Funding Secured for Adams' Charles Street Bridge
 The town has qualified for community development grant to fix the private Charles Street Bridge, closed since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. |
ADAMS, Mass. — Funding for the potential construction of the Charles Street bridge damaged by flooding from Hurricane Irene is secure.
Town Administrator Jonathan Butler said the town pre-qualified to receive a Community Development Block Grant for $250,000 in disaster recovery to fund to the project.
"The town made a decision, well over a year ago, that we weren't ... going to be able to fund the second entryway into this neighborhood," Butler said at Wednesday's Selectmen's meeting. "But we left open the opportunity, if something comes along, that we can get funding for this."
The town submitted a pre-application at the end of August, including data on the project. Now, Adams needs to submit a formal grant application, which Butler said Community Development staff will do by month's end.
"You're essentially guaranteed funding, as long as it's released federally. We're very excited to get that bridge [repaired] for that neighborhood," Butler said.
Berkshire County firm Hill-Engineers Architects & Planners, which has an office located in Adams, is creating a proposal for the bridge project, according to Butler. Once a proposal is created, it will need to be approved environmentally by the commonwealth. Following approval, the town will schedule a discussion with residents and other stakeholders, to gauge their questions and concerns.
The bridge was left off the warrant during a special town meeting in October 2012 for the bonding of more than $190,000 in funds over a five-year period to fix damages in town infrastructure incurred following Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 because of its projected tax burden.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was initially willing to provide 75 percent of the $35,000 cost estimate it made for the project's completion following the disaster. An estimate from Hill-Engineers yielded a considerably higher estimate of approximately $250,000. According to FEMA, the bridge was damaged prior to the tropical storm and it is on an unaccepted road.
When use of public funds to complete this project was being deliberated on by Selectmen in September 2012, no one voted in favor of funding the repair of the bridge. Despite having only one egress from the horseshoe-shaped roads on the north side of Lime Street following the bridge's destruction, Selectman Arthur “Skip” Harrington cited reports at that time from the Police Department, emergency management, Fire Department and Department of Public Works that it was a non-issue, while concerns from residents persisted.
Residents William Blakeney and Rosemarie Malloy, of Davis Street and Charles Street respectively, had spoken about safety concerns they along with six other households reached by the bridge had about safety, saying response time for ambulances made reconstruction a life and death matter.
The Selectmen's decision to leave the item off the special town meeting warrant for disaster relief came after Butler suggested residents could petition to decide the fate of the bridge project, during a Selectmen's meeting in August 2012.
The construction of the project will take a month or two, according to Butler.
Tags: bridge project, CDBG, Irene,
