Officials Provide Post-Storm Updates on Scribner Rd., Merwin Meadows and Town-Wide Damage, Including How to Pay for It All

Two days after the unexpected torrential rain that fell on Sunday, Aug. 18, damage assessment and repair plans are underway in Wilton. Town employees have been hard at work cleaning up after unprecedented flooding occurred in various locations around town. Wilton sustained damage to some of its fields, public spaces and roadways, including Merwin Meadows, the Norwalk River Valley Trail, Veterans Memorial Stadium, and Scribner Hill Rd.

GOOD Morning Wilton spoke with several town officials about the progress made thus far in the post-storm cleanup, and got a status update on how the town has handled the response. In addition, at its meeting on Tuesday evening, Aug. 20, the Board of Selectmen heard about storm damage that Wilton sustained in updates from First Selectman Toni Boucher, Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker and Emergency Management Director/Fire Chief Jim Blanchfield.

In all conversations there were reminders of town employees and volunteers who have spent extra hours and worked hard during the storm, and afterward in service of the Wilton community.

“We want to thank our first responders and highway personnel who responded as quickly as they could to an emerging and completely unpredicted event, as well as the many citizens who have called our offices to volunteer to help in any way they could,” Knickerbocker told GMW.

During the BOS meeting, Boucher said the town has been communicating closely with state emergency management, and town officials are also focusing on just how to coordinate and pay for the cleanup work that needs to get done. She said she’s been in touch with Gov. Ned Lamont and has toured elected officials to see the damage first hand.

“We’re going to also have Jim Himes’ office come by the end of the week, and him come personally to take a look at what we need. Now that the governor has created a state of emergency, they’re going to hopefully have FEMA funds — that is particularly important for our businesses, and the YMCA, which has substantial damage,” Boucher said ading that she also visited some businesses situated close to the river that were flooded as well..

Boucher said there are no available funds budgeted to address any damage.

“The two rounds of cuts [during last May’s budget approval process] took all the options we have out of our budgets, and there are no capital projects overrun … at least that we know of right now.,” she said. “We actually ran over on department capital areas in 2024 so there’s no extra funds to use.”

Nor can the town access bonding funds for the stadium repair, as the planned remediation there will be covered through a federal grant.

“Basically, there’s no extra in our budget for this year or last year. I hope Board of Finance people are listening in. That is the problem when we had two layers of cuts, we went through there and picked out any excess,” she said. “So we may have to go back to the Board of Finance for emergency funds going forward.”

UPDATE: On Aug. 21, following publication of this article, Board of Finance Chair Matt Raimondi emailed the following statement:

“The Board of Finance is fully supportive of the First Selectwoman, the Board of Selectmen, and the town’s employees as they contend with the fallout from this severe storm. We stand ready to assist them in any way we can. However, I wanted provide clarification and some context on the statement:

“Should they require additional resources, they can request more capital from the BOF’s portion of the Charter Reserve, which stands at $1.1 million. The Charter Reserve was designed precisely for unforeseen circumstances like this.

“There were two budget cuts mentioned, though the BOF reduced the requested increase only once. This was a particularly tough tax year, and we made necessary adjustments to help manage the mill rate given the extreme impact from revaluation and other exogenous factors.

“Additionally, the BOS has access to reserve funds for moments like this. Under the Charter, the BOS can utilize up to 25% of the Charter Reserve (approximately $350k). The BOS recently voted to use ~$90k of that amount to address the Georgetown tax issue, leaving around $260k available. Beyond this, the BOS also has access to savings from last year’s budget.”

Boucher did have a message for residents who felt communication from her office and other town officials was lacking during the storm.

“Some of our staff, there’s a little concern by a few critics out there in the internet world, and here in Wilton. It was a very quick, unexpected major storm. It even took weather stations by surprise. Everyone here at Town Hall responded immediately and did all they could to keep people safe. I was with them until 11 p.m. Sunday night and taking calls from the governor the next morning. We were up and running within a short period of time. I was told that in the past, the administration did not send out mobile calls unless it was a long, drawn out event that lasted close to a week or more, such as during the pandemic. And I just want to make that clear for the public,” she said.

(For detailed updates on Veterans Memorial Stadium, read our story on it today.)

Scribner Hill Rd.

Prior to Sunday’s storm, a portion of Scribner Hill Rd. was already the focus of a repair project due to settling and cracking along the roadway. The road is built into a hill, with a steep slope on one side of the road, rock ledge on the other side, and flowing water under the road, all of which contribute to the road’s instability. At the most recent Annual Town Meeting in May of this year, Town residents approved a bonding proposal of $1.6 million for road repair and reconstruction.

But on Tuesday, the town sent out a news alert announcing the immediate closure of Schribner Hill Rd. after it was discovered that the heavy rainfall had worsened existing structural damage and exacerbated the problem.

