UPDATE, July 12:
The cost of the proposed sewer hasn’t been determined yet, and residents have not yet agreed on what share of the cost they may be paying, neighborhood resident Patricia Legere said.
Original article, July 8:
In a strong rain, the flooding is like “whitewater rapids coming down the hill” by Spring Grove Street, a short road just east of the intersection of Hoyt Street and Camp Avenue, Patricia Legere told town officials at a recent public hearing.
“The intensity has flooded my basement, flooded my garage,” said Legere, a resident of Spring Grove Street, at a recent meeting of the Environmental Protection Commission at its July 1 meeting. Legere says her house has been so ruined by the flooding that it needs to be torn down.
Patricia Legere of Spring Grove Street tells the Darien Environmental Protection Commission about her neighborhood\’s problem with flooding.
Nearby resident Eanna Rushe of 241 Hoyt St. said that with “any kind of decent, heavy rain” the water “flows on Camp Avenue” and into her yard, where it will form a pool inches deep.
Not just water, but mud and debris flows down from the hill, so that neighbors need to clean up after rain storms. A homeowner at 45 Camp Ave. said she once had 6 feet of water in her basement.
“We lost our furnace,” she said. “We lost our hot water heater; we lost our dryer and all our Christmas decorations that we’d had for years. The situation got worse as more homes were built uphill, she said.
Legere and her neighbors weren’t looking for an allocation of money from the town (although some staff time will be involved). They wanted the Environmental Protection Commission to become an applicant for a state grant for drainage sewers. Eight homes are directly affected by the flooding on Spring Grove Street, a small stretch of Camp Avenue, Ridgeview Avenue, Jackson Place and Hoyt Street.
Legere hired Aleksandra Moch of Stamford, a geologist/hydrologist, who wrote to the commission to ask them to apply for a state grant. The residents say they’re prepared to pay any costs not picked up by the state for a drainage project for the neighborhood. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection requires a municipal board to formally apply for the money.
The Board of Selectmen said it did not oppose the plan, and Town Administrator Karl Kilduff told representatives of the group that the town would want to administer bidding if the grant money was received.
After hearing from several residents and a land-use staff member, the commission unanimously voted to become an applicant. No cost estimates for the sewers were mentioned at the meeting (further research needs to be done), and the town has not agreed to pay for even a share of the costs.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said residents were willing to pay for the part of the sewer cost not picked up by the state. That hasn’t been determined yet.