Here we go again. I predicted this flood. Why?

Very simple. The engineer, who the village hired, came up with some nonsense about the 10-year flood. "This is not the norm," he said.

The administration has turned a deaf ear on the residents. During this ridiculous meeting I questioned the NYRA representative on his sump. He was very accommodating and told the truth. He responded that they had to dredge their sump because of flooding problems and it had to be cleaned out. The village attorney tried to intimidate me for asking that question by making a comparison to our sump.

I then questioned the engineer. Our engineer who was hired by the village responded that our sump was filled with silt and that dredging it would not help us. Oh! I get it. Build a sump and let it fill up with silt and then let it overflow to destroy our houses. This makes perfect sense, engineer. Our sump on Mayfair must be filled with contaminates, gasoline, feces, etc. No matter what, this sump must be dredged whether or not an additional sump is to be put in place. After I left this meeting in disgust it was communicated by the engineer to the residents that maybe we could get a construction firm to pay for the building of the new sump because they could use the dirt from the new proposed sump as backfill. Residents, a construction company will take the backfill from Belmont (which probably contains animal waste, horse manure, etc.) and the EPA will let them use it as backfill on another construction site. Did the residents at that meeting believe this lie? What construction company? Where? Do you always believe the moon is made of cheese? I also have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

We were notified last year by the village that construction on the flooding problems would begin in the spring of 2008.Well, according to my calendar this time has passed. What calendar is the village looking at? Maybe it was a misprint.

Enough is enough. Our values are going down in the West End but the water is rising. Although some residents were not affected by this latest flow, a new neighbor on the corner of Clover and Mayfair was. He was not very happy when the water encroached upon his property line for the first time Saturday night. Also, a manhole cover blew off on Mayfair and a mini-van struck the hole.

Every weekend night the underage, drunken kids from Floral Park hang out on the corner of Mayfair and Clover and the vicinity at midnight. They drink and dump beer cans and water bottles in the storm drains like scum. This is a fact. Every Saturday morning my neighbors and I clean up like maintenance engineers. Signs she puts up for littering and fines given. These bottles will clog the pipes and major flooding problems will get worse. Their parents should be ashamed of themselves letting them out at this time of night.

My neighbor had mentioned at previous meetings to increase the size of the openings in front of the drains on Mayfair as a temporary fix. He was just brushed aside. Well, if this was done it would have increased the water intake and would have helped tremendously on Saturday night as the water receded quickly. Let's continue on doing absolutely nothing. This is the solution. Well, the response will come to this letter: The village is taking necessary steps in order to respond to the flooding problems in the West End. We have hired an engineer and are taking necessary steps. Bull. Bull. Bull... .

It is all about spending money. This should be taken care of and worked on but it will be ignored. Great Job. Keep it up. Next comes the hurricane.

I applaud the Dispatch for having a reporter at the latest meeting. I will never attend another meeting again. It is a waste of time.

R. S. DiPippo