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Origin of stone dam is a mystery
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - March 19, 2008)
As spring slowly sets in, it’s no rarity for municipal engineers to field resident concerns about everything from flooding after a storm to road repaving. But two weeks ago, the Borough of Montvale’s engineering firm, Maser Consulting, received a call that broke the mold and led to the discovery of an unknown borough relic.
Earlier this month, a woman called to say that a pond was forming in her backyard. Making matters more intriguing, reported Borough Engineer Andrew Hipolit at the March 11 mayor and council meeting, was the fact that the call came from a resident of
Pearl River, N.Y. , not Montvale. When water began pooling in her yard, she suspected that the problem might have stemmed from the south, in
New Jersey , leading her to call the borough.
When the area was checked out by one of Hipolit’s colleagues, a stone dam was discovered off the northeastern side of Woodland Road, near the
New York
State border. The water level had risen beyond the capacity of the dam, causing the pooling in the
Pearl River resident’s backyard. There was no damage to dam or to the resident’s property. But, no one knew the dam was there in the first place.
Hipolit said that the dam is man-made; it is unknown who built it and when, but it looks like it was purposefully erected to limit flooding. “Someone planned this,” he said. “It wasn’t random.”
What is known is that the borough owns the dam, making Montvale responsible for maintenance, repairs and state-mandated inspections. The state classifies the
Woodland Road dam as a Class IV dam, meaning it requires inspection every four years.
“It’s an issue of public safety,” explained Hipolit, noting that responsibility for failure of the dam, as well as the associated damage and costs, sits on the shoulders of the municipality.
The governing body authorized Maser Consulting to inspect the dam at a cost not to exceed $4,600.
According to Mayor Roger Fyfe, while the dam is a mystery, its existence is not a complete surprise given its location: “It’s on a piece of property we didn’t even know we owned until eight years ago.”
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
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