ATHOL — Beavers are causing problems for Athol residents who live on the shores Lake Ellis as the animals have repeatedly blocked a pair of culverts that run beneath Route 2 — culverts that provide an outflow for the lake.
As a result, particularly at times of heavy rain, the water level rises, threatening damage to the homes that surround the lake. The town has been looking for a commitment from the state, which oversees the highway infrastructure, to find solutions to both long-term and acute threats of flooding.
State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, attempted to set up a meeting between town officials and Patricia Leavenworth, manager of District 2 of the Department of Transportation (MassDOT), to weigh steps that might be taken to keep the culverts clear of debris. The meeting, however, did not take place.
Town officials are frustrated over the matter. Asked why he believes the state has been slow to address a problem that has long existed, Athol Town Manager Shaun Suhoski sighed before responding, “Actually, I can’t begin to speculate. I have absolutely no idea — but maintain your culvert. Maybe they’re short staffed, maybe they’re short-funded. I don’t know. But this scenario can cause property damage to residential property, and it has overtopped public infrastructure. It’s unnecessary in any case.”
Suhoski was also frustrated the meeting Comerford had tried to arrange never happened.
“The town confirmed,” he said. “The state legislators confirmed. I never saw confirmation from the state.”
At a meeting in August, Athol Public Works Director Dick Kilhart told the town’s Selectboard he had been informed by MassDOT that a vendor was being sought to install “grating or fencing” in at lease one of the culverts to act as a deterrent to dam building, an activity beavers do by nature. He added that plans for installation of the grating have been in the works since November of last year.
At the most recent meeting of the Selectboard on Oct. 18, John Robertson, a member of the Friends of Lake Ellis, told the board that heavy rains about five days earlier had raised lake levels to the point where some properties were in jeopardy.
“Eighteen days prior,” said Robertson, “I sent an email to Dick and Shaun and said, ‘We’re at the stage of flooding. We need to start working on the beavers.’”
He related that Suhoski then contacted MassDOT and the town’s wildlife management consultant, as well as the offices of Comerford and state Rep. Susannah Whipps, I-Athol. Wildlife management experts hired by the town, Robertson said, also visited the site, confirmed the problem with beavers and their damming of the culverts, and compiled what he called a “terrific report.”
“Eighteen days later, on October 13, every time the rain fell the water rose. Now, we were in a drought all summer, so it wasn’t a big deal. If we got a half-inch of rain, the water rose an inch and a half. If we got an inch of rain, the water rose two inches. We’re steadily filling the lake.
We all know that the culverts at this particular moment are full.”
Robertson said as the rains fell that Thursday, he stopped along Route 2 to see what could be done to clear the beaver dam. About 10 minutes earlier, after several calls from town officials, MassDOT called back to discuss the situation.
However, by the time state officials called, said Robertson, “We already had people sandbagging their garages, sandbagging their driveways, because we knew if we got two inches of rain and no one did anything with the dam, we were going to be flooded.”
Robertson said he called DPW Director Kilhart who informed him there was nothing the town could do because, as they are overseen by the state, the culverts were out of DPW jurisdiction.
“I’m not going to let my neighbors get flooded,” he continued. “I didn’t want to do anything illegal, but it literally takes 10 or 15 minutes to remove six inches of that dam so we don’t flood. “I get that the state needs to take care of it and if we can get them to take care of it, that’s great.
But when push comes to shove, from what I understood from listening to this board, it is our responsibility to take care of our residents and our infrastructure.”
Robertson said he appreciated Suhoski’s efforts to get the state to take care of the problem in the long-term but he asked board members to instruct DPW to do what is necessary to prevent flooding in an emergency situation, regardless of jurisdictional concerns.
While Suhoski said he’s hopeful the state follows through on its plan to install grating for at least one culvert, he added, “It’s just taken too long for them to really take action. Who do I call next, Governor Baker? It’s stupid. Just maintain the culvert and we won’t have ten or 12 people (at a Selectboard meeting) discussing an issue that shouldn’t even be an issue.”
Suhoski said he is, at the direction of the Selectboard, working on getting the town’s legislative delegation and District 2 Manager Leavenworth to attend one of the board’s meetings in November in hopes of getting a commitment from MassDOT to maintain and clear the culverts on a regular schedule.
“We’ll see if everything gets miraculously taken care of by then,” he said, “but that’s where we stand.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.