NORTH UTICA, N.Y.- A large crowd showed up at the North Utica Community Center Monday evening, frustrated about the flooding that has hit North Utica recently and within the past years.
Residents say there have been multiple floods in North Utica since 1999.
They tell NewsChannel 2 that the City of Utica, Town of Deerfield, Oneida County, and New York State aren’t doing much about the flooding, and they just want their opinions heard.
Ron Vincent, who ran the meeting at the community center told NewsChannel 2 that “Nobody has ever put a foot forward to take care of the problems that are happening in North Utica that are coming in off of Smith Hill.”.
“None of the streets in North Utica north of Herkimer have any storm water drains in them at all. They never did.” Vincent said. “From the time North Utica was being built back in the 50s and 60s, it was just put up roads and let’s get houses built and that’s it.” Vincent added.
Jim Piccola with the New York State Department of Transportation said the State can’t to much about it, since it is a City of Utica matter.
“You’d have to look at the whole system itself. Unfortunately that is really a question for the city and how they would take a look at implementing some type of a storm drain through the section of North Utica.” Piccola said.
NewsChannel 2 has reached out to the City of Utica regarding this issue, but has not heard back yet.
North Utica residents are hoping the City of Utica will get involved soon.