Newton committee holds Chapen Road drain petition after neighbors cite flooding fears

NEWTON -- March 19, 2025, Newton's Public Facilities Committee unanimously held a storm drain extension petition for Chapen Road after residents packed the March 19 meeting with concerns about the street's longstanding flooding problem. The petition, filed by Betsy Harper, sought to extend a 12-inch drain main approximately 482 feet to serve a two-lot subdivision off 132 Homer Street, a condition the Planning Board imposed when it approved the subdivision in 2023. City engineer John Daglan said a closed-circuit TV inspection of the existing downstream pipe would be required and that capacity deficiencies would have to be corrected before construction proceeds, but residents and a privately retained engineer, Edward Sprung, questioned whether the four-by-nine-foot Hammond Brook box culvert already runs near capacity during normal rain. "This plan addresses the input but not so much the output," one Chapen Road resident told the committee. The committee also unanimously approved $750,000 from the storm water reserve to fund engineering and permitting for the first phase of the city's EPA-mandated phosphorus control plan, targeting roughly 120 pounds of phosphorus removal at Davis School and East Side Parkway as part of a city goal to eliminate 1,300 pounds by 2028.