Your Stories in late August. Sturgis told NewsChannel 9 that he spends rainy days pushing water out of his store, which faces the storm drain on that side of Route 11.

Butterfield said the pipe under that section of Route 11 was installed in 1910 with improvements made in 1920.

“If it was done after 1950, it becomes the property of the state. Because it was done before 1950, it’s the village’s [responsibility],” Butterfield said.

The mayor said he discussed potential solutions with the DOT, but the village has been unable to secure a permit to fix the problem because of a lack of funds available to solve the drainage issues.

The state plans to re-pave that section of Route 11 in the spring of 2021. That project has not yet gone out to bid, Butterfield said.

Fixing the storm drain would be separate from the paving project, but Deputy Mayor Pat Gustafson asked if the village could coordinate with the state.

“Even if we coordinate it, they wouldn’t have the money in their budget to do anything there,” Butterfield said.

North Syracuse and the state will have to “be creative” to find a solution to the drainage problem, Butterfield said.