City hopes renovations will cause sewer problems to go down the drain
Date: 5/13/2009
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
CHICOPEE -- City officials told residents of lower McKinstry Avenue and the adjoining area that their flooding problems won't necessarily be solved by a $3 million storm drain reconstruction project, but they should see substantial relief.
At a meeting conducted at the Chicopee Boys & Girls Club on Thursday, Department of Public Works (DPW) Superintendent Stanley Kulig explained the Willimansett neighborhood in general is "the bowl of the city" where water flows downhill and the McKinstry Avenue area is the "bowl within the bowl."
At a meeting last year, angry residents described how their basements routinely become flooded and sewage backs up into their homes during rainstorms.
Kulig, Mayor Michael Bissonnette and Water Pollution Control Facility Chief Operator Thomas Hamel spoke to about 35 residents about the project, which should go out to bid in June and start construction in the fall. Completion is expected by early spring 2010.
Bissonnette explained that the storm drain reconstruction was recognized by the city as a problem, but wasn't a priority. Fulfilling the agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to correct its $150 million problem of combined sewer overflows (CSO) -- in which raw sewage is pushed into the Connecticut River during heavy rainstorms -- was the city's immediate concern.
"This area wasn't going to get fixed right away," Bissonnette said.
An influx of federal stimulus funds, though, allowed the city put this project on the front burner. The reconstruction of storm drains was one of the "shovel-ready" projects the city had prepared for possible funding.
"We jumped you three or four years ahead -- maybe more," the mayor added.
Bissonnette said funding for the engineering plan came through an EPA grant, and $3 million in federal stimulus funds "almost entirely paid" for the construction.
Kulig said that McKinstry Avenue would get the new storm drains as well as new water and gas mains. He characterized the work as "deep, slow construction."
The other streets in the project area -- Meetinghouse Road, Lorraine Street, Stedman Street, Roy Street, Shaw Park Avenue, Vivian Street and Meadow Street -- would see just the new storm drains installed.
There will be completed repaving of the affected streets as well.
Kulig said the project will greatly alleviate the flooding but because of the topography of the area it will not prevent it. He told the residents that if they have installed valves to close off their home piping from backups to continue to use them.
For homeowners who have systems to pump storm water off their properties, the city will install a drain connection so the rain water will flow into the new storm drains, Kulig said.
He urged homeowners and businesses who have questions about their properties to contact the DPW and pledged to work with people to seek individual solutions.
Bissonnette warned the work would inconvenience residents.
"Sometime this fall the nightmare and the cure will come to your neighborhood," he said.
Both he and Kulig asked the residents to report any problems or concerns to the DPW during the construction phase.
"What we are going to ask you is to participants -- to be our eyes and ears," Bissonnette said.
Hamel reported on the availability of flood insurance for residents and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assured him that insurance was available. Bissonnette added that because the city has undertaken repairs to the Connecticut River dike the city is now fully accredited by the federal government for flood insurance.
For more information, call the DPW at 594-3557.
