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Irondequoit renews state of emergency declaration for 3rd time

The Town of Irondequoit is still battling flooding on the shores of Lake Ontario. They declared their 4th state of emergency since May.

In New York State, these declarations last 30 days unless renewed.

Town Supervisor Dave Seeley said if you look at the coves around the bay, the water is still encroaching on people’s property, but has gone down in other areas, with docks beginning to reappear along the water front.

Seeley said with the water level remaining high, 9 inches above flood level (247 feet), they felt the state of emergency was necessary to renew.  Surrounding towns of Penfield and Webster concurred and issued similar declarations.

Despite continued high lake levels however, Seeley says summer in Irondequoit is still buzzing.

"Businesses that relate to boating have had challenges and we certainly sympathize with them. But all in all people still flock to Seabreeze, it’s our primary tourist region, a destination in Irondequoit. If you go down there on a beautiful day, you go down to the amusement park or hot dog row, people are still enjoying themselves, the high flood waters hasn’t turned folks away."

The town is hoping to reopen the boat launch by Seabreeze soon to squeeze in some last minute boating.

The main reason for the continued declaration is to maintain the boating speeds along the bay. It’s still an idle speed along the bay within 500 feet and then a no wake speed outside of 500 feet.

All three towns along the bay have this regulation.