Selectmen to Meet Tonight at 7 p.m.

The Board of Selectmen will meet tonight at Town Hall at 7 p.m.

The agenda includes appointments with the veterans service officer to discuss the Servicemen’s Valor Act; the Cemetery Commission to discuss the Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund; and town counsel to discuss the layout of Kettle Pond Way and Cole Drive.

The selectmen will also meet with Bayberry Road residents who have had difficulty resolving a problem with standing water on land that was deeded to the town in 1974.

Marcia and Kevin Driscoll purchased their property at the end of Bayberry Road in 1970.  A portion of the land is in a flood plain and, for 40 years, would fill up in the winter and dry out in the spring. 

“It was all beautiful until last year when it filled up and never emptied again,” Marcia said of her land off the Stop River which is a tributary to the Charles River.  "There has to be something really blocking the water."

Kevin said, "It's always been a damp area but never a swamp."

The Stop River has stopped and is causing damage to the backyards of residents of Bayberry Road and Stage Coach Road (where the water is creeping close to house foundations), and likely others, say the Driscolls.

"The residents of Indian Hill Road filed a petition a few years ago about the smell but nothing came of it," said Marcia while standing on the South Street bridge looking at another portion of the stopped river. 

There is obvious beaver damage on the Driscoll property where beaver continue to chew their way through any trees that are still living (see photos).  Many of the trees have been killed from the standing water which the Driscolls say is likely due to beaver dams on the abutting town conservation land.

Driscoll says the vegetation damage is substantial, the standing water is harmful, and the smell is often unbearable. 

Driscoll walked Patch around her property and down to the South Street bridge near the town pumping station where the smell was obvious.

"This used to be a pretty fast flowing river but now it's stopped; the Stop River has stopped," she said, adding that people used to canoe on the river and fish but not any more.

Marcia Driscoll has contacted the town's Conservation Commission and Board of Health, the state's Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers and she cannot get an answer to the question: What stopped the Stop River and how can we stop the destruction?

"We're frustrated," she said, hoping the selectmen can help. "It's been at least a year and we don't have any answers."

Also at their meeting tonight, the selectmen will also sign the September 6 state primary warrant, sign a response letter to Comcast regarding the renewal process, receive an invitation to a Troop 89 Eagle Scout ceremony, and hear an update on the Medfield State Hospital.