FULTON - The Fulton Town Board held their regular meeting on Monday evening, where they discussed sending a letter from the Board to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection regarding their planned removal of pneumatic crest gates from the Gilboa Dam.

The gates, which are sized dimensionally at two hundred feet long and five feet high, are operated in response to high-water events to protect the downstream environment and communities.

The gates were first installed by NYCDEP as part of a full-scale rehabilitation of the Gilboa Dam, costing the city around eight million dollars. Now, they plan on taking that vital addition back out to replace it with another mitigation option.

The Board formed a letter of support for the crest gates, reading it aloud for members of the audience to hear firsthand.

“The plan for New York City DEP to remove [the] crest gate at Schoharie reservoir in 2029 is going to make the loss of life and property more likely in Schoharie Valley,” the letter begins. “The crest gate … when operated properly during a high-water event can shave the peak flood and mitigate the effect [of] a flood thereby protecting life and property.”

“NYCDEP selected this gate because they balanced flood-control capabilities with maximum volume water storage … Now they do not want to maintain it. The low flow outlet to be completed in 2029 is not large enough to do what the crest gate does much quicker.”

“The residents of Schoharie Valley need the protection the crest gate provides and ask for the crest gate not to be removed,” the letter concludes. “Safety of Schoharie Valley should be a priority to NYCDEP and removing [the] crest gate will place downstream communities in unnecessary jeopardy.”

Once the letter was read, Board members agreed that they strongly support the message and approved a motion to send it not only to NYCDEP, but to Schoharie, Middleburgh, Blenheim and other affected communities in the hopes that they will form their own responses.