Woodland Drive Opened to North Shore Traffic

City officials were prepared to cut through the fence at the end of Woodland Drive on August 8th went they dug a ditch from must south of North Shore Drive to Crystal Lake in a largely unsuccessful attempt to drain excess water into the lake.

They had already put in culverts for the water to run through should a new road be needed.

When the ditch didn’t do the trick, they laid down a big hose and started pumping.

By last Monday, water was being pumped through a second smaller hose.

The water was deep on North Shore Drive on Monday, but not deep enough by the time I left the North Shore at mid-day to require an alternative exit.

By the time the city council met on Tuesday evening, however, the fence was down and a soft asphalt road had been built over the culverts.

A detour had been created for North Shore residents to get to Route 14 using Woodland Drive.

Woodland Drive residents are not pleased that their cul-de-sac with its 90-degree turns has been turned into a thoroughfare.

Not one bit.

“It looks like the autobahn,” one resident said. She said that people were driving so fast that tire tracks were appearing at the four 90-degree turns digging up lawns.

“We’re wondering if speed bumps could be put in.

Jack Spurr, President of Woodland Drive’s Property Owners Association also spoke, pointing out that flooding had not occurred before Cove Pond, designed, he said by city watershed consultant Hey and Associates firm, was created. He pointed out that Cove Pond was designed to hand 1 2-inch rainfall over 24 hours.

Earlier City Engineer Eric Lecuyer said Crystal Lake received 6¼ inches of raid on August 6th and 7th and another 3½ two weeks later.

“We really need some help with all of this,” he said of the 22 Woodland Drive channel side property owners.


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