Clogged waterway threatens Swampscott homes

SWAMPSCOTT – Some residents of the Dennison Avenue and Stanley Road neighborhood are urging town officials to dredge Hawthorne Brook, saying the clogged waterway has flooded their yards and homes.”We understand that [the Oct. 4 rainstorm] was a ?100-year storm,'” Dennison Avenue resident Mike Greenstein said Friday. “But we’ve been having problems before and it has gotten worse ? it requires a universal solution and now it’s a hodge-podge and it’s pitting neighbor against neighbor.”Hawthorne Brook flows roughly from Vinnin Square through Tedesco Country Club before heading toward its outflow at Preston Beach on the Marblehead and Swampscott border.Mostly contained in underground pipes, it surfaces most notably at a pond across from Super Stop & Shop and a pond on the west side of Salem Street in Tedesco.The neighborhood is located adjacent – and downstream – from the Tedesco Country Club.A watershed study completed in September recommended dredging the two ponds to remove the accumulation of silt and debris, as well as further study of the watershed. The Department of Public Works has requested $350,000 from the 2013 Capital Improvements budget to dredge the two ponds, according to Assistant Town Engineer Victoria Masone.There’s been no decision yet on whether the project will be paid for.Members of the recently formed Hawthorne Brook Neighborhood Association attended the Board of Selectmen’s Wednesday night meeting in support of this proposal and to urge further study also be undertaken, saying the flooding had worsened from “years of negligence and poor planning,” Linden Avenue resident Roseann Mark wrote in a letter she presented to the board.”None of these ponds and the brook have been dredged in over five years and are presently at less than one-third of their capacity or have barely any capacity,” Mark wrote.Attorney Chris Drucas, who represents Tedesco and said the club has been trying to get the town to dredge the brook for a decade, said Friday that the Oct. 4 storm demonstrated the worsening problem.”The ponds we’re talking about on Tedesco could probably hold around 3 million gallons of water,” Drucas said Friday. “The [current] capacity is 1.2 million gallons of water.”He and town officials said the town and country club are in negotiations over Tedesco contributing in some way to the dredging of the pond on their property.Mark and Greenstein said that individual homeowners have meanwhile taken matters into their own hands.Walking around her neighborhood, Mark pointed out houses that have flooded and which homes had installed pumps or done landscaping to mitigate water issues.But these changes have effectively “pushed [the water] to their neighbors,” Greenstein said.Meanwhile, some homeowners said they are reluctant to make improvements to their homes.”We’re not going to do any improvements on our basement,” Dennison Avenue resident Ariane Purdy said Friday.Purdy said her backyard and basement flooded for the first time in October.Mark agreed. Her basement toilet backed up Oct. 4, requiring a $9,000 project to clean up.”It looked like the demons of hell coming out,” she said. “Now we’re always conscious of the [basement] pump.”Mark and Greenstein said they hope bringing attention to the issue will help. They said they hope to research grant opportunities to help the town possibly fund the project, and Greenstein said he plans to run for town meeting to be able to support the dredging project.”We’re not against the selectmen,” Mark said. “They need support.”Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].