More Than 100 Volunteers Take Part in Bronx River Rescue

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County Executive Robert Astorino today thanked the more than 100 volunteers who joined him on Sunday for River Rescue, an initiative designed as a first step at helping to mitigate flooding along county rivers.

“River Rescue was designed as a team effort between government and volunteers to combine resources and energy to clean river banks to help prevent future flooding,” said Astorino. “With government budgets under pressure, efforts like River Rescue are more important than ever. My hope is that Sunday was just the first of many similar events to come.”

River Rescue was formed to combat the lingering aftermath of Hurricane Irene, as well as last month’s snow storm, and help reduce future flooding by removing debris in and along the Bronx River.

Volunteer projects involved cleaning the river and its banks by removing fallen trees, branches, tires, plastic bottles and other debris at the following locations:

• County Center White Plains: at the stream behind the building and along the Bronx River Pathway north of the County Center parking
• Near MainStreet in White Plains
• County Tennis Courts/Anne’s Way, Scarsdale
• Butler Woods and Garth Woods, Scarsdale
• Bronxville Lake, Bronxville

In addition, Cub Scout Pack #353 of Eastchester, cleaned branches and debris from the river behind the county’s tourism center along the Bronx River Parkway in Eastchester.

The Bronx River was chosen because it is county parkland, giving the county full access to the property and no additional permission or permits were required. Moving forward, the county hopes to expand the initiative to other rivers such as the Saw mill, Sprain and Hutchinson.