Selectmen support warrant article to support drainage problems
Published on September 23rd, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - To the relief of many residents, the Board of Selectmen, on Tuesday night, endorsed an article for the Special Town Meeting warrant which would address some of the flooding problems which have been experienced in Stoneham in recent years.
Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting told the board that DPW Director Robert Grover has requested a minimum of $77,000 to begin work on the problem. The first and most important portion of the money would go toward a drainage study from Bear Hill Golf Course area down to Maple Street.
The study, approximated at a cost of $30,000, should detail to the town what needs to be done to reduce severe flooding problems experienced by residents in the area and will also approximate the cost of such work, Nutting explained. In addition, the remaining portion of the monies allocated at Special Town Meeting would be used for repairs of drainage systems on Park, Oak and Hersam streets, among others.
Nutting told the board that the above mentioned areas were considered priorities by Grover, but were not, in fact, areas that were etched in stone for immediate improvements.
"The board needs to decide its priorities," he said.
Board Chairman Albert Conti said that the $77,000 figure was likely too low. Other board members supported this statement and told Nutting that they would like to push for about $100,000 in order to make added repairs, if necessary.
Nutting also supported the figure, but warned the board that, with only about $1 million expected in free cash and with funds from the sale of Boston Regional Medical Center still just an expectation, the town should be wary of how many articles they support at the Special Town Meeting on October 26.
Oak Street resident Peter Gilligan told the board that a lack of foresight on the part of some town boards led to the problems that residents are experiencing now.
"These are 100 year storms and they're happening every year," Gilligan said. "I can see a lot of chickens coming home to roost. We have no retention ponds.
" As you build more and more, there's less area for the water to go so it (the land) floods. A lot of the problems that you're experiencing are the problems that began when you decided to build."
Gilligan said that members of the Conservation Commission and the Planning Board should have gone into the major projects which were approved in past years with the expectation that some land should be taken by the town for flood control purposes.
"I'm dismayed," he said of present day Stoneham. "It's part of planning and it's planning that we haven't done. It's going to come back and bite us."
Board Chairman Albert Conti explained that the town now has to be reactive to the problems and warned about the present economy which has not been as prosperous for the town as it has for some of its residents.
"A lot of the damage has been done," he told the large crowd in attendance. "We'll try to deal with what we've got.
"This is the best economy we've ever had. We're afraid here because we have a budget that we're having a difficult time with and the economy's never been better."
One of the problems seen with the proposal offered by Grover was that it does not call for a complete drainage study in the town. Board member John Biggio said the town would be remise if it didn't study the other half of the town which also experienced major flooding problems in the June 13 storm before it began work on Bear Hill - Maple Street stretch.
Nutting said that the priority of the study would have to be decided by the board and the residents of the town.
In related business, the board denied an appeal from Franklin Street resident John DeGeorge and 100 warrant article cosigners which would have altered the board's rights to allocate money.
According to DeGeorge, he intended to grant the board the right to allocate funds on a case to case basis to the board in order to avoid the lengthier process of going before town meeting.
Nutting, however, told DeGeorge that he, as town administrator, already has that right as granted by the Town Charter. In addition, because the selectmen are his "bosses," the town administrator must prioritize such work according to their wishes.
The selectmen decided not to endorse this article and also decided to side against a second article proposed by DeGeorge which calls for a petition of the state in order to set up a $150,000 Flood Water Drainage Reserve Fund Account which would allow the town to defray costs for drainage repairs if deemed necessary. The fund would, according to DeGeorge, be automatically returned to a $150,000 figure once money was appropriated for a project.
According to Town Counsel William Solomon, the state would likely not support such an endeavor because it would set a precedent which other communities may try to take advantage of.
DeGeorge will be meeting with those supporting or interested in the article on Thursday night from 7 to 8:30 pm at the Stoneham Public Library.
Peabody police received a call at approximately 3 am Saturday morning from a resident who described a suspicious looking white sedan parked in a neighbors driveway. The person told police that two men were sitting in the vehicle.
As a cruiser approached the residence, officers observed the men flee the scene on foot. A search of the area was unsuccessful until 6:20 am when officers observed one of the men in a nearby neighborhood. Upon seeing the officers, the man again fled on foot and was found in the bushes of a nearby residence.
According to Peabody Police Sergeant William Caico, the man again eluded police on foot and was captured after unsuccessfully attempting to hop over a fence.
Police arrested the man, identified as Saugus resident William Sponagle, 31, and, after tracing the abandoned 1987 Chevrolet Caprice to a Stoneham address, charged him with larceny of a motor vehicle, malicious destruction of property (fence) and disturbing the peace.
Stoneham and Peabody police continue their investigation into Sponagle, his unidentified male companion seen on Saturday morning and their connection to a spree of commercial breaks in several surrounding communities.
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