A plan is not a loan.
In their mailer, Republican candidates Arthur Long, Paul Anzilotti, and Rhett Speros suggested to every household in the Village that we’d soon be taking on $50 million in new debt. They didn’t say where the number came from. This week they finally tried, with some back-of-the-napkin math sent to the Examiner.
So, let’s be clear: the Village Board has never considered a bond of that size. Not once.
Their math doesn’t survive a closer look. They took the most recent estimate for the flood mitigation project and added 10% on top. They assumed the Village wouldn’t secure another dollar of outside help, even though we’re actively pursuing funding from the county, state and federal governments. And they also assumed the Village Board would borrow the entire difference at once, for a project that doesn’t have final plans, hasn’t been bid, and is still in the engineering phase. Stack enough guesses, and you can get any number you want.
Fear fits on a mailer. Context takes a few more paragraphs.
The Republican candidates have taken our commitment to solving this historic problem and called it debt. Committing to fix a problem is a promise to our neighbors. Borrowing to build it is a decision nobody has yet made.
Their mailer also says our Village is in trouble. It isn’t. For years, Pelham tabled work that needed to be done. This Board made the difficult choice to tackle those problems and make our community stronger, and you can see the results: accessible municipal facilities, safer crosswalks and traffic signals, in-house sanitation, relined sanitary sewers, and the equipment our police and firefighters count on every day. None of it was easy, and all of it was overdue. This Board chose to stop deferring the investment our Village needs.
Flooding is the largest of these problems, and the oldest. Pelham has been studying it for 80 years: 1945. 1962. 2001. 2009. 2017. 2023. Six reports, by different engineers in different decades, describing the same streets filled with water. Each generation knew the storm drains under North Pelham and Highbrook couldn’t handle even a one-year storm. Every time, the plans halted after the report; the eventual bill went up, and our neighbors kept paying for it. Pelham has never been short on plans – it’s been short on follow-through.
We’re committed to fixing flooding. Period. That part is settled. Right now, the work in front of the Village Board is finishing the engineering design for North Pelham and Highbrook, which is fully funded, and taking it out to bid. The design just reached 60% completion, further than this Village has ever gotten on this issue. We are simultaneously pursuing every opportunity we can to secure the funding needed to break ground. No bond has been authorized to build it. No construction contract has been signed. Not a dollar of debt has been taken on for construction. Only when the real numbers are in can we decide how to pay for it.
The estimate has moved, and it will move again. That’s what honest estimates do. The first figure was a sketch, drawn before anyone took a single soil boring. Later in the process, engineers found groundwater at Julianne’s Playground high enough that the storage tank would need to sit deeper. They found more gas, water and sewer lines under our streets than expected, adding another layer of coordination with Con Edison, Veolia, and our own DPW to an already complex project. Each discovery changes the design, and the design changes the cost. The project didn’t get more expensive. Our understanding of it got more accurate.
We don’t guess. We listen to the engineers in the room, and we don’t decide without them. Our opponents’ numbers came from a napkin. Our numbers come from the people who drilled the borings.
Every estimate the Village shares is a snapshot, made for a purpose: a grant application, a budget plan, an update to residents. A project like this really has three numbers. There’s the estimate, today about $48.5 million for both watersheds, which changes as the design gets sharper. There’s the final cost, which nobody will know until contractors bid on finished plans. And then there’s what Village taxpayers actually pay, once county, state and federal funding comes in. Nobody, including our opponents, can predict the last two yet.
Every decision this Board makes gets weighed against cost. On a project like this, the cheapest system to build is the one you designed carefully first. Grant programs don’t fund ideas. They fund designs.
We know the uncertainty is frustrating. It frustrates us too. You want a number, and you deserve one. But anyone who tells you they know the final cost today is speculating, and our opponents are counting on you not to notice. They’re selling certainty. No one honest can offer that yet.
The Republican candidates want to “make an overall plan.” In other words, they’re asking you to vote to put this work on hold and start over. After 80 years and six reports, their answer is a seventh “no.”
North Pelham and Highbrook have been waiting decades for a real fix. Neighbors have pulled neighbors out of flooded basements because emergency crews couldn’t get through on Fifth Avenue. Families on Highbrook have fled to their second floors as the water came in below. Others have emptied savings and retirement accounts to keep water out of their homes. When big storms hit, one of our neighbors picks up a rake and walks into the street. The water comes up to his waist. He works his way from catch basin to catch basin, clearing them by hand, storm after storm. It helps, but it can’t fix a system that wasn’t built for today’s rainfall. That’s what waiting costs, and he’s the one paying it.
Our opponents are counting a debt that doesn’t exist. We’re counting a cost our neighbors are already paying.
This is how this Board works. We don’t borrow before we know the real price. We don’t build before competitive bids are in. We’ll go after every outside dollar this project can win. And we won’t stop until the water does.
When the bids are in, we’ll put them in front of you and listen to your comments, and the Village Board will decide in public. Everything in this statement is on the record at the Village-Wide Flood Mitigation Information webpage. We’d rather you read it than take our word for it.
We’re knocking on doors across the Village. If we miss you at home, come find us at one of our local events:
Cantina Lobos, 217 Wolfs Lane, on Oct. 6 and Oct. 20 (6:30 to 8 p.m.)
Wolfs Lane Park on Oct. 24 (9 to 10:30 a.m.)
Shea Station on Nov. 1 (9 to 10:30 a.m.)
Bring your questions, and we’ll give you honest answers.
Their campaign is built on guesswork. Ours is built on facts, and on a simple belief: this Village works best when it works for all of us.
With respect and gratitude,
Russell Solomon
Krystal Howell
Editor’s note: This press release was provided by Russell Solomon and Krystal Howell, incumbent candidates for the Village of Pelham Board of Trustees. The Pelham Examiner publishes press releases in the form received as a service to the community.