Engineer has ideas about King Hill runoff


 


SHARON — After almost a full year of discussion and debate, the selectmen might soon have a plan in place to mitigate the runoff of water onto a property on King Hill Road.

The property owners, Margaret Keilty and Mark LaMonica, threatened legal action against the town at a selectmen’s meeting in November 2008. They believe that the runoff is coming from Sharon Hospital.

In May, Lenard Engineering of Winsted was hired by the town to conduct a limited study of the property, and to come up with options to solve the problem.

At their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the selectmen and Keilty and LaMonica reviewed a report from Todd Parsons, principal engineer from Lenard.

Parsons cautioned that he had not come to any definitive conclusions due to the company’s limited study of the situation. However, he said it’s possible that the runoff problems could have existed long before the hospital building was renovated in 1992 and again in 2005.

"There are some areas outside the watershed, primarily the area directly east of the hospital property, that discharges storm water to the north of King Hill Road in the vicinity of the most northeastern parking lot of the hospital," Parsons wrote in his report.

"It is conceivable that during a very heavy rainstorm, the capacity of this drainage system is overwhelmed and the runoff bypasses the system, continuing down King Hill Road toward the problem area. If this is occurring, it would have been ongoing for several decades."

Parsons wrote that, in the limited study the company conducted, they did not find any direct flaws in the design of the hospital’s drainage systems, but additional analysis of the system "may be warranted."

He then listed possible solutions, including: creating more storm water detention on hospital property, creating a storm water detention system directly across the street from Keilty and LaMonica’s property, or redirecting the runoff to a location either east or west of Keilty and LaMonica’s property.

Another option Parsons listed would be to design a channel through Keilty and LaMonica’s property and neighbor Arthur Hiller’s property.

Estimates on how much each option would cost were not listed in the report.

The selectmen discussed the options at the meeting, but did not make a definitive decision on which one to pursue. They will discuss the issue further at a special selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

A report on that meeting will be published in the Oct. 29 Lakeville Journal.

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