WESTFIELD – The Owners of Shaker Farms will have to wait for a response from the Army Corps of Engineers before the Conservation Commission can act on a notice of intent to “daylight” a piped stream.
Dan and Nancy Kotowitz have appeared before several city boards to resolve a problem on the sixth hole of the country club caused by a pipe dumping water from the Falley Drive neighborhood, appearing before the both the Board of Public Works on Tuesday, Oct. 8 and the Oct. 10 Conservation Commission meeting to present details of the situation.
The issue was discussed Tuesday night at the Conservation Commission, but action was further delayed because of the recent federal government shutdown. The board voted to continue the hearing to Nov. 26 to allow time for the Army Corps of Engineers to review the proposal
Dan Kotowitz said, at the previous commission meeting, 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 water “is coming down onto our property” from the bluff and requested the Board of Public Works what action the city could take to eliminate that storm related flooding.
“It’s hurting our business,” Kotowitz said. “We’re hoping to get it resolved before next season. Now is the perfect time to get the work done.”
The city has filed a notice of intent, through the Engineering Department, with the Conservation Commission to remove the pipe and reestablish a natural stream bed.
Conservation Coordinator Karen Leigh said that request is consistent with the Conservation Commission’s goal to return that area to its natural condition.
“They want to create a natural stream channel to eliminate that flooding,” Leigh said, “something that the commission supports.”
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the problem is that the Army Corps of Engineers, whose employees just returned to work following the partial closure of the federal government, has to review the project, issue recommendations to the Conservation Commission and approve a permit to perform the work.
“The (Conservation) Commission can’t do anything until it gets that feedback from the Army Corps of Engineers,” Cressotti said Tuesday prior to the commission session. “We’re at a crossroad of responsibilities, trying to figure out what needs to be done.”
Dr. David Doe, commission chairman, Leigh, Rob Levesque of Levesque & Associated and Public Works stormwater manager Casey Berube toured the site Tuesday afternoon.
Doe said there are two separate issues related to the stormwater drainage. One problem, on the property of Brad Whitaker of 154 Glenwood Drive, is erosion at the outfall of the stormwater system installed when the subdivision was constructed in the 1960s. Doe said that the stormwater has created a gully and is washing out the sand of the bluff.
“The storm drain is causing damage up the bluff by the right of way,” Doe said. “There is a huge gully below the big concrete culvert. “This (day lighting of the stream) is not fixing the bluff problem.”
The second problem is located at the dogleg of the sixth hole where pipes were installed to carry the stormwater from the base of the bluff under the fairway.
“It was probably a stream before the course was built (in 1957),” Dow said. “Some of those pipes are exposed.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the drainage pipes “have not been maintained and are obstructed. We are interested to see what needs to be done. The city is looking to go with something more environmentally sensitive.”
Katie Bednaz of Levesque & Associated, said the drainage system under the fairway is six-inch diameter pipes.
“They are far undersized for the amount of water going through there,” Bednaz said.
