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North Hornell deals with Numerous Issues Monday Night

North Hornell Village Board

June 11th, 2018

NORTH HORNELL, NY – The first topic on the agenda Monday night for the North Hornell Village Board was the issue of sump pumps. Mayor John Falci has received a few calls along with DPW head Rich Scavo about whether certain residents are hooked up legally/illegally with their sump pumps. “Some residents of the village has asked us to come in and see if everything is hooked up legally, and we would be glad to do that,” explained the mayor, “But just for the record, it is definitely illegal to hook up any sump pump into the village sewer system. You cannot ask a plumber or anyone to do that because it is against village code. We do not go to anyone’s house and look for the violation, but if we catch an illegal hookup, the resident will be asked to make corrections.”

 Sump pumps are used are used to remove basement water because rain or natural ground water accumulates below the water table level and need to be removed from basements. Falci estimates there could be as many as 24 or 25 illegal sump pump hookups in the village, but again, there is no way of telling for sure. He notes that if you have a question about your sump pump hookup, please contact village hall during business hours.

In other news, Mayor Falci noted that the village currently has three part time police officers, and that number could possibly drop to two. According to Falci, due to NYS law, one officer had to temporarily resign for 30 days because of his teaching background, and there is a possibility of ending up with only two in the future.

Also, one resident in attendance had a complaint about the fire department siren, saying that it only blows once no matter what the situation is. Fire chief Mike Robbins explained that there is actually nothing wrong with the siren itself, it’s just the internal computer workings are outdated and unsynchronized. Many in attendance argued that with cellphones, pagers etc, and upgrade really is not necessary, with other saying nearby villages have a synchronized siren reflecting the situation. The cost to upgrade the system would be $2,338 excluding labor.

With the complete renovation to the pump station in the works, Village Trustee Elise McCollumn questioned whether the 12 inch pipeline currently serving the village will be sufficient to carry the burden from all the added sewage from all the new construction from Hornellsville. DPW head Scavo noted that the current pipe can hold a max of 1.25 million gallons per day, and that it currently is only running around 400,000 gallons, well below half its capacity. All were in agreement that talks should start about a replacement between the city of Hornell, Hornellsville, and North Hornell.

And finally, it was a unanimous consensus that more tickets should be written on Seneca Street for traffic violations. Again, do to all the construction going on north of the village, there is a big concern about the increase in traffic and its effect on residents of that road. The village plans on a complete renovation of Seneca Street in the near future that would reduce each lane from 16 feet to  11 feet, with the addition of 5 foot bike lanes on each side.


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