Across 28
At Maverick Family Health across Route 28, Irene’s flood waters ruined a just-finished renovation in 2011, including much expensive medical equipment and supplies…but over a hard year’s worth of negotiations, insurance claims and outside funding brought everything back up to par…and earlier this winter the practice was bought by the regional Health Quest group, which has had enough confidence in the Boiceville situation solving itself that it’s made no plans to move the popular office.
“There was a half million in damages; some people might have run the other way from this but we are committed to the community,” the practice’s founding doctor, Randy Rissman, MD, said about what kept him and his staff working in the building’s upstairs for months as they did their own repairs and new renovations downstairs. When FEMA and insurance coverage fell short, $200,000 in loans and other aid was offered by the Catskill Watershed Corporation, Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO), Rondout Savings and Catskill Hudson banks, the Empire State Development Flood Recovery Grant Program, and Ulster County Executive Mike Hein’s office. And in making sure new systems wouldn’t be so flood prone in the future, they set an example for others in the Boiceville community.
“What we did is make the building more flood proof,” said Maverick’s Brian Callahan, who also served as the restoration’s general manager. “We went back in with the assumption that we were going to get flooded again.”
Which is also what others in the community have been doing, filling basements and coming up with projects for NY Rising funds. In fact, only Trail Nursery failed to reopen…since becoming home to the popular Roberts Auction, formerly of Fleischmanns and Arkville, in Delaware County.
Those projects, at present, include besides three West Shokan projects, $1 million in requests for “scoping (including hydraulic and hydrologic modeling) and implementation or recommended improvements to address repetitive flooding in the Route 28 corridor” in Boiceville, as well as $500,000 for relocating the Boiceville Firehouse.
“We encourage all Olive residents to attend and offer comments on the five projects proposed by the Community Rising planning committee,” the town supervisor wrote in a townwide email on February 20.
“To tell you the truth, we don’t need $3 million, we need $30 million to fix our flood problems,” Rozzelle added. “But by doing these studies, and relying on our revived businesses and community for support, we may help everyone with their flood insurance hikes. And begin chipping away at these recurring floods.”
“What did it for us,” added Occhi, preparing for the coming meeting as part of his town’s committee, “was the strength of our community’s support. That’s what Boiceville is.”
