Chairman: Charles W. Sawicki, Village of Suffern
First Vice Chairman: Alan Englander, Village of Upper Nyack
Second Vice Chairman: Pat Brady, Town of Haverstraw
Participating Members: Towns: Clarkstown • Haverstraw • Orangetown • Ramapo • Stony Point
Villages: Airmont • Chestnut Ridge • Grandview on the Hudson • Haverstraw • Hillburn • Kaser •
Montebello • New Hempstead • New Square • Nyack • Piermont • Pomona • Sloatsburg • South Nyack •
Spring Valley • Suffern • Upper Nyack • West Haverstraw • Wesley Hills
Stormwater Consortium of Rockland County
Meeting Minutes
April 21, 2015
First Draft
Present: Alan Englander, Village of Upper Nyack; Mike Sadowski, Town of Ramapo; Charles W. Sawicki,
Village of Suffern; Haris Aljovic, Villages of Montebello and Chestnut Ridge; Kevin Maher, Stormwater
Subcommittee of County Water Task Force; K. Luke Kalarickal, Town of Clarkstown; Eve Mancuso,
Villages of Airmont, Hillburn, Haverstraw, Nyack, South Nyack, Piermont, New Hempstead, Wesley Hills;
Larry Brissing, Town of Stony Point; Jim Politi, Village of Nyack; Nicole Laible, Rockland County Soil &
Water Conservation District; P. J. Corless, Villages of West Haverstraw and Pomona; Joseph Tichenor,
Village of Sloatsburg; CCE Staff: Patricia Claiborne, Ann Marie Palefsky, Samantha Wilson, Rose Baglia
Call to order: 10:05 AM
Review and Approval of Minutes –Motion to approve the March 17, 2015 minutes by Alan Englander,
seconded by Luke Kalarickal. Motion carried.
Report of Officers:
Chairman Report
Charles Sawicki advised that Cornell Local Roads is doing a class on Roadway and Roadside Drainage on
Thursday, April 30 from 8 – 11 or 12 – 3 pm at CCE. Please sign up by Friday, April 24th as Cornell would
like a head count for the class to be able to prepare the materials. There is a Seminar on Dams taking place
at CCE on Friday, May 8 from 1 – 3 pm.
He also mentioned the Green Infrastructure and Urban
Revitalization: Linking Smart Growth, Resilience and Watershed Restoration workshop is taking place at
SUNY Orange on April 22 from 9:15 am – 4:30 pm.
First Vice Chairman Report
Alan Englander advised that a base camp had been set up electronically for all the documents and minutes
from the Water Task Force and its subcommittees. All members of the committees have access to the
documents but Nicole will see if it is possible for Charles as head of the Consortium to have access. Alan
had attended a presentation at Orange CCE by John Dunkel on green infrastructure which gave an in-depth
knowledge of what’s working and what isn’t working.
Report of Committees:
Cornell Cooperative Extension is an employer and educator recognized
for valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with
Disabilities and provides equal program and employment opportunities
Website Committee: Michael Sadowski, Eve Mancuso, Charles Sawicki, Nicole Laible New map has
been placed on site reflecting Sloatsburg is now a member of the Consortium. PSAs will be submitted to
website committee prior to next meeting so they can review what they would like to see posted on site.
Nicole has to be added to the website committee.
Illicit Discharge Committee: Alan Englander, Pat Brady A copy of the contract which was developed
by Kevin Maher will be emailed to the consortium members. Each municipality can decide if this is
something they would like to use.
Technical Committee – Bruce Peters, Luke Kalarichal -no report.
Old Business:
CCE Contract Status: Deliverables are available via disc for the year which ended in March, 2014. As
of April 21, contracts have been returned by the Town of Haverstraw, and the Villages of Haverstraw,
Kaser, New Hempstead, Sloatsburg, South Nyack, Spring Valley and Upper Nyack. The County of
Rockland also returned their contract.
Education Program Content: Upcoming educational programs were covered in the Chairman’s Report.
CCE is still getting the position description revised so it will include grant writing responsibilities that
will also help the Stormwater Consortium if they decide to pursue additional funds.
Radio Program/contract renewal: Contract has been signed by CCE on behalf of Consortium to
continue radio programs for the rest of the year. Kerry Potter agreed to only increase contract by $200
this year and then the new rates would take effect for next year. The program is now airing on the second
Tuesday of the month at 10:10 and the March show was done by Michael Wilson and Justin GrimmGreenblatt, on the general topic of the Stormwater Consortium, who they are and what they do.
Water Resource Task Force Update: Nicole mentioned that United Water and the Rockland Water
Coalition funded Basecamp, a communications based application that allows for the central gathering of
all documents and minutes of the committee on the web. Only task force members and subcommittee
members have access to Basecamp. A website will soon be made available for the general public.
Nicole presented updates on the Task Force and its subcommittees. There is a May 18th deadline for the
Conservation Committee to give a report on where we are with conservation and increase efforts to get
more plans enacted in the county. At the most recent Task Force meeting held on April 20th, each
subcommittee had to report on deliverables. The Conservation Committee will focus on a water audit for
large water consumers. United Water will have two to four interns that will begin building this database.
Another action of theirs is to look for alternative forms of water sources, topics mentioned include
ecological landscaping. The Flood Management Committee is modeling well fields' response to drought
conditions. These well fields represent 50% of United Water's water supply for the County. This will
identify reliable wells during drought periods. Systems Management is focusing on the Suffern Water
Supply as an additional source of drinking water for the County. Stormwater/ Groundwater requested that
the Sewer District update its water reuse study and is looking to hire a consultant to review data on
proposals for Lake Deforest dredging and the Ramapo/ Mahwah Aquifer. The newest subcommittee,
Community Communications will focus on water conservation education and increased communication
between the subcommittee's, full task force and the public. Their first step will be to create a flier
showcasing the scope of the Task Force and its subcommittee's for the Riverkeeper Sweep cleanup on
May 9th. Amy Vickers was hired as the consultant to take over for the Initial Demand Forecast
Cornell Cooperative Extension is an employer and educator recognized
for valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with
Disabilities and provides equal program and employment opportunities
Committee. She gave a presentation for the Task Force at RCC at which approximately 75 people
attended.
United Water is also funding the storm drain markers program for 2015 which will be available to
municipalities as it was in the past.
New Business: Pat Brady, Town of Haverstraw, was nominated for the vacant Second Vice Chairman
position. Members voted and unanimously elected Pat to this position.
Nicole mentioned that there were cleanups scheduled for May 9th in Haverstraw and Natalie from the
DEC said members could claim this day as a deliverable if information was distributed on a table at the
site. Nicole offered to put out the Stormwater Consortium brochures at this event.
Public Comments: Kevin has been communicating with task force about working together with CCE on
distributing information on conserving water. He felt partnering with the consortium and the Rockland
County Landscape Association would help get the message distributed.
Next Meeting scheduled:
May 19th at 10:00 AM
June 16th at 10:00 AM
Meeting adjourned at 11:35 PM with a motion from Alan Englander, seconded by Michael Sadowski.
Motion Carried.
Respectively submitted,
Ann Marie Palefsky
Cornell Cooperative Extension is an employer and educator recognized
for valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with
Disabilities and provides equal program and employment opportunities