HAWLEY, PA — Hawley Borough announced that it had received FEMA accreditation for its levee system at the January 8 Borough Council meeting. The accreditation will prevent mandated flood insurance at high rates for residents living near the levee. 

An accredited levee system, according to FEMA, is a system that meets design, data and documentation requirements and therefore shows it reduces the base flood hazard. 

The borough previously completed a project to repair its levee system, and was able to fix all of that system's deficiencies, said Councilperson Michele Rojas. However, she said, FEMA required an analysis with specialized data to give it accreditation. 

"Even though that we had done all that fixing, if we hadn't done the accreditation, it still would have been mapped as that special hazard area," said Rojas. 

"The borough residents who were in the area near the levee would have had the mandated insurance. It would have gone to very high rates. Now that we have successfully completed this, we are avoiding that mandated insurance," she said. 

Rojas also reminded the council that it needed to follow up on needed repairs to the levee. 

The council has video evidence of a hole that needs repair, said Rojas. She suggested the council see if the repair could be covered under warranty from the levee's construction. 

"This is a huge accomplishment. We want to safeguard it," she said. 

FEMA’s levee recommendations are in line with Rojas's recommendations. According to FEMA, levee systems also decay over time, increasing the likelihood of failure, and regular maintenance and periodic upgrades are needed to retain their level of protection.

For more information, visit https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_meeting-criteria-accrediting.pdf. 

In other business 

A private road

"I've been here seven wonderful years," borough resident Brian Hayes told the council. "But I must say, I have a big trespassing problem up there."

Part of the old Wilsonville Road crosses his property at 331 Rowe Street, at the end of Fern Street, Hayes said. 

"Everyone thinks it's a road," but it's not, he said: it never was opened, closed or abandoned as a road in the legal documents he looked through. 

Hayes proposed to close off that pathway to the public, to prevent vehicles from coming down it. 

The council by and large did not have an issue with the proposal. The council asked Hayes to come back the following month, so that it had time to double check the legal documentation concerning the road and so that the town's police and fire chiefs could see whether they had any public safety concerns. 

Dear deer

"To me, there's a deer population problem in Hawley," said borough resident Tom Colbert. 

Colbert identified a herd of "eight to 10 individuals" roaming the town, eating everything, pooping everywhere. He asked the borough to do something about it. He had talked with the state game commission, he said, and had been told there was a program where sharpshooters could come and cull the deer population.

The borough council expressed some reservations—"This is their natural habitat," said council president Ann Monaghan. Police Chief Dan Drake said that development in the surrounding area has driven deer to new habitats.  

Old bills

The borough council split on the question of how to address paying its old bills. 

The town had approximately $10,000 in outstanding bills for engineering work, due to an error in the town's consultant's billing. 

The council set aside one bill of $3,250 for further review, then split down the middle on whether to pay the remaining approximately $7,000 or to reserve them for further study. 

Mayor John Nichols broke the tie in favor of paying the bills. 

"The way I see it, we owe them money, regardless of the lack of them getting the bills to us on time," Nichols said. 

The Hawley Borough Council meets the second Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at 98 Main Avenue, Hawley.