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The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia

The bank was bare along Route 143 heading into Westerlo’s central hamlet, eroded by tropical storms Irene and Lee in August 2011 and repaired this past October with a $196,000 project that installed nine feet of large rocks on the far right bank, packed soil folded with fabric to restore the bank, and laid large rocks to slow and divert the stream away from the weakened bank. Like a streambank stabilization project in Preston Hollow on Route 145 in 2013, three quarters of the funds came from the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service and the rest came from the state’s flood mitigation program. The project on Route 143, meant to protect safety and property, was eligible because the bank is along a state route, a county bridge is downstream, and the water is considered a Class A stream for trout spawning and feeds into the Basic Creek Reservoir, according to state and county officials.