VOORHEESVILLE — Residents of newly paved Pleasant Street complained to the village board last week about a design flaw that redirected road drainage away from storm drains and onto their properties. Flooding this week, after tropical storm Irene dumped inches of water on the Capital Region, put their basements under water and affected their foundations, residents said.

 “It was really bad,” said Helen Jensen. Her garage, which flooded with run-off after a deluge two weeks ago, was hit hard during last Sunday’s tropical storm. “I have a stone foundation,” she said. The pressure from the water caused her garage to flood, again, she said.

Michael Gies, another Pleasant Street resident, told the village board last week about the flooding. He said that Callanan Industries did “a fine job paving it,” but that “there still seems to be a water problem. There’s still water coming across the street.” Gies said that the water did not reach the storm drains.

“It is 10 times worse that it’s ever been,” Jensen said at the meeting. She said that the old sidewalks along the street channel water to her door.

“It’s like a falls. It is just gushing,” said resident Gale Kohler.

Kohler and Jensen agreed with Gies about the quality of the paving, itself.

“The road is beautiful,” Kohler said.

“It is,” Jensen said. “No water goes into the culverts.”

Mayor Robert Conway said that he would follow the residents back to their homes after the board meeting to inspect the road.

“We’ll take a look at it,” he said. “We’ll certainly address it.”

Other business

In other business, the village board:

— Learned from Village Attorney Anne-Jo McTague that the court recently awarded an abandoned property to the village.

“We prevailed,” McTague said. “We can take possession.”

The property, formerly owned by the Munks family, had been abandoned since the last family member died in 2006, leaving no next of kin, according to village Clerk-Treasurer Linda Pasquali. The property lies at the entrance to the village on Route 156, at 16 Altamont Road, next to the firehouse.

Conway told The Enterprise that the empty home, with an abandoned car parked in its overgrown yard, is “a public nuisance.”

“A lot of people were calling us,” Pasquali said. “It looks dangerous.” She said that the village will take control of the property within 30 days of receiving the paperwork from the court.

Conway said that the property would be kept and used if the firehouse needs to be expanded in the future;

— Learned that the village now has several Automated External Defibrillators. Trustee David Cardona suggested that a doctor needed to be associated with each AED, but Trustee John Stevens said that the devices are widely available now and come with an instructional CD.

“It is foolproof,” Stevens, a driver for the Voorheesville Area Ambulance Squad, said. “It won’t register for someone who is alive. They have to be passed.”

The board said that it will arrange training for village employees on the use of the AEDs;

— Heard from Conway that the Conservation Advisory Council remains short one member. Pasquali said that the council reviews planning and zoning applications and makes recommendations on the possible effects of those proposals; and

— Agreed to hold its next workshop meeting on Sept. 14 at 6 p.m.