Police Investigating Flood Gate Damages

Nearly a month after the borough announced it would adopt a protocol to ease flooding at Crystal Lake by opening the flood gates there during even small storms, someone appears to have gotten impatient with the process.

On May 8, Mayor Linda Schwager announced at a council meeting that the borough would the flood gates at the lake when weather forecasts predicted an inch or more of rain within a 24 hour period.

On June 6, DPW workers arriving to open gates on the two pipes there found both had already been improperly opened half way, according to Janet Leongrande, president of Ramapo Mountain Lakes, which operates and is repsponsible for closing the gates.

"I have no idea when it was damaged," she said, speculating that "somebody went down there because they heard there was an impending storm and panicked."

RML filed a police report with the borough the next morning, and at a special meeting called last week to present details on the flood management plan, Schwager warned residents that the borough was investigating the damage, which could lead to criminal charges.

Someone had apparently pried open both the 24-inch and 36-inch pipes used to manage the lake's level, Leogrande said, but only the 36-inch pipe was damaged.

The damaged gate comes as the borough is evaluating its procedure for opening the gates at the lake, and also as regular rain in the last month has made it difficult to evaluate the damage and begin repairs.

"With all this rain we're getting, it gets murky over by the dam," Leogrande said, adding that the diminished visibility has made it hard for divers to see the damage.

She said RML is currently waiting for a contractor to dive underwater to evaluate the gate, and that afterward the company will move on making repairs to the damaged gate.