Finance Committee Endorses $4.9M Drainage Project

The Finance Committee unanimously approved a motion to support a proposed three-year, $4.94 million drainage project at their meeting Monday night.

The committee's recommendation came less than a month after members told the Water and Sewer Commission that they'd need more information, specifically an in-depth year-by-year cost analysis report, before they could make a final decision.

Local residents will be asked to approve a debt-exclusion override to fund the project at next month.

At Monday's meeting, which drew a crowd of town officials and local residents to the lower-level conference room of the , committee members seemed more than pleased with the commission's revamped presentation.

"I think you’ve laid out the costs and put something together that the town should be able to clearly understand," Chairman David Harris said, adding, "I just want to say I think water and sewer has done a great job with planning this project and now they’ve done a good job with the numbers as well."

The committee's recommendation drew a round of applause from those in attendance, including some local home and business owners who recalled the town-wide damage sustained during a .

Although FEMA funding may lower the overall cost of the project, those planning the drain work wrote up the proposal assuming Marblehead won't receive any help from the state.

"Water and sewer put this presentation together assuming no FEMA reimbursement, but they are still going to aggressively go after FEMA reimbursement," Vice-Chair Trish Moore said. "So I think that this may be an upside number and we are hoping they will agree to reimburse us."

All of the necessary paperwork to secure FEMA aid has been submitted to the state, commission members said.

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Planned Work Areas:

FY13: Atlantic Avenue; Washington at Atlantic; Spring and Essex.

FY14: Pleasant Street; School Street; Sewall Street; Bessom and Pleasant.

FY15: Garfield Street; Evans Road; Sewall to Pleasant.

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Cost Breakdown: