BIG FLATS, NY (WENY) -- Earlier this evening at the Big Flats Community Center, a meeting was held give an update on the progress of recovery from the August 2018 flooding that devastated parts of Big Flats. The meeting was held and hosted by the Town Supervisor, Ed Fairbrother. We caught up with Ed after the meeting to discuss what has been done already.

"We've had several major projects here, as Chris said there was 56 major projects. We've completed 36 of those that we've applied into F.E.M.A. to try and get reimbursement. We still have about a dozen projects that have to be put out yet. One of the biggest projects we just let out is Valley View and we sent that out to a private contractor because it was bigger than what we could handle here as a town. As soon as spring comes, we'll get back into these projects again," said Ed.

Although Big Flats is within a valley which is prone to flooding, but Ed says there are little things that community members to help combat the amount of flooding the town could see.

Ed says, "People have to learn that they can't dump things in the creek. Don't dump your leaves out there, don't dump your grass out in there, that does more damage then anything. Keep your caulverts clean. We can't go out and clean every caulvert, that's an impossibility. So, everybody's got to chip in, if you see something that doesn't belong in drainage, call us, let us look at it."

Also, at the meeting Many questions were raised by community members last night, and we caught up with Ed to talk about what he will do.

""I think the biggest concern is with the projects like Valley View and some of these other things is that we can't do everything everywhere. Again, we had a gentleman here tonight and we do have to look at his area and we hire the B.O.C.E.S. kids every year that come in and do drainage projects for us." 

Ed also says, if you have a concern regarding your area, he and his staff are more than welcome to address your concerns and to come into his office to discuss.