Robin Hood drainage project funds requested
Published on February 6th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - DPW Director and Town Engineer Robert Grover said the $600,000 Oak Street neighborhood drainage project is the only way to prevent the flooding of homes in the area.
The DPW will request the funds in the first of two articles at the March 4 Special Town Meeting. Basically the project widens drainage pipes and allows water to pass from the high ground near the Robin Hood School down along Oak Street and behind Redstone without flooding homes along the way. The new pipes will intersect the town’s larger drainage line near Royal Street and divert the water south into the Aberjona River.
The system was designed by the engineering firm Fay, Spofford and Thorndike of Burlington to handle a 10-year’s storm — a storm of a magnitude that happens only once a decade. The 10-year standard is DPW policy, Grover said. The greater the capability, the greater the cost.
Flooding will occur primarily in the Lindenwood cemetery when a rainstorm exceeds the 10-year level.
“I understand some people won’t like this, but it’s better than in people’s homes,” Grover said.
Some citizens like Franklin Street resident John DeGeorge criticize the approach for moving the problem. DeGeorge favors the more expensive of two school department designs, the option including a detention pond on the Robin Hood site.
“This will prevent flooding and instead of spending $600,000 we spend $300,000 and get a 63 percent reimbursement from the school program,” DeGeorge said.
This would make sense if the Robin Hood project prevented the flooding along Oak Street, but it won’t, according to Grover.
“A detention pond on the school site will help the school but won’t solve the neighborhood flooding,” Grover said. He favors the less expensive school drainage option without a detention pond because the $600,000 off-site work is necessary to prevent flooding downstream either way, and the detention pond won’t be needed — to protect against a 10 year’s storm — once larger pipes are installed.
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