(July 20, 2017) Berlin officials held a “Lunch and Learn” meeting last week with Darl Kolar from EA Engineering Science & Tech, and nine different area engineering firms, to discuss the town’s stormwater review process.
Town officials held a similar meeting with engineers around the time it started the stormwater utility, Town Administrator Laura Allen said.
“We thought it would be timely to sort of refresh our internal procedures,” she said. “The other part of the presentation that Darl did was go over the common errors and mistakes that they see, with an eye towards helping folks present a more complete application. I know a lot of [the engineers] are interested in doing quality work in a quick turnaround time for their clients. To the extent that we can identify common mistakes … we thought that would be helpful information for them to have.”
Kolar, the town’s stormwater consultant, also went over the review process, Allen said.
“We got some good questions about requirements for single-family homes and to what extent we really need as-builts versus record drawings,” Allen said. “I think it was a good discussion and we may be looking to be making some changes to the code. Right now, we’re just doing a little follow-up, sort of digesting the comments we got.”
Allen said some minor administrative changes were recently made to the town’s stormwater process. She said 30 minutes of stormwater consultation would now be included, at no extra charge, within the stormwater review fee.
“Typically, that happens on an ad hoc basis. Now, we’re trying to formalize that,” Allen said. “Some communities require it and charge an extra fee for it. We’re not requiring it – we’re strenuously encouraging it – and then identifying it as something that’s included. This gives the applicant engineer the opportunity to sit down with the town’s engineer and talk through any particular site-specific issues.”
Allen said the town has become something of a standard for stormwater improvements, leveraging almost $2 million in state and federal grants into a four-phase series of improvements geared toward reducing flooding in key areas.
“I think the town has been identified as a model,” she said. “We get a lot of phone calls from other communities either struggling with particular issues or trying to figure out how to get it up off the ground. There are a lot of communities that are subject to MS4 permits, which require them to deal with water quality in a regulatory environment – they have to meet certain standards by certain deadlines. We’re not in that situation. We’re just doing it because we think it’s the right thing to do, and the community has been largely supportive.”
Once the four-phase series of improvements have finished, Allen said the town would likely take a break from capital improvements and pursue additional grants for stormwater planning.
She said the last stormwater study was done about a decade ago and EA Engineering recommended a reassessment of whether the improvements have shifted the priority areas.
Town officials held a similar meeting with engineers around the time it started the stormwater utility, Town Administrator Laura Allen said.
“We thought it would be timely to sort of refresh our internal procedures,” she said. “The other part of the presentation that Darl did was go over the common errors and mistakes that they see, with an eye towards helping folks present a more complete application. I know a lot of [the engineers] are interested in doing quality work in a quick turnaround time for their clients. To the extent that we can identify common mistakes … we thought that would be helpful information for them to have.”
Kolar, the town’s stormwater consultant, also went over the review process, Allen said.
“We got some good questions about requirements for single-family homes and to what extent we really need as-builts versus record drawings,” Allen said. “I think it was a good discussion and we may be looking to be making some changes to the code. Right now, we’re just doing a little follow-up, sort of digesting the comments we got.”
Allen said some minor administrative changes were recently made to the town’s stormwater process. She said 30 minutes of stormwater consultation would now be included, at no extra charge, within the stormwater review fee.
“Typically, that happens on an ad hoc basis. Now, we’re trying to formalize that,” Allen said. “Some communities require it and charge an extra fee for it. We’re not requiring it – we’re strenuously encouraging it – and then identifying it as something that’s included. This gives the applicant engineer the opportunity to sit down with the town’s engineer and talk through any particular site-specific issues.”
Allen said the town has become something of a standard for stormwater improvements, leveraging almost $2 million in state and federal grants into a four-phase series of improvements geared toward reducing flooding in key areas.
“I think the town has been identified as a model,” she said. “We get a lot of phone calls from other communities either struggling with particular issues or trying to figure out how to get it up off the ground. There are a lot of communities that are subject to MS4 permits, which require them to deal with water quality in a regulatory environment – they have to meet certain standards by certain deadlines. We’re not in that situation. We’re just doing it because we think it’s the right thing to do, and the community has been largely supportive.”
Once the four-phase series of improvements have finished, Allen said the town would likely take a break from capital improvements and pursue additional grants for stormwater planning.
She said the last stormwater study was done about a decade ago and EA Engineering recommended a reassessment of whether the improvements have shifted the priority areas.