Paterson may build wall to mitigate floods

Project would be far from hard-hit Northside area

By: Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press

PATERSON - City officials have applied for a $2.8 million federal grant to build a flood wall along the Passaic River that would protect Pennington Park and Paterson's Fire Department headquarters on McBride Avenue.
..... The proposed wall would rise upriver from the Great Falls - far from the Northside neighborhood that was hit hardest in the flooding earlier this month [01/2024] and in December. [2023]
..... Mayor Andre Sayegh could not be reached for comment about his administration's decision to propose building the flood wall in the area near McBride Avenue, instead of along the Northside neighborhood.
.....Councilman Michael Jackson, who represents the 1st Ward's Northside area, which usually gets hit hardest by flooding, criticized the mayor's choice.
..... "It's typical of Andre," Jackson said. "He's more worried about protecting a park than he is about an area whore people had to be evacuated form their homes."
..... The flood-prone Northside neighborhood contains dozens of homes as well as commercial properties, vacant buildings and empty lots. Paterson used several million dollars in federal funding to buy out some houses in the area about a decade ago.
..... People still living in the neighborhood can point to spots up to 10 feet high on their buildings to illustrate how high the flooding was during the remnants of Hurricane Ida or Hurricane Irene.
..... Paterson last month, [12/2023] submitted its flood wall grant application to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Resilient Communities Program, which was cerated in the aftermath of Ida in late August 2021.
..... The state has $54 million available under the program, said DCA spokesperson Lisa Ryan. Local governments in Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, somerset, Union and Warren counties were eligible to seek Resilient communities grants, she said.
..... The DCA received 26 applications from governments seeking a total of $83.5 million Ryan said. The state will make its decision in April [2024] on which applicants get funding, she added.
..... The state program allows Resilient Communities grants to cover a wide variety of mitigation programs, including buyouts of properties in flood-prone areas, demolition costs and elevating structures in flood plains.
..... Flooding from Ida swamped Pennington Park, ruining fields. Paterson baseball and soccer field. Paterson used about $1 million form the Federal Emergency Management Agency to indicates that the flood wall would be built along the south bank of the river. Flooding also occurred across form Pennington Park., in the Totowa Avenue and Westside Park area.
..... Second Ward Councilman Shahin Khalique who represents the Pennington Park and Westside Park areas, did not respond to a message seeking his thoughts on the mayor's flood wall plan.
..... The mayor's chief of staff, habib Hader, said Sayegh picked the south bank of the river for the flood wall "based on a comprehensive assessment of the severe damage inflicted during Hurricane Ida and the subsequent investments made to restore Pennington Park."

..... Joe Maliconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email editor@patersonpress.com.

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