In response to a Wednesday letter from a Monsey resident expressing his frustrations over construction disrupting daily living for locals, Ramapo Supervisor Michael Specht released the following statement to Monsey Scoop, announcing a move to mitigate such occurrences in the future.
The statement reads as follows:
This week, the installation of water lines for a new housing project at the corner of Suzanne Drive and Maple Avenue caused one lane on Maple Avenue to be shut down for several days, slowing traffic on what is already a very busy street. I am dismayed today to read the letter from “a frustrated Monsey resident” indicating that when asked to reschedule the work for an evening or weekend, the site manager stated that they didn’t want to pay their crew overtime, putting the builder’s profit ahead of the major inconvenience to our residents.
During the past year, for Town sponsored projects we have asked our contractors to work as much as possible on Saturdays and holidays when traffic is light. Any new contracts that are put out to bid require that the vendors accept this as a condition of the contract. Similarly, when Town crews such as our Sewer Department have to perform maintenance work, we try to do so on Saturday when there will be no disruption to traffic.
Our streets in Monsey are fortunately free of most traffic from Friday night to Saturday evening. This is a perfect time for any work that will not inconvenience the overwhelming majority of our residents.
While we hope that builders respect the needs and concerns of our community, it is clear from this week’s events that the letter writer is correct and better planning must be implemented at once.
Therefore, and in order to prevent this from happening again, at our next Town Board meeting on March 27, I will place on the agenda a resolution that will require private construction that is likely to cause partial or full shutdowns on Town roads to take place whenever possible during off peak days and hours in order to cause minimal disruption to our community. The resolution will also require that the builder provide notice to residents in advance so that they can be aware and possible avoid any delays.