You can talk to experts and politicians
Saturday’s flood symposium at Raritan Valley Community College will give residents hurt by flooding a chance to press politicians and sign petitions for help.
Manville’s Frank Jurewicz, chairman of the commission, said he said he had assurances from state and federal politicians they would try to attend the workshop sponsored by the Raritan-Millstone Rivers Flood Control Commission from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 16, in the college conference center on Lamington Road, Branchburg.
Mr. Jurewicz said this was the public’s chance “to show people we do need help” by buttonholing officials, talking to experts and learning how to make even small changes to mitigate flooding.
”Every time the siren goes off, or it starts to rain, people start to worry,” he said.
He invited people to walk in and tell officials their own stories.
”You can say, ‘I’ve lived here 50 years and this is what I’ve seen,’ “ said Mr. Jurewicz.
He said there will be a petition asking that a small sliver of the billions of recently enacted Hurricane Sandy aid be diverted to complete flood studies of the two rivers. Just a million dollars out of tens of billions would push work to completion, he said.
”We need help now,” he said. “We can’t wait 30 years.”
With flooding increasing in frequency and volume, the boroughs of Manville, Millstone, Rocky Hill, Somerville and South Bound Brook along with the townships of Bridgewater, Franklin and Hillsborough joined with Somerset County in 2011 to create the commission with an organized focus on the flooding affecting their towns and trying to find ways to help the residents.
’Saturday’s program, “Best Practices to Reduce Hazard and Mitigation Flood Conditions Now,” is organized in conjunction with the Sustainable Raritan River Initiative at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
There will be experts from state universities, government agencies, private industry, emergency management groups, the Red Cross and watershed associations.
Workshop sessions will address steps that can be taken to reduce the effects of future storms and mitigation strategies that can be implemented across the region to reduce risks.
Workshops will address:
• All aspects of flooding and how to reduce impacts in the region.
• How to integrate natural systems into flood hazard reduction.
• Why the region needs to implement low-tech solutions.
• Setting regional goals.

