Berlin’s Initial Stormwater Efforts Aimed At Hudson Branch

BERLIN — The timeline for Berlin’s planned stormwater improvement projects remains on track with major construction expected within a two-year window afforded by recent grants.

As projects enter construction, the Town Council reported Monday that every effort will be made to limit disruption and avoid harm in neighborhoods.

Since launching a dedicated stormwater utility, Berlin has received close to $2 million in grant funding for various projects. Darl Kolar, project manager at EA Engineering and Berlin’s stormwater engineer, briefed the council this week about how progress will move forward from this point. Kolar was pleased with the grants and said that it will allow the stormwater utility to hit the ground running.

“A lot of things really came together, I think,” he said.

The plan is to stick to the starting three-phase approach with the first two phases aimed at improving areas along Hudson Branch.

“We’ll be able to tackle the first two phases of the work we planned on Flower Street and William Street along the Hudson Branch. Both of these phases include culvert replacements coupled with the creation of several off-line wetlands,” said Town Administrator Laura Allen last month. “We’re wrapping up the design and moving into the permitting stage right now. The project will take about two years to complete.”

Kolar went into some detail about the first project, which will be Flower Street at Hudson Branch. Beginning this fall, significant construction will be committed to creating those wetlands. Some residents have been nervous about exactly how the addition of manmade “wetlands” could impact their neighborhood.

“Everybody’s perception of what a wetland is varies greatly and when we started talking about the improvements on West Street I heard some descriptions from people that made it sound like we were going to create an Amazon forest there and there would be horrible mosquitos,” said Mayor Gee Williams.

But the town isn’t about to turn Hudson Branch into a swamp, Kolar promised. A small, highly controlled wetland area is an easy deterrent to flooding and runoff issues generated by stormwater. The project should not be any kind of mosquito magnet and most of the time should be relatively unobtrusive, he said.

“The intent is to keep it moist and to keep some water in there,” said Kolar. “The intent is not for it to be a standing pond. We chose this area because it is fairly open.”

As construction on the culverts advances, Councilman Elroy Brittingham asked Kolar to keep in mind the needs of the neighborhood and to work to make any improvements aesthetically pleasing, clean and manageable. The mayor piggybacked on that statement, suggesting that Kolar think about ways to protect the wetland from litter and clutter.

“Is it practical to create any kind of decent looking barrier that would make it very difficult, almost literally insane, to walk over, take chairs, mattresses, in the ditch?” Williams asked.

It’s something that can be looked at, Kolar replied, and the council seemed satisfied.

The coming weeks and months will mark the beginning of the first major construction efforts made by Berlin in regards to stormwater. Some demo projects have already been completed but tackling Hudson Branch will be the main event. Whether or not the construction is successful has yet to be seen but both Kolar and the council are excited by the grant response and scheduling so far.

Grants have come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Community Development Block Grant funds and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, representing $1.9 million total over the last few months.

Williams has taken the influx of grants as a sign that both state and federal agencies recognize Berlin’s commitment to combating stormwater and desire to be a model for other small towns.

“We’re not worried because we know that they didn’t put their money in Mayberry, they put it in Berlin and the community,” he said. “Their standards are our standards. We don’t have an expectation gap and that’s great.”

The new utility will be seeing its first real test with project construction but just being on schedule is a good start, the mayor added.

As is the norm, the council closed the stormwater update with a reiteration of the commitment to keep the entire process transparent. The stormwater projects are meant to enact major change in neighborhoods, especially in those prone to flooding as much of Berlin tends to be. But residents have been wary of any hidden downsides or disruptions and it’s the council’s job to address that.

“I think the key thing here is that public education is going to be just as important as public engineering,” said Williams.

Monday’s meeting on Hudson Branch projects was supposed to be part of that transparency. However, audience attendance, particularly from those who will be affected by the first phases of construction, was sparse.