Crews last week were working on repairs of the retaining wall on Lakefront Boulevard.
The Lakefront Bouelvard retaining wall repairs should be done by early June, Dunkirk Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury told the city Common Council Tuesday.
He said he had just walked the site with the engineer and contractor. “We walked the whole area, it’s going well,” he said. While there are “a couple extra blocks that need to be replaced,” Woodbury stressed that there is money for that in the project budget.
The work is expected to cost about $950,000. It will be paid for with the help of federal and state emergency grants, as the October 2019 storm that initially damaged the wall was declared a disaster by the federal government. The wall was further damaged by storms last autumn. Lakefront Boulevard has been closed since the 2019 storm, except for a short section near the Steger high rise apartments.
Randy J. Woodbury
Dunkirk’s Department of Public Works director says there was “no wrong doing” by any city official or workers regarding the 2019 removal of a tree from a plot of land that is now privately owned.
In a commentary piece published on Page A4 today, Randy J. Woodbury says he stands by his staff and again noted omissions from the report done for council members by attorney Dan Gard. “That the special counsel report did not disclose all of the deeds and easements and dates, with surveyed boundaries, remains a disappointing surprise, although the special counsel did explain he was a hired advocate for council against our mayor,” Woodbury writes.