March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Pittsfield drainage woes heard

PITTSFIELD — Three families from West Street attended the Tuesday night council meeting to complain that recent street reconstruction in their neighborhood has caused more water to flow into a stream bed next to their houses, causing flooding in their yards and basements.

Calling itself “the submarine crew,” the group said the heavy rains last week conclusively proved that improvements around town in culvert systems and drainage have caused more water than ever to be routed into the stream bed.

The stream bed flows above and below the ground all the way from J.W. Parks Golf Course in the north, through the town’s center, under the Maine Central Institute football field, through Raymond Avenue, under the bowling alley and eventually empties into Farnham Brook: miles of complicated drainage, said Town Manager D. Dwight Dogherty.

Because the water is collected from such a large area, the residents say improvements have overloaded the stream bed, which they claim never operated well to begin with. New paving also has increased the speed with which the water is dumped into the stream bed, further backing up the system.

“As more and more engineering gets done, all the water in this area is getting in there faster, better and quicker,” said Gordon Gower, whose yard and driveway flood frequently. At the same time that engineering is bringing the water in more efficiently, Gower said, “nothing is being done to get rid of it quicker. The engineers have created their own problem.”

Gower said that when a residents’ meeting was held with the West Street reconstruction project engineers before the project began last spring, residents warned of just such an overload.

“We told the engineers then that the system wasn’t able to handle current runoff,” said Gower.

Dogherty explained that last week’s rains taxed the entire town drainage system, but acknowledged the West Street situation was severe.

Upon Dogherty’s direction last Friday, David Dyar from Professional Engineering of Belfast inspected the entire system, he said. Dyar was the engineer who helped create the original storm water system in the area.

Dogherty said Dyar was asked to assess the current system and suggest options and solutions for improvement. He should provide the town with a plan in several weeks, said Dogherty.

In other business, fire Chief Bernard Williams told the council that he was upset with Dogherty “arbitrarily deciding which buildings in town will be burned.”

Williams said the Fire Department was the successful bidder on burning the former Courtyard Cafe to make way for a new Rite Aid store. He said the town manager told the contractor that no burning would be allowed.

“I had made a commitment to burn that building for training. If these decisions are going to be made, it would be nice to have the news trickle down to me,” he said.

Dogherty explained that all bidders on the project were told no burning was going to be allowed, for several reasons, including the possibility of smoke traveling across the adjacent Interstate 95 travel lanes.

But since then, he said, he has discussed the issue with the project contractor, Frank Woodworth, and “we are working toward making it possible to burn it.”

Councilor Don Harriman told Williams that these types of communication problems were something discussed in several meetings among the council, Dogherty and Williams earlier this fall.

“We decided that you and Dwight would meet every so often. That is probably what should be going on, rather than bringing this here,” said Harriman.

Mayor John Ring suggested that the council set a policy that whenever either the chief or the town manager is approached about burning a building, they will consult with the other before a decision is made. The council was polled and agreed unanimously.


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