ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
For more than half his lifetime, Innis Street resident Jack Perry has been fighting to prevent his home from flooding every time there’s a heavy rain.
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
SAUGUS — The town is plugging up a flooding problem that has existed for decades.
Town Manager Scott Crabtree said remediation could begin as soon as this summer.
“We have a few different areas that have severe flooding with storm water runoff,” Crabtree said. “It’s certainly a severe impact on the residents in that area. Around 25 homes are affected.”
For more than half his lifetime, Innis Street resident Jack Perry, 79, has been fighting to prevent his home from flooding every time there’s a heavy rain. His house has seen more than three feet of water in the basement.
After investing more than $100,000, he started a petition as a last resort. Perry collected nearly 40 signatures from neighbors who also experience flooding problems. They requested up to $1 million of taxpayer money at Town Meeting.
Perry’s intentions were to have a 30-inch drain on the bridge’s north side removed and install a drain on the south side.
Earlier this month, Town Meeting signed off on $1.2 million to be invested in repairing the problem.
“I was amazed that the whole town knew about the situation,” Perry said. “This is a final vote. I was very impressed they all agreed that something needed to be done down here. If they didn’t do anything about it, I’d be at a standstill. I don’t have the money to do anything else.”
A 2015 report by CDM Smith, a Boston-based engineering and construction firm, said the flooding occurs because of insufficient capacity in the culvert, or tunnel beneath the road. The existing drainage system is undersized and inadequate, according to the report.
Flooding is described to be particularly severe in areas along Alvah, Innis, Holland and Saville streets.
In 2014, Saugus received a $1.3 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fund a portion of the cost to remove the culvert, increase drainage along the street and install additional catch basins.
The plan would have removed the bridge and widened the river, Crabtree said. But, officials disagreed on the project and it did not move forward.
Since the grant had already been offered to the town and went used, Crabtree said Saugus is no longer eligible for the financial assistance. Instead, the money will be borrowed and paid for through the operating budget. Crabtree said it will not impact taxpayers.
CDM will likely reevaluate the area and verify the plan outlined last October. The initial assessment estimated a cost of $1.2 million to complete the job. But that number could change once the town receives specifications for the work.
The plan may be altered and construction could begin sometime this summer, Crabtree said.
Perry said neighbors have been thanking him for his persistence.
“A couple neighbors have been here a lot longer than I have,” he said. “Their parents had the same problem and they inherited the house from them. I feel really relieved that finally, something is going to be done here. My grandchildren might want to live here and they might have the peace of mind that they can live here and not get flooded.”
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte.