NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Brown Street Bridge has been cleared for work to begin temporary repairs to the deteriorating beams that have left it closed for more than two years. 

 

The Conservation Commission on Wednesday that no notice of intent was required on project. 

 

"The project is for the temporary repairs of the Brown Street Bridge so we can get it open back up," said Commissioner of Public Services Timothy Lescarbeau. "There's going to be repair work done on the beams, no excavation, so there's no issues with erosion controls or things like that. It's just repairs of the beams. Maxymillian is setting up platforms underneath to catch any debris that would potentially fall down into the flood chute."

 

Lescarbeau said those precautions are being set up now before the work begins. The project will only be repairs, not replacement of the beams. 

 

"They're putting plates on them and then they're going to encase the ends in concrete, the building forms, and then they're going to pump grout into there," he said. 

 

The city had requested for determination of applicability because the work will be done in the flood control chute, triggering review in terms of the Wetlands Protection Act. 

 

"This is called a request for determination of applicability, meaning, does this commission determine that more information is needed, and if so, a larger, more engineered document called a Notice of Intent is required," Chair Andrew Kawczak informed the few people attending the meeting. "It does not sound like there's a lot of environmental segregation for this repair of this bridge in terms of wetlands impacts and things like that."

 

The commission recommended a negative determination because it will not alter the area in anyway, meaning the project can proceed. 

 

Only two of the three commissioners were at the meeting and William Shanahan disclosed that he is an employee of the city in the Community Development Office. However, he had checked "through research on the conflict of interest and historical evidence from members of City Hall" that he could deliberate as long as the project does not involve that department. Kawczak said this was also his experience in the past.

 

Lescarbeau said he anticipates the project being completed by December. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey last month informed the City Council that J.H. Maxymillian was contracted to make the repairs at $349,920. The company began staging equipment last week. 

 

The Con Comm also signed off on the plans for construction of a gas station and convenience store at the corner of Eagle and Canal streets. The corner had hosted a gas station for many years until being shuttered a decade ago and then demolished. The Planning Board approved the new construction earlier this month.

 

Darrin Harris of Hill Engineers, Architects, Planners Inc., representing Boon Properties LLC of New Hyde Park, N.Y., had two requests: certificate of compliance to close out a permit that has expired to satisfy the state Department of Environmental Protection and a new notice of intent to replace it. 

 

"DEP doesn't like to have multiple permits opened on the same site, so we'd like to close out that old permit even though only a portion of the work was done," he said. "The work was to demo the site and then to rebuild a new convenience store, gas station at the site. It was all done just before COVID. They started the project, COVID hit financing became an issue, maybe in getting contractors, and after three years that permit expired."

 

The tanks and pumps were removed and the canopy and small kiosk demolished. Kawczak asked Harris if he was seeking form 8B, partial completion, and "we basically include words like demolition only, something simple, but fundamentally categorically, I believe will meet your needs."

 

With that completed, Harris moved on to the notice of intent to resurrect the permit, pointing out that the lot at 140 Eagle is complete within the 200-foot buffer zone.

 

"It's basically the same project they permitted five years ago or so," he said. "It's slightly different. We actually added a little more green space up on the north side of the site, just because we could. We thought it would be better."

 

The parcel will have two water management systems, with one picking up water from the roof of the convienence store and along the two retaining walls that will partially be caught by the landscaping. This is considered clean water that will run into a leach and catch basin to infiltrate back into the groundwater and excess will overflow and run through an  underground pipe into another leach and catch basin.

 

"When you have a site and you create a bunch of impervious [ground], you don't want the water hitting it and just all running off. You want some of it to go back into the soil, and you want that to be clean," Harris. 

 

Water off the pavement area could contains oils and dirt and will flow into a trench drain across the site and "will run through a mechanical-type water quality device that's approved by the state to capture that water, somewhat dirty water, clean out the total suspended solids, the hydrocarbons," he said, adding that the Stormceptor https://www.conteches.com/stormwater-management/hydrodynamic-separation/stormceptor-systems/ is approved by DEP. Comments from DEP was to request the device and its filters be maintained on a regular basis. 

 

Shanahan, who also noted for the record he lives across the street from the proposed redevelopment, motioned that the permit include the condition the Stormceptor be cleaned every six months. 

 

In other business, the commission continued a hearing for North Adams PV LLC for property located at 47 & 48 Rear Ashland Street until next month at the applicant's request and discussed a communication pertaining to camping or farming activities on Spencer Road off the Mohawk Trail. 

 

Kawczak said he and the building inspector had become aware of some construction and tree cutting on the property, through which a minor stream flows to become Tunnel Brook. 

 

"There was some odd things going on in terms of land management, little bit of a messy situation ... it was going through land transfer," he said. "We talked to one land owner who denied knowing things because he transferred the property to someone else. So it was a shell game about figuring out who was responsible." 

 

He had reached out to DEP for advice as there were Wetlands Protection Act violations, but the state responded that it seemed more effective to be addressed as a building or Health Board issue. Kawczak said he would be setting up a meeting with those city departments.  

 

Kawczak also hoped to have the number of commissioners increase, noting the recent appointment of Shannon Cahill.

 

"We have a need for seven people. We will have four by the end of next month," he said. "We need three more people, so great, keep raising their hands."