Maple Grove Civic Club Gets Storm Damage Update
Interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan speaks at the Maple Grove Civic Club on Sunday.
That was the word from interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan, who gave the Maple Grove Civic Club on Sunday an update on town stormwater damage and repairs.
Cesan ran the club members through various repair projects as well as future ones regarding damage left by two September storms that caused flooding throughout town.
"For the next couple of years, it is my opinion that it is going to be all things stormwater," she said. "That is what we need to focus on."
In mid-September, two storms hit Adams within a week of each other and overwhelmed the town's flood control system.
"I have never driven through downtown and had Commercial Street flooded above the sidewalks all the way across the travel lane," she said. "So that itself when I was coming to work was alarming."
Flooding affected Lime, Davis, North Summer, and Charles street areas, in particular, damaging private properties and causing more than $2 million in damage to public infrastructure.
"Not only was the damage scary but the number to repair the damage, you could argue, is even scarier," Cesan said.
The town declared a state of emergency, which allows it to deficit spend, and received town meeting approval to borrow up to $2.5 million to make these repairs.
Cesan said two critical projects, the Glen Street sinkhole and damages on East Road, are largely complete and on budget.
"Our estimates for both of these projects have held; we did not have to use the contingency," she said. "So we are happy about that. We hope we don't have to use all of that $2.5 million and it looks like it could be a smaller number."
Glen Street was slated to cost $90,915 and East Road $65,000. These amounts do not include the contingency amount.
Cesan said the town is now focused on the Davis Street bridge that was wiped out during Hurricane Irene and again this year.
"The town replaced it with this plastic culvert that served us well for seven years but the force and the volume of water from these storms took it right out of the ground," she said.
She said it will be replaced with an open-bottom culvert much like the Charles Street bridge that held up during the recent storms.
Cesan said the bridge is slated to cost between $350,000 and $400,000. She said the original budget had included another $273,000 for the installation of a temporary bridge but this has been deemed unnecessary.
The town is pursuing grant funds for this project.
Cesan said Grant Street is another future project and the area has needed drainage upgrades for some time now – like many neighborhoods in Adams.
"That drainage system has not been working for a long time in that neighborhood," she said. "It has undersized pipes, and this is a problem townwide. Keep in mind when the pipes were sized it was 50 to 75 years ago and now across New England, we are seeing more intense storms and the pipe size is not adequate."
This is estimated to cost $749,285.
The town also plans to undergo a drainage assessment for Crotteau Street. Adams received Complete Street funds to make improvements to Crotteau Street, however, officials want to understand the drainage in the area before using state and town funds.
Cesan said the town will have to undergo a watershed analysis to truly understand how the topography is changing and what kind of flood control will be needed to handle increase rain caused by climate change.
"We need to look at the entire watershed and understand what new changes and what dynamics are going on in order to provide an appropriate mechanism to make sure if it does happen again the impact will be less," she said.
Cesan said the town itself will have to do a better job maintaining flood control and that it will ask residents to keep flood control on their own properties free of brush and debris.
Some of the town's flood control goes back to when the mills were in full operation. Some of these critical channels are now on private property.
"We have a lot of work to do in terms of getting the ownership straight in terms of getting drainage easements in line and maintaining them," she said. "We need to make sure they do what they were designed to do."
In other business, the club reorganized. All officers remained in their current seats except Joseph Nowak, who was voted in as the vice president.
Tags: Maple Grove Civic Club, storm damage, stormwater,
