No plan yet to end runoff onto King Hill Road property

SHARON — At a meeting of the Board of Selectmen last November, Margaret Keilty and Mark LaMonica, who own property at 62 King Hill Road, threatened legal action against the town for what they claim is runoff coming onto their property from Sharon Hospital.

Since then, LaMonica and Keilty have attended almost every selectmen’s meeting, and have begged the selectmen to find a solution to the problem.

At the selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday, July 14, First Selectman Malcolm Brown said he spoke to hospital CEO Charlie Therrien earlier in the month about possible solutions.

“One possible solution could be another drainage pond on the lefthand side of the road, when you get down to the parking area of the hospital,� Brown said. “We could put in a good size drainage pond. It’s also possible we could enlarge the drainage pond that currently exists over there. There is a possibility of altering the outflow from the drainage pond to slow it down, so when [the outflow] exits the pond and runs into the street, it would be slower and there would be less of it.�

Brown said Therrien was interested in the ideas; costs for the potential work were not discussed.

“He said that he did not know if the problem was any one particular person’s fault,� Brown said. “It might be an accumulation of things that may have or may not have worked throughout the years.�

Brown said that he had not been able to discuss any ideas yet with consultants Lenard Engineering.

Keilty said she was “not happy� with the situation and expressed her frustrations.

“It has been over 20 years of stonewalling, what is going on here?� Keilty said. “Why does it have to move so slowly? Do I have to turn myself inside out here?�

“We have $33,000 in the budget, that residents approved at a town meeting,  to repair bridges and culverts,â€� Brown said. “We are also having to deal with two potentially dangerous culverts on West Woods Road and West Cornwall Road. We certainly have not stopped working on it.â€�

Selectman John Mathews said a flooding problem has started to develop on the other side of King Hill Road,  across from the Keilty and LaMonica property. Mathews told the board that a property owner sent him a video of a driveway being flooded during a rainstorm.

Selectman Tom Bartram said he was frustrated that Brown had not been in contact with Lenard Engineering, despite the board voting on contacting them at a meeting a month ago.

“We need to have Lenard start on it already,� Bartram said. “Also, I don’t want to turn Lenard loose and design something that we can’t afford to build. Of course, we won’t know until they do it.