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HomeMy WebLinkAbout0024 DUNN'S POND ROAD - Health 24 Dunn's Pond Rbad, Hyannis A= a a TOWN OF BARNSTABLE 'THE.T�� OFFICE OF ? HAHII9TAHL : BOARD OF HEALTH MASS. o, °o t639 gem 367 MAIN STREET c war k' HYANNIS,MASS.02601 May 15, 1998 Ellen and Bud Vaillancourt 173 Dunns Pond Road Hyannis, Ma 02601 Dear Mr. and Mrs. Vaillancourt: I am in receipt of your letter dated April 14, 1998. Our Health Agent, Thomas McKean inspected the property which you referred to in your letter 24 Dunn's Pond Road, on May 13, 1998. The property owner, Mr. Mulligan, has taken appropriate steps to ensure the tenants will not be placed in eminent danger, by placing sand bags around the rear of the property and by pumping water out of the cellar. There were, however serious violations of the State Sanitary Code cited in regards to the septic system and the heating system. Mr. McKean took appropriate action by notifying the property owner immediately and ordering him to make the necessary repairs. You also mentioned 'a mosquito problem in your letter. You should contact Cape Cod Mosquito Control to request assistance by telephoning 775-1510. Sincerely yours, Susan G. Rask,(RA. Chairman Board of Health Town of Barnstable SGR/bcs vailanct April 14, 1998 Ms. Susan Rask Dept of Public Health 367 Main St. Hyannis, MA 02601 Dear Ms. Rask, I am writing this letter on behalf of myself, my family and several of our neighbors begging for your help in an increasingly fearful and dangerous situation. This may not be the first time you've heard from some of the others here at the end of Dunns Pond Road. But, our family just moved here in August and now we are faced with the ongoing problem of the rising of Dunns Pond which threatens our homes and the health and safety of our families. I understand that some neighbors have been trying, without success, to get someone to listen to them about the water problems here. If this were simply about some water in basements occurring after a bad winter or several days of heavy rains, then I would understand that this is our problem to deal with and too bad for us. But, the problem is way past that and cannot be due only to naturally falling rain. The end of our street is now a pond,flooded and continuing to rise even after several days of beautiful weather. The house at the very end is completely surrounded by water...the neighbors next to that cannot get into their home except by going through our yard because their entire large front yard is completely under water. The water from their front yard has now caused a small pond to form in our front yard and that is growing. The neighbor across the street has several feet of water in her basement...this past week she had plumbers come in to empty her oil tank because it was in danger of spilling into the water...a horrendous potential problem should oil leak out into the pond or a fire start...because now I understand our fire hydrant at the end of the street is completely under water. The neighbors on the other:side of us have been pumping their basements steadily for the past month. And, Colonial Gas, trying to lay gas lines, encountered gushing water digging down only a couple of feet...it was so bad they had to install pumps in order to continue work. (They refused to work on the house surrounded by water and now that man cannot get natural gas.) Our own basement just had 8"of standing water before we started pumping but there is more to that story. We bought this house new in 1990 and rented it until last year. It had a full basement. In 1992, the basement floor cracked from the force of water and we had 14"of standing water. We decided to create a new basement floor by filling to 2' with -2- stone and gravel plus a new cement floor. We did this at a cost of about $5000. A year later the new floor cracked open and there was another 8"of standing water on top of that floor...a total of 22"higher than the old floor. We filled it again, this time to 3 1/2' higher than the original floor. (Another$5000.) So, to have 8"on top of that means.that there is more than four feet of water directly under our house. After the loss of all that money and the loss of our basement, we now have standing water again. This house should never have been built because I understand water problems had been present here for many years prior to 1990. But, we didn't know that and, even though an engineering report we had done indicated that the house was built on too low an elevation, it was too late for us. We accepted our situation because we believed that the water problems were due to nature and we took care of our problem ourselves. It is clear that the problems with this area are more than rainwater. According to neighbors here, the real problems started when Barnstable High School expanded years ago...with the current expansion of the high school and the re-doing of the land elevation behind our homes, the problems are much greater and continue to worsen with every passing day. The high school land behind our homes has been made to slope down toward the pond. Our homes are on the same elevation as the pond. If water is being drained into the pond, it stands to reason that the pond will rise and flood us out...which it is doing. There is a new senior citizens center going up on the other side of the pond with something like 200 parking spaces. Where is that water going to go? There is nowhere else for it to go but this area considering the elevation of the new center and the pond. And, I'm sure there is other water going into the pond that an investigation would uncover. None of us here is wealthy...we're working, middle class families who bought homes in good faith and pay taxes believing that if we do the right thing, the right thing will be done in return. We bought our own home with no knowledge of anything wrong...the people next to us just recently bought theirs and no one told them anything (we weren't living here at the time or we would have.) They are the ones with a huge new pond in their front yard. And, they have a 3 year old who could drown in that water...that's how deep it is. We have no power to stop the expansion of the high school (obvious from the total lack of interest in our concerns expressed at a public hearing). We have no power to stop the building of the senior citizens center. We don't know all the things being done with the pond area but from asking enough questions of enough people we believe more is going on than anyone who is in a position of power will admit. 1 -3- What we do know is that this current flooding started many weeks ago and even after days and days of good weather, the water is rising, threatening our homes, our families and our futures here. The fact that the water table is extremely high this year does not explain the problems we have had here for several years. The high water table makes things worse but the re-configuration of the land around us makes it impossible. We pay taxes based on the value of our homes which is based on market value. Right now our homes have no market value...who would buy our homes at any price faced with the prospect with which we are now faced. We are asking that someone listen to us, investigate the situation and help us with some kind of solution. We're willing to take care of some water in a basement...we're not willing to sit by and watch our homes be taken over by water that is purposely being drained into our neighborhood. Thank you for your time and, please, we need to hear from someone soon. Sin ly, Ellen and Bud Vaillancourt 173 Dunns Pond Road Hyannis, MA 02601 Home phone: 508-771-4978 (answering machine available if not home) Office phone: 508-775-0729 (voice mail available if I am not there) P.S. Mosquitoes are already a problem. What can be done to help with that?