Scott Erdmann met with the Marion Board of Selectmen on August 4 to air his grievances regarding rising waters on his property from the Grassi Bog watershed area, a town-owned open space property that abuts his Mill Street home.
Erdmann said changes made to the dike and canal systems around the bog property – changes made by the open space members – have caused water to drain and flood his backyard. He said that a dike had been breached allowing stormwater and drainage to flood his property.
Erdmann said, “…it is a mess!” He said that the entire watershed system was a mucky swamp swarming with mosquitos and overrun with toads.
John Rockwell, Chairman of Marion’s Open Space Committee, conceded that four of eight water management dikes and culverts had failed during storms. He said that the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service had been without an engineer to assist the town with designing a drainage system until recently. Now onboard to assist the town is Dan Barnett, project engineer with the NRCS.
Rockwell said that the goal of the Open Space Committee for this property is to allow the bog to become an emergent marsh. Emergent marshes are saturated to semi-permanently flooded herbaceous wetlands with seasonably variable water levels.
After about 45 minutes of conversation with Erdmann declaring his fears for his safety and quality of life and Rockwell explaining how these water issues have occurred, it was decided that Barnett, Rockwell, and Erdmann, along with Selectman Stephen Cushing, would meet at the property on Thursday, August 6. The goal of the meeting will be to assess the current conditions and discuss how to remediate the problems Erdmann has been facing.
Barnett and Rockwell also said that new water management designs will be completed soon and will include repair and replacement of dikes and culverts.
In other business, Town Administrator Paul Dawson shared design choices made by the Town House Building Committee from a variety of choices presented by T2 Architecture. Selectman Cushing wanted to make sure the public understands that no final decision has been made and that these selections are the committee’s suggestions.
From the design choices, the committee selected 1A, which keeps the current structure with renovations; 2B, which includes renovations and rehabilitations including additions to the current town house structure; 3, which is a concept for a brand new building on land that the town would need to identify; and 4C, which is a campus approach at the current site that would include the Council on Aging and the library.
Dawson said that the T2 Architecture presentation may be viewed on the town’s website at www.marionma.gov/Pages/index.
The next meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is scheduled for September 1 at 7:00 pm at a venue to be announced.
By Marilou Newell
