Wayne begins clearing river debris as hedge against flooding
A township public works crew waded into the Ramapo River on Wednesday to clear tree trunks, branches and sediment that clogged a channel and contributed to flooding in the township’s Riverview section.
The crew began its work following an announcement last week by Mayor Christopher Vergano that the township would break from a four-town consortium formed to clear debris from area rivers. Vergano and township officials had been frustrated with the groups’ slow rate of progress and sought to speed up the work in anticipation of spring floods.
The four towns–Pequannock, Pompton Lakes, Riverdale and Wayne – were to split a $350,000 state grant and had planned to hire a single contractor to perform all the work, but Pompton Lakes and Wayne officials decided to strike out on their own.
On Wednesday, six public works employees cleared a channel about 20 yards wide and only a few feet deep using a backhoe to pull the remains of whole trees from the river. Workers on shore used chainsaws to cut the trees into smaller pieces that were trucked away to be ground into wood chips.
