Newton Holds Storm Water Items After DPW Briefing on Area 9 Sewer Project

NEWTON — February 5, 2025 — Newton Public Facilities Committee holds storm water items after DPW briefing on flooding and infrastructure. Commissioner Carol Sullivan told the committee Wednesday that the city's next major sewer inflow and infiltration project, Area 9 in Oak Hill, will cost well over $12 million, begin construction in approximately six months, and take more than three years to complete. Sullivan acknowledged that the city's sewer rehabilitation work has pushed groundwater back into yards and basements in the Agawam Road neighborhood and said, "I cannot promise you that we will find a solution." The committee held two of three docketed storm water items — Docket 32424 and Docket 34724 — for further discussion and voted unanimously to take no action on Docket 34824, since the DPW will return for the full capital improvement plan review in April. A third agenda item was continued to February 19 after its presenter called in sick. Sullivan also reported that the city has contracted to clean all 13,000-plus catch basins annually, up from about one-third per year previously, and that dam safety officials will appear before the committee at its March 5 meeting on the Bullough's Pond Dam Rehabilitation project.