SAUGUS — The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday night to send a letter to Gov. Maura Healey and members of the town’s state delegation requesting that the Ballard Street Salt Marsh Restoration project be revisited and funded as soon as possible.
Selectman Michael Serino, who drafted the letter, said that it contains a history of the proposed project, the first version of which was developed in 2002 by Secretary of Environmental Affairs Bob Durand. The letter says the project would restore more than 50 acres of degraded salt marsh in Rumney Marsh between Ballard and Bristow streets.
Serino said that the project would have significantly helped mitigate the flooding that East Saugus experienced a month ago.
“Growing up down there, the floodwaters always came up to the Italian American Club,” Serino said. “However, this last storm it came all the way up to Bristow Street, Wickford Street, came in through Seagirt Avenue (and) Venice Avenue.”
“I think if that 50-acre marsh was restored, it would also provide the flood capacity for that area and I think it would have drastically helped the flooding that recently occurred,” Serino added.
According to Serino’s letter, construction on the plan to restore the marsh had been set to begin in fall 2015. However, he wrote, the federal Environmental Protection Agency did not agree with the state’s plans, causing the costs associated with the project to rise and leading to its eventual abandonment.
The board voted unanimously to send the letter to Healey, state Sen. Brendan Crighton, and state Reps. Donald Wong and Jessica Ann Giannino.
Afterward, Board Chair Debra Panetta thanked Serino for putting the letter together.
“I think it’s important that the people in Precinct 10 know that we’re very serious about the floodgate project as well as marsh restoration to try to alleviate some of the issues that they have had with the flooding,” Panetta said.
The day before the board’s meeting, Rep. Seth Moulton visited Saugus and discussed the funding for a study of the proposed Saugus River Floodgate Project with Serino and Board Vice Chair Jeff Cicolini.
In his letter, Serino said the board believes that project would act as a long-term solution to flooding issues in Saugus, Lynn, Revere, Malden, and Everett. The salt marsh restoration project, he said, could work as an expedient solution to protect residents of East Saugus from flooding.
