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Dresden work begins

Workers from Pusateri Excavating work on a fallen hillside on Dresden Avenue. (Photo by Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert)

EAST LIVERPOOL — Work began Wednesday morning to clear a falling hillside along Dresden Avenue while city officials started the process of trying to find funding to pay the estimated $30,000 to $40,000 cost.

The slide that was first discovered moving down the hill Tuesday morning had traveled across the roadway by Wednesday morning, according to Service-Safety Director Brian Allen.

As soon as the slide was discovered Tuesday, Allen ordered the portion of Dresden Avenue closed to traffic from the drive-through to the first row of houses. There are no houses located in that stretch of closed roadway.

Pusateri Excavating moved equipment onto the site and began clearing the roadway of the mud, trees and debris on Wednesday morning.

Allen said the company will remove all trees, slope the hillside and create a stream bed because a natural stream with water coming from out of a rock, as well as the saturated ground, was discovered as the apparent cause of the slide on the hilltop.

The company will have to cut a road into the hill with heavy equipment to reach the slide from the top, according to Allen.

Although he was uncertain how long the work will take, Allen said he hopes the road will be fully open to traffic within two weeks but cautioned that will depend on whether or not excavators encounter anything unexpected.

“I’m very thankful to Pusateri Excavating for getting right on this,” Allen said.

The city has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for funding to pay the cost, and Allen said agency representatives are expected in the city next week to review not only this project but others for which funding has been requested, including Lisbon Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Extension.

Allen said they have learned the owner of the property is deceased and said he assumes the matter could be in probate but that, should FEMA fund the remediation project, the agency could levy a tax assessment on the owner.

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