Nahant receives $70,000 grant to fix drainage issues near Bear Pond

NAHANT-The town received a $70,590 grant to improve drainage in the vicinity of Bear Pond, which is located on the town-owned Kelley Greens Golf Course.According to town administrator Mark Cullinan, the drainage grant money would be used to drain and dredge Bear Pond and clean the ditches feeding into the pond from low lying areas in town.Bear Pond is the only freshwater pond in Nahant and Selectmen Richard Lombard said improving the ditches that run into Bear Pond are a priority.Storm water runoff from the Lowlands, Ward Road, Flash Road, Spring Road and adjacent side streets is discharged via a series of roadway catch basins and drainage systems to the golf course drainage ditch between Ward Road and Bear Pond. The improvements will serve to enhance and maintain the existing storage capacity of the drainage ditch, Bear Pond and its associated sub-ponds to prevent flooding of the adjacent residential homes and streets.Lombard said dredging the ditches and Bear Pond would help alleviate some flooding problems.?All the water from flooding in the Foxhill Road and lowlands drains to Bear Pond,” he said. “If the ditches aren’t clean and draining properly then that area stays flooded. Better drainage into Bear Pond would also help dry up the ballfields (in the Lowlands). Those fields get very muddy and messy.”Lombard said an important component of the project is pitching the ditches so water flows downhill into the pond.Lombard pointed out the drainage ditches are currently earth-lined but that is something the town may want to take a look at in the future.?Down the road we will probably have to line those ditches (with cement or other material) so we have better flow,” he said.