Oswego County residents are invited to attend an open house to review the County's new, preliminary flood maps on Wednesday, May 25, from 4-8pm at the Oswego High School Cafeteria, 2 Buccaneer Blvd., in Oswego, NY 13126. There will be another open house on Thursday, May 26, from 4-8pm at the Central Square Middle School Gymnasium, 248 U.S. Route 11, Central Square, NY 13036.
The open house is being hosted by Oswego County, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which developed the new maps to provide residents with a realistic assessment of their risk from flooding. While there will be no public presentation, there will be mapping, floodplain management and flood insurance experts on hand to answer questions about the maps, potential risk reduction measures or about an individual property's risk from flooding. Residents are urged to stop in any time during the open house session, as there will be no formal presentation.
The new flood maps are the result of Map Modernization, a five-year, $1 billion Congressionally- directed program to provide updated, digitized flood maps for 92% of the nation's population. For more information, please log on to http://www.rampp-team.com/ny.htm.
"Letting a community and its residents know about their risk from flooding and how they can take measures to reduce that risk is the reason why we develop the maps and conduct these open houses," said Tim Crowley, Director of the Mitigation Division for FEMA, Region II, which includes New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. "We are grateful that county officials have notified everyone who may be affected by the new maps. That insures a good turnout at the open house which leads, in turn, to a community well informed about their flooding risks."
Hosting these Open Houses while the new maps are still in the preliminary stage gives communities and residents the opportunity to explore potential risk reduction measures and/or projects which could lessen the impact of a flood and decrease flood insurance rates.
If you are outside of the high risk flood zone on the your community's current flood map, but are inside the zone on the new preliminary map, you may purchase two years of flood insurance coverage through a low cost Preferred Risk Policy (PRP) after the new map is effective. You need to document the location of your property outside the SFHA on the former map. Or, you may purchase a PRP policy before the map becomes effective and have a total of three years coverage at the lower rate.
If a property is located in the high risk flood zone, it carries a Congressionally-mandatory flood insurance requirement for all structures that have a mortgage with a federally-regulated lender, or have a federally-backed mortgage. In addition, all county and local public buildings located in that flood zone must carry flood insurance to qualify for Federal Disaster Assistance. While the estimates of affected properties are based on parcels, the insurance purchase requirements are based on the location of the structure, not on the property boundaries.
Background on Map Modernization, the National Flood Insurance Program and 'grandfathering' is available on the FEMA website, www.FEMA.gov and at the open house.
LEGAL NOTICE
TO THE RESIDENTS OF THE VILLAGE OF CENTRAL SQUARE,
the Village of Central Square will hold a General Election on June 21, 2011. The polling place will be at the Village Offices at 3125 East Ave., Central Square. The polls will be open from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The candidates and offices they are running for are as follows:
VILLAGE OF CENTRAL SQUARE PASSES BUDGET
On April 25, 2011 the Village Board passed its 2011-2012 budget.
The budget process was especially challenging this year because of the increased costs in energy products such as gasoline for vehicles, asphalt for paving streets and electricity needs for street lighting and operating the sewer treatment plant. Insurance costs increased nearly twenty percent both in terms of the mandatory operating insurance and the employee health benefits.
The Mayor and the Board of Trustees felt in these economical stressful times it was our duty to look under every stone for money, whether it is in the form of savings or extra revenue. This had to be done keeping in mind not to cut back or hamper the services the Village provides to its tax payers. "Raising taxes is easy!" Looking under the stones takes effort and energy to explore all cost cutting possibilities.
We have passed a budget with NO tax increases and NO rate increases in the water and sewer use. However, in order to achieve this it was necessary to freeze all wages and all service contracts for one year.
With all this said we will continue to keep all our DPW and Police services running as well as the recreation program, parks improvements and maintenance plus necessary improvements to the sewer and street infrastructures.
Millard W. Murphy, MayorThe Village of Central Square Board meetings will be held on Monday February 7, 2011 at 7:30pm and Tuesday February 22, 2011 at 7:30pm. At the Village Offices at 3125 East Ave., Central Square. Respectfully Submitted by Marie Loran, Village Clerk
The Village of Central Square Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a Public Meeting on Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Village of Central Square offices located at 3125 East Ave., in regards to application for an Area Variance made by Donald Penoyer located at 675 South Main Street to allow the continuation of use of a electronic commercial signboard with various messages. Sincerely, Michael Sperling Chairman
The Village of Central Square will hold a Public Hearing to review the Proposed Budget for 2011-2012 at the Village Offices, 3125 East Ave., Central Square on April 11, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Marie Loran,Village Clerk