Town Officials To Review Tedesco Flood Relief Plans Thursday

Town officials will meet with Tedesco Country Club groundskeepers on Thursday to review plans for depositing fill from pond dredging at Tedesco.

The next step wil be to put the project out to bid.

The work is expected this winter, at the soonest, if it is a mild winter; otherwise, it will take place in spring, DPW Director Gino Cresta said.

The DPW director expects the pond will have to be drained and excavated.

The detention pond has filled with vegetation and sedimentation. Due to this, it 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 Tedesco pond is located between holes 7 and 11. It was designed to help control flooding.

"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 upcoming dredging and engineering 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.