NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council on Tuesday approved the appropriation of $500,000 to be used toward a feasibility study of the Hoosic River flood control chutes.

 

The funding is the city's share of the estimated $3 million study being done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which constructed the chutes in the 1950s.

 

"This is a pledge that the city of North Adams is behind this project," Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the City Council. "The majority of this a federal project which has been in process for many, many years. Since I've been in office, I have worked diligently with the Hoosic River [Revival] people to get the attention of the feds."

 

Another $1.5 million is being advocated for in a state bond by the Berkshire delegation and local officials are hoping the balance will be in federal funds. The state has received about $9 billion from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

 

U.S. Rep. Richie Neal, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, had initially asked for $1.5 million as part of his Community Project Funding Request for Fiscal Year 2023. Only $200,000 was earmarked in June by the Appropriations Committee in the $57 billion Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies funding.

 

Later in August, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren took a look at the collapsed flood chute wall in the Willow Dell and heard from river advocate Judith Grinnell of the Hoosic River Revival.

 

Officials found a sympathetic ear in Warren, who agreed there was an urgency to the project but who also noted that this was something Congress and the Corps had to get on board with.

 

The Hoosic River Basin Flood Control System was constructed in the 1940s and 1950s by the Corps of Engineers to prevent the destruction and loss of life in North Adams after a number of devastating floods.

 

While it's done its job well, the structure's age and below par construction is starting show as five of the 20-foot concrete panels have collapsed into the river over the past decade or so, including by the $65 million Building 5 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Most have been repaired or jury-rigged.

 

It took 11 years and $18.8 million to dredge and bank some 6 miles of river and contain more than a mile of it with concrete walls. Advocates are estimating $150 million to $200 million in today's dollars to reconstruct and, in some places, rehabilitate the river's concrete course.

 

Macksey said there is no timeline for when the money might be borrowed or how much might be used. Rather, she said, it is a commitment by the city to show it is behind the project. 

 

"For us to ask for the Corps, we need to have buy in at a local level," the mayor said. 

 

City Council President Lisa Blackmer called it "a pretty good bargain" to pay about 18 percent of the feasibility study. Councilor Keith Bona, who asked about the cost of repairs in the chutes, noted the city's portion of the study price was about the same as fixing two or three panels in the flood chute. 

 

"We need the commitment of all the parties before we can develop a timeline," Macksey said in response to questions, "but it can be anywhere from probably two years to five years."

 

Macksey said representatives of the Hoosic River Revival would attend the next council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 9, to provide more information on the study. The federal government will be releasing $300,000 to kickstart the project, she said, adding she hoped to know more in the next few months.

 

"We've finally got some traction. We have a senator at the federal level who is listening to us," the mayor said. "And now is our time. If you don't approve the earmark for the $500,000, our application will not move forward."