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Politics & Government

Aberjona River to be Widened by 15 Feet

The Planning Board held a public hearing with several construction, environmental and advocacy groups in order to discuss moving forward with the Aberjona River Widening Project.

The Planning Board held a public hearing to take in comments from the public and several groups working on the Aberjona River Widening and Flood Mitigation Project.

The board announced they would be moving forward with the project by applying for a Chapter 91 Waterways License/Dredging Permit Application, a regulatory document the town needs certified by the state that will be confirmed or denied after a review process.

The Board also heard a presentation by Jacob Sanantonio, a Water Resource Engineer from the AECOM Company.

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Sanantonio summed up the project as, “a widening and deepening project that runs from Waterfield Road to Bacon Street to create a 35-foot channel width.” Currently the river is between 10 and 20 feet wide.

The will cover the first 3,500 feet and create a low-flow channel to help deepen the river to better handle flood events which have caused millions of dollars in damages to downtown restaurants, businesses and homes in the past 10 years. There will also be 800 new feet of guardrail to protect citizens and motorists.

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Sanantonio recommended a July through October time frame becasue that's during the river's low-flow period.

Over the past six months, the Planning Board has expressed frustration, and were upset over the lack of input from town officials. But after this meeting, the Planning Board was pleased that things are finally moving forward and their hope is that they wil have more governmental support and be able to make the public aware of the benefits of this project.

“This project will be very productive, important and overall, extremely beneficial for the town,” board member, Lance Grenzebeck said.

The next move for the board concerning the project will be to being filing a series of procedural regulatory permits dealing with various environmental and governmental regulations.

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