EDITORIAL: Communities THINK, Look To Build Future On Firm Foundation

4-2-10

Four years ago, the 100-year flood surprised Sidney – and many other riverside towns in Otsego and Delaware counties – with its intensity.
We just didn’t expect it.
Now, in Sidney at least, that’s less likely to happen.
According to Village Engineer John Woodyshek, the National Weather Service has added gauges in the Susquehanna at Sidney and Unadilla (as well as Bainbridge, downstream), and at Rockdale (on Unadilla Creek to the north).
When there’s an “event” – that’s how engineers talk – the Weather Service goes to the gauges, measures “existing information,” adds “predictive information,” and can warn folks downstream in Sidney about what’s going to happen from what is happening in Rockdale and Unadilla.
“It’s super information for our responders and, of course, our residents,” said Woodyshek.

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This is just one of several flood-prevention undertakings Woodyshek is involved in.
He’s helped developed two manuals – one on flood insurance (a very complicated issue, he’s found); the other on flood preparedness and loss prevention. 
“We’re pulling together a lot of the stuff we learned through the flood experience and we didn’t want to lose over time,” he explained.
He’s also involved in developing a master plan for flood prevention on Weir Creek, which runs north through the village and into the Susquehanna.  The old D&H embankment may be bolstered to protect the village from all creek flooding.
Finally, the village is working with the Army Corps of Engineers in assessing what can be done in the Susquehanna itself at Sidney – a flood wall, perhaps, a widening, shifting an island – to mitigate the damage from high water.

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The point is that Sidney just hasn’t chalked up what happened four years ago to an act of God and moved on.
Woodyshek and other village officials are processing what happened, thinking about it, and charting solutions.
THINKING.  That’s the ticket.
Sidney was the second of the regional towns our reporters are visiting monthly this year, and the visits have turned out to be fun and stimulating.
As mentioned before, all of the towns in the four-county region are facing the same challenges as the rest of Upstate New York:  How to overcome 40 years of inertia as jobs, people and prosperity were drained away from one of the most significant industrial and agricultural regions in the history of man.
Stamford, limited by its position within New York City’s watershed, sees its future as an outdoor recreation mecca and mini-convention magnet, with its rural views and proximity to more than 60 percent of the nation’s population.
Norwich sees itself as problem-solving and business-friendly.  Some 30-40 minutes from an Interstate and in a dairy center, it is wooing Agro Farma, the Greek-yogurt maker – Chobani is a runaway hit in New England – to create 350 jobs in P&G’s former main plant.

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Good stuff, of course, is happening on the Cooperstown-Oneonta axis, too. 
But anyone can THINK, anywhere, and the cross-pollination is thought-provoking, and the common strains – grounding future development on inherent local assets – is news any community can use.