The last Sloatsburg Village Board meeting of July bristled with activity, including a couple of resident issues added fresh to the agenda and a visit by Ramapo Police Chief Peter Brower.

Chief Brower periodically attends village board meetings around Ramapo to give updates on police activity and to personally take any questions from board members or residents in attendance. Chief Brower told the Sloatsburg board that his department would “help this village out in any way we can.”

The board was quick to dispense of various village business items such as a resolution to accept a bid to repaint the exterior of the Municipal Building and approve an inter-municipal agreement between Sloatsburg and Suffern to repair village equipment.

Village Clerk Thomas Bollatto said that paving of Washington, 2nd Street and south Grant Street was scheduled to commence this week.

The Sloatsburg Village Board acted swiftly to a recent complaint about a blocked storm drain on Seven Lakes Drive — sewer contractor Montana Construction cleaned out the drain immediately after being notified.

Hazelwood Road residents ask for relief

Tina Scarlett led a contingent of homeowners from Hazelwood Road in Pine Grove Lakes that addressed the board about the need to add working storm drains along the end of that road. Hazelwood Rd. residents described how parts of Hazelwood sheets over in ice during winter, especially at the intersection of Dogwood.

One Hazelwood homeowner described how cars slide down into her yard during while another spoke of the danger of crossing onto Hazelwood from Dogwood when it ices — ‘You can’t brake on ice,” she told the board.

Scarlett said that the root of the Hazelwood drainage problem is the lack of storm drains along a section of Hazelwood that connects the upper part of the road with the lower at Dogwood, which has working storm drains. With sewer work taking place on the road, Scarlett and company said this is the perfect time to resolve the long-simmering issue.

Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright said that the Village Engineer, Richarch Eichenlaub from R.L. Engineering out of Park Ridge, N.J., would review the area to determine if the village can indeed solve the neighborhood complaint. Hazelwood Road ends at a small spit of private road that the owner has consistently refused village access to, including sewer construction to a neighboring home, according to local residents.

Hazelwood residents said that the private road and land appears to have an underground source of water that bubbles up and spills down the main road during heavy rains and winter snow, causing icing during freezes and general road erosion.

Mayor Wright said that the village would get back with a response on the feasibility Hazelwood Rd. storm drains at the next Village Board meeting.

Another Pine Grove Lakes ATV erosion issue

Pine Grove residents in Sloatsburg have complained to the Village about erosion related to a utility access road in the neighborhood.

The board also heard from another contingent of Pine Grove Lakes residents who were lobbying about erosion caused by local ATV traffic. ATVers in the area have long used a utility access road entrance in the neighborhood that over time has caused erosion where dirt and stone meet the asphalt of the village road. Heavy rain runoff has washed down the slope from the utility property into neighboring yards causing embankment erosion.

Mayor Wright said that the village is indeed aware of the problem but cautioned that the gated road is on private property, limiting what the village can do.

Village Attorney Matthew Byrne from the Suffern law firm Balsamo, Byrne, Cipriani & Ellsowrth said that, indeed, the utility property owner is “certainly on notice” from the village regarding the erosion issue. Byrne said that the village has sent several notices to the landowner about area homeowner complaints related to ATV traffic entering and exiting the property and erosion around the access road.

“You are our hope,” one resident who lives near the Pine Grove utility road said to the Village Board, “please help us.”

Mayor Wright said that Village Engineer Eichenlaub would also review the issue and the Village Board would hopefully have a response for the homeowners on the issue at the first August Board meeting.