Saugus residents support bridge removal

SAUGUS – Saugus resident Larry Whittier said the Mother?s Day flood of 2006 left the washing machine in his basement floating in four feet of water.A small creek runs through Whittier?s backyard on Saville Street, which drains through a 36-inch culvert under Saville and into the Saugus River. When there?s a big rain storm, Whittier said the water backs up at the Elm Street bridge and the creek floods his house along with those of his neighbors.?Once it starts backing up at the bridge, it comes right through here,” said Whittier on Thursday as he pointed to the culvert in his yard. “It?s all runoff. And, of course, when they put these new additions up on that hill, the runoff increased. That house, the one on the corner, this one and the one next door, we catch hell.”Selectmen discussed a possible $1.2 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday, which would tear down the Elm Street bridge to alleviate flooding.Whittier said he would “absolutely” support taking the bridge down.?I?ve been advocating that for years,” said Whittier, who has lived in his house since 1963. “It would solve a hell of a lot of my problems.”Several other residents near the bridge also supported the idea. Paul Piscitelli lives on the corner of Elm and Innis streets. As he was installing new wooden stairs on the front of his home Thursday morning, Piscitelli said he?d like to see it removed.?As long as they remove the bridge and make it wider it will stop a lot of the flooding,” he said.While residents would lose direct access to Central Street from Elm Street, Piscitelli said he doesn?t care if he has to drive a little further to Saville Street to get home.?It?s no big deal,” he said.Piscitelli, who has lived in his house since 1978, said he?s had to deal with “quite a bit of flooding” over the years.?And the pumps too. After a while the pumps wear out and you have to keep buying pumps and your cellar starts smelling ? Last time there was raw sewage in the streets,” he said.Danny Doherty lives on Elm Street and said he wants the bridge gone, and called the plan a “wonderful” idea.?It?s a bottleneck,” he said. “When that backs up, the houses get the water in their yards and it?s just a terrible situation. My house flooded in 1996 ? It was real bad. I had five feet of water in my house.”When Innis Street resident Jack Perry heard about the grant, his reaction was to the point.?Thank God,” he said. “You gotta be kidding. In the 2006 Mother?s Day flood, I got three feet of water in my finished basement ? That would solve all the problems ? I?m the one that recommended that.”Perry, who had $60,000 worth of damage to his basement during the Mother?s Day flood, said he wouldn?t care about having to drive a little extra to get to his house, where he has lived for 49 years.?It?s a quarter mile up and around,” he said. “Give me a break. Versus three feet of water in your basement. You don?t have a choice. People up there, who have no relationship to this property, might say something, but I can?t imagine anyone in this neighborhood would object to that.”Cheryl McGrane has lived across the street from Perry for 13 years and said she and her husband spent up to 12 hours helping neighbors clean up seven years ago.If it means an end to the flooding, McGrane said she?d be fine with seeing the bridge removed.?This street was pretty awful,” she said. “I personally don?t have a flooding problem, but the houses on this side of the street really do. It was just devastating. We were so lucky. We were on vacation and came home to it. I think I?m just a little bit higher. I have had water in the past, but it just happened to be not that one time.”The town?s grants consultant, Paul Rupp, said at Tuesday?s selectmen meeting that FEMA is about to act on the grant, noting, “Basically, it looks as though this is going to be funded and the town should hear soon.”Selectmen also agreed to get more public comment before deciding.