Tedesco Dredging Before Conservation Commission

Conservation Commission members have reviewed plans to dredge a Tedesco golf course detention pond and, on Wednesday, are expected to sign a notice of intent for the work.

The meeting is at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

The members have also visited the pond, by the 11th hole, said Conservation Commission member Gino Cresta.

Because the pond is a wetland, the dredging must be OK'd by the commission, which makes sure the project includes proper environmental precautions.

The pond was designed to  help control flooding, but it has filled with vegetation and sedimentation and is operating at less than half, perhaps as low as 35 percent, of capacity, according to an environmental study by Rimmer Environmental and McKenzie Engineering.

The project is expected to cost all of the $350,000 appropriated for the work at Town Meeting in May, and Tedesco will contribute $100,000, over 10 ten years, to the dredging operation.

The work is expected to provide flooding protection for Vinnin businesses and nearby residents including those who belong to the Hawthorne Brook Neighborhood Association.

"The pond is part of the stormwater drainage system for much of the central and northern sections of Swampscott as well as the portion of southern Salem near Loring Tower," states the Watershed Evaluation Report for the Tedesco Country Club Pond Watershed. "This pond is the last open water body until stormwater ultimately discharges through a 4 by 8 foot box culvert at the Atlantic Ocean."  

The commission is also expected to consider a notice of intent to dredge another pond, located on the opposite side of Salem Street.