WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission admitted they have an elephant in the room, or on their agenda, but the real issue is how do you move an elephant which appears content with inaction?
The discussion pertained to a city project to replace a stormwater pipe with an open ditch at 866 Shaker Road, specifically the sixth hole of the Shaker Farms Country Club.
The elephant is the Army Corps of Engineers which has jurisdiction over all waterways and related water control structures in the country.
Shaker Farms Country Club owner Dan Kotowitz, appearing before the Board of Public Works in October of 2013, said that “a huge amount of runoff” from the stormwater pipe collecting water in the Falley Drive neighborhood is flooding the course near the sixth green.
Kotowitz said the sixth hole, a 565-yard uphill dogleg and the hardest hole on the course, lies at the bottom of the Shaker Heights bluff. Kotowitz said the water “is coming down onto our property” from the bluff and requested the Board of Public Works to take what action the city could take to eliminate that storm-related flooding.
The city had already hired R. Levesque & Associates to design a solution to the problem prior to that meeting.
The couple also appeared before the Conservation Commission at the Oct. 10th session to seek permission to remove the pipe carrying water under the course.
Conservation Coordinator Karen Leigh said at that time that request is consistent with the Conservation Commission’s goal to return that area to its natural condition. Leigh said that the pipe is causing flooding, apparently because a section collapsed, when water seeps up through the soil.
Leigh said the course owners “may also have to apply to the Army Corps of Engineers for additional permits, which could take some time.”
Commissioner Tom Sharp raised the issue at the board’s meeting Tuesday (July 22) that the project is still on the committee’s agenda and that for months there has been no progress.
“Get it off our radar,” Sharp said. “Take it off the agenda until the applicant has the data we need.”
The project applicant is the city’s Engineering Department, working in conjunction with Levesque & Associates, to develop a solution to the drainage problem by “daylighting” the system, removing the drain pipe and allowing the stormwater to flow through a drainage ditch.
The problem is that there has been no response from the Army Corps of Engineers as to whether they will assume an oversight role and allow the project to progress under local authority.
“It’s not anything the applicant is doing,” Leigh said Tuesday. “It’s the Corps of Engineers.”
Sharp suggested sending a letter to the Engineering Department warning that the commission may remove the project from its agenda.
“Would it give the Engineering Department another arrow to shoot to get the Army Corps (of Engineers) to provide information?” Sharp asked.
Commission Chairman David Doe and James Phillips both opposed that strategy.
“I’d hate to make them start (the process) over,” Phillips said.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said Friday that he “understands the commission’s frustration, but I can’t move the Army Corps of Engineers.”
The board then voted to continue the public hearing to its Aug. 12 session.
