White Plains, NY — Work to ease flooding in Rye Brook is moving forward after the Westchester County Board of Legislators approved funding for the project, Legislator Nancy Barr (D - Harrison, Port Chester, Rye Brook) announced.

The newly allocated money will pay for engineers to design a solution for the recurring flooding around Avon Circle in Rye Brook and the athletic fields at the Port Chester Middle School.

Barr said, "Flooding is a chronic problem in this area. It affects the safety of the people who live in Avon Circle, including many senior citizens. It also inundates the fields at the Port Chester Middle School, making them unusable for days at a time after a storm.  Unfortunately, increasingly severe and more frequent storms are the new normal, so fixing this problem is more important than ever.  I'm glad that that the county is able to support the Village of Rye Brook, the Town of Rye and the Port Chester School District in making this happen."

Majority Whip MaryJane Shimsky (D - Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Edgemont, Hartsdale, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington), chair of the Board’s Public Works Committee and also chair of the Saw Mill Watershed Advisory Board, co-chair of the Bronx River Advisory Board and ex-officio member of the Westchester County Stormwater Advisory Board, said, “This is exactly the kind of thing that county government does best – work with local authorities to solve regional problems.  Water doesn’t care about municipal boundaries, so we all need to work together to solve the problems it creates.”

Design work is expected to cost up to $95,000 with the county paying half and the other half being shared by the Village of Rye Brook, the Town of Rye and the Port Chester School District.  The project is part of the Westchester's ongoing, countywide Stormwater Management Law funding program which splits costs with local municipalities.  Funding for phase II, which will include the actual construction, will be evaluated once the design work is complete.