The US Army Corps of Engineers paid a visit to the Historic Hollywood Theatre on Thursday to present the $6.7 million flood mitigation project.

At the public hearing, Mayor David Smith spoke of the good times, hard times, and hopeful times to come for Gowanda.

“August 2009 is a month and year that everybody in this room does not even need to hear,” said Smith.

He continued on with a story: after the flood, the Gowanda School District managed to open on time. Smith went around to visit the new middle school students which were on the second floor of the school building, just as they are now.

OBSERVER Photos by Natasha MattelianoRepresentatives from the US Army Corps of Engineers visited Gowanda to present the Thatcher Brook project.

“On that opening day of school after that August 2009 flood event, a simple late summer/fall rain started,” Smith explained. “The sound of raindrops hit the roof of Gowanda Middle School and I watched students in their new school clothes excited about the first day of school — cry in fear at the sound of rain as it hit the roof.”

“That’s what trauma looks like and that is what trauma feels like.”

Going on 100 plus years of the meeting and planning of village boards about a flood mitigation plan, 2020 is the year the board is making large strides toward the complete project.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers made and presented a series of six posters explaining what the project is, where it is and the conditions of Gowanda with and without the project.

The project in itself that will be executed is a grass-lined channel that would allow excess water from Thatcher Brook to Cattaraugus Creek. The channel could be 20-30 feet wide in some areas, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers, allowing plenty of room for the water to flow through, preventing the village from another 100-year flood.

The location of the channel will almost follow the path of where Thatcher Brook originally flowed many years ago. The channel will extend from just north of Hill Street, connecting to Thatcher Brook, then crossing under the railroad tracks. Then, it will just about follow the path of the railroad tracks until it gets to Palmer Street, where it will go under the tracks again and hook into Cattaraugus Creek.

The conditions of Gowanda projected with the new channel installed include no flooding in the village, as the channel will divert all excess water coming from Thatcher Brook and lead it to Cattaraugus Creek.

Mayor Smith also focused on a very important part of the project, especially for after it is installed. “Any diversion channel is going to fail without proper upstream operational maintenance,” said Smith. “It is something that we have to face.”

A number of village residents seem to be concerned about maintenance of the new channel, but the Department of Environmental Conservation stated that they are willing to work closely with the village to clean up limbs, trees and any other debris that may come into the new channel which could potentially block the path of the water.

Another concern for residents of Gowanda seem to be the cost of the new channel. With the total project cost of $6.7 million, many are concerned about how the village will pay for it. The federal government will pay 65 percent of it and the final 35 percent is divvied between the DEC and the village.

At the presentation, speakers from the DEC announced that they will be including the money to pay for their portion of the project in their next budget proposal. He also stated that his executives have been briefed on the project and are supportive, but that did not stop some residents from being concerned about not getting the funds.

The timeline of the project includes about four years in total. The feasibility study will be completed in July of this year, which was for the federal government to research whether the project was worth doing or not.

Next on the schedule is to design and implement. The project partnership agreement will be signed in 2021, if everything is approved and funded. The design phase is scheduled to be completed as of May 2021. Then comes the real estate acquisition, which should be completed in August of 2023 and the advertisement and award, which is scheduled to be complete in December of 2023.

Construction will begin after that, which includes construction, scheduled to be finished in February 2024 and the project to be completely finished in October 2024.