“There is considerable erosion and cracking visible in the road surface and a part of it appears to have shifted slightly. This condition could worsen over the next few days,” Knickerbocker told GMW, adding that the highway department has determined “the road is unsafe” and has closed that section to through traffic until further notice.

At the moment, the road closure is indefinite and Knickerbocker was not able to provide a time frame for when the progressing situation can be evaluated and repair work completed.

Before Sunday’s rain, the project had reached a stage where engineering studies and plans had been completed and the town was preparing the bid documents to solicit a contractor. With the bonding already approved, Knickerbocker said that effort will continue.

“We will proceed with the bid process as planned. A precise start date cannot be provided just yet, but since much of this work cannot be performed during winter weather, we expect the project to begin in the spring of 2025,” he told GMW.

During Tuesday evening’s meeting, Boucher said she wanted the community to be aware there will be detours in place “for a while.”

“[Scribner Hill Rd.] is going to be permanently closed until such time as we can repair that entire thing and make it safe for people to travel. So we’re trying to get that out far and wide, so everyone knows that there’s going to be detours for a while until we can get the whole thing done,” she said.

Merwin Meadows

One of the hardest-hit areas in Wilton is Merwin Meadows, where water came not only from the sky but from waterways converging on two sides — the Comstock Brook to the southwest and the Norwalk River to the east.

There is extensive damage there, with portions of the NRVT completely washed out. The fence that runs along the edge of the soccer field was essentially bulldozed by debris and mud carried by the torrents of rushing water. The water pushed gravel from the trail into the grass and deposited mud into the swimming pond. While the newly installed playground was, thankfully, not damaged, much of the groundcover was displaced.

Parks and Recreation Department Director Steve Pierce said that as a result, the park is closed for the immediate future.

“Before we open that up again, we’ve got to maintain the walking trails so that you can actually get to it safely. There’s probably a 60-foot by 2-foot-deep swath that was washed out by the Comstock Brook on the southern side of the facility by the soccer field. The soccer field now has a lot of stone in it from the trail, so all that needs to be remediated, but that field pretty much is not going to be used for quite some time,” he said.

While his Parks Department crews also have to maintain the more than 30 other fields in Wilton while also focusing on cleanup, Pierce said the priority right now is focused on Veterans Memorial Stadium and making the trail that runs through Merwin Meadows safe for pedestrian traffic.

“Then we’ll get back to the playgrounds and hopefully get caught up,” he added.

Pierce did ask for patience as the town mobilzes to get all the work done.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience as we try to get the field back online and the park back online. And again, I will reiterate that we still have other responsibilities to help in the town, as far as mowing and maintaining areas, especially with school coming up,” Pierce said, adding thanks for his crews who are working hard to get everything done. “Hopefully we’re back on our feet very quickly.”

Dana Dam Question

In 2023, the Dana Dam that stood in the Norwalk River between Merwin Meadows and Cider Mill School was removed as part of a $4 million multi-year ecological restoration project, spearheaded by Save the Sound. The dam (also known as the Strong Pond Dam), had been built in the 1940s by Wilton resident Charles Dana to create spot for swimming in the summer and ice-skating in the winter.

After the recent rains and subsequent flooding downriver, a question arose: did the dam’s removal make a difference one way or another on the flooding that impacted Merwin Meadows or any other area downriver? Was the flooding mitigated — or worsened — because the dam had been removed?

The sort answer is no. According to Stantec’s Michael Chelminski, the engineer of record for the dam removal project, even if that dam had stayed the amount of flooding would have been the same — and quite possibly it could have even been worse.

“The dam wasn’t [originally] designed, built, operated or maintained for flood control. It was for recreation,” Chelminski said. The primary purpose for taking it down was to restore the natural river habitat to what it was before the dam was installed, to allow native fish to once again swim up- and downriver to mating and spawning locations, and permit the natural processes for sediment and rooting materials to flow downstream.

But, he explained, taking it down would also reduce the hazard from any failure of the dam, the chances of which are increased during flood events — events like this past weekend’s storm.

“Dams, when they fail, they typically fail during high-flow events, when they’re overtopped, and they tend to increase the downstream. You have a sudden release of water with dam failure. So these small dams that aren’t flood control dams tend to increase downstream damage,” Chelminski explained.

Jeff Yates of Trout Unlimited’s Mianus Chapter uses a descriptive explanation, to show why Dana Dam was not a “flood control dam” — and that removing it reduced the flood elevation for small storms and had no impact on flood levels in a big storm.

“If you think about the dam like a coffee cup, once it is full, if you pour more coffee into it the excess coffee just pours over the top of the cup — it can’t hold more coffee once it is full,” he said. “The pond behind it can only hold so much water and the water flows over the top of the dam. When you add more water (rain) it simply flows over like it would without the dam — there is no flood storage capacity. That’s the key term — flood storage capacity — a pond behind a dam has to be empty to hold back flood water.”