NEWS
Utica Observer Dispatch
Editor's note: This article has been edited to explain how the purchase of the homes will handled under the Natural Resources Conservation Services Recovery Program, not the NRCS Floodplain Easement Program as originally expected.
The Town of Whitestown is scheduling closings for homes being purchased through a buyout program following severe flooding on Halloween of 2019.
The town sent out more than 140 purchase offers in December to residents enrolled in the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Services Buyout Program, Town of Whitestown Supervisor Shaun Kaleta said.
The majority of the offers were accepted, but the exact number won’t be released until the town board approves the purchases in batches during its monthly meetings over the next several months, he said.
“Until then, more specific information concerning purchase offers will remain confidential to respect the privacy of property owners enrolled in the program and ensure they do not feel any kind of pressure because of their decision,” Kaleta said.
About the purchase offers
The purchase offers were sent out on Dec. 1 and homeowners had until Dec. 31 to accept or reject them.
“While the Town of Whitestown proactively launched the Sauquoit Creek Channel & Floodplain Restoration Program in 2017, Whitestown made buyouts a top priority after the horrific 2019 Halloween Flood and your calls for more assistance in addition to mitigation,” reads a letter sent out with the purchase offers by Kaleta and Buyout Program Manager Brian Whittaker.
“What started as a goal quickly become a reality and the largest buyout effort in New York State. The road has been long, but we made it to this point – and Whitestown was never going to waver.”
The letter pointed out that homes eligible for the program will always be at risk of flooding no matter how much flooding mitigation work is one.
How the process will work
Here’s how the rest of the buyout process will work, according to the letter from Kaleta and Whittaker:
Halloween flooding
On the night of Halloween in 2019, between four and six inches of rain fell in the Mohawk Valley, causing flash floods, forcing evacuations, submerging roadways and flooding homes, particularly along the Sauquoit Creek in Whitesboro, Whitestown, Utica and Chadwicks.
About 150 homeowners in Whitesboro and Whitestown were eligible for the buyouts through the NRCS’ Emergency Watershed Protection program. These homes had already faced a decade of regular flooding, including another major episode in July of 2017.
The $20 million federal buyout program was announced in late 2020. Town officials had been hoping for relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but it declined to made a disaster declaration for Whitestown.
The buyout program was contingent, however, on widespread participation since plans called for restoring the natural floodplain something that couldn’t happen unless enough residents accepted the buyout.
The four-phase Sauquoit Creek Channel and Floodplain Restoration Program began in mid-2016 to try to mitigate flooding along the creek by constructing 11 floodplain benches, stabilizing banks and widening the channel in places.
Officials have said in the past that they expect all the work to be completed this year.
