Putting a Human Face on Flooding in New Milford

During Thursday evening's special Zoning Board meeting devoted entirely to the proposed development of the United Water property by Hekemian, recused Chairman of the Zoning Board, Karl Schaffenberger, set out to put a human face on flooding in New Milford during his presentation as a resident.

Schaffenberger said that Hekemian has had engineers, planners, attorneys, COAH proponents speak to development, but no one has yet to put a face on flooding and the damage it has wrought not only to property, but particularly to those people continually affected by it. 

Schaffenberger, who lives in the area of the proposed development, and whose property has flooded on a number of occasions, recused himself when the hearings first began in Feb. 2012 due to public comments he made in opposition to the development during a Nov. 2011 Mayor and Council meeting at which Richard Henning, a spokesman for United Water, appeared. 

"Where is the water going to go?" Schaffenberger asked Henning during the 2011 Mayor and Council meeting. He went on to say that rezoning that property for development is "absolutely wrong" and suggested that United Water sell it to New Milford for one dollar.
 
"We'll do the right thing with it; you won't," Schaffenberger said. He then removed a one dollar bill from his pocket and placed it on the podium. 

It was during this 2011 Mayor and Council meeting that Henning said that the flooding is not going to stop, adding that the only long term solution in New Jersey is to have the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) purchase the severe repetitive loss homes. 

But it is the following statement that Henning made during that meeting that residents continue to cite and Hekemian attorneys continue to raise objections to and ask to strike from the record:

"We need to restore our flood plains. They were there for a reason," Henning said to a full house of emotionally-charged residents affected by the floods brought on by Hurricane Irene.

Over the objections of Hekemian's attorney, Schaffenberger recalled Henning's 2011 comments in his presentation. Schaffenberger also spoke of the private presentation Henning gave to the Mayor and Council at United Water's offices that Schaffenberger had attended as a representative of the Zoning Board. 

Schaffenberger said during that meeting at United Water, Henning presented them with a slide presentation on how to handle flooding. According to Schaffenberger, slide 20 of Henning's presentation that day read that there should be "better land use and zoning regulation," and an awareness to "diligently protect our flood plains to remain undeveloped."

Stephen Eisdorfer, attorney for the applicant standing in for Antimo "Andy" Delvecchio who was not present at Thursday's hearing, objected to Schaffenberger's presentation and asked that the testimony he gave regarding Henning's statements be stricken from the record. 

Scott Sproviero, attorney for the Zoning Board, said that Schaffenberger recused himself from the board "as of day one" and allowed the presentation to continue with Schaffenberger testifying as a citizen whose property has been affected by flooding. 

However, Schaffenberger overlaid pictures of the areas that flooded on Cecchino Dr. after Hurricane Irene onto the 1980 DEP maps, showing that those areas do, indeed, flood. 

Again he was flooded, only this time it was worse. 

"Mud and raw sewerage covered everything," he said.  "Still," he said, “I'm not in the flood zone.”

Then four years later, in April of 2011, came the Palm Sunday storm, described by United Water as a 'nuisance,' Schaffenberger said. 

That storm was followed by Irene six months later. By this time, Schaffenberger had purchased flood insurance and hired a cleaning crew to come into his basement to clean up. 

"In the previous floods I cleaned everything up wearing a tee-shirt and shorts," Schaffenberger said. "This cleaning crew came in wearing HazMat suits. What does that say?" he asked. 

Each slide that Schaffenberger showed revealed the devastation caused by flooding--the replacement of appliances, repairs, and the seemingly endless clean-up of raw sewerage and mud. Schaffenberger emphasized that in all of the photos of flooding shown in his presentation, the flooding occurred in areas that, according to the 1980 DEP maps, should not flood. 

Concluding his presentation, Schaffenberger pleaded, "Someone has to say 'no' to developing these 13 acres."