HARDWICK – Neighbors at the Sept. 16 meeting organized by Hardwick Neighbor to Neighbor (HNtN) got a comprehensive look at what Town Manager David Upson called the three-pronged town approach to flood mitigation in the upper, downtown and lower areas of the Lamoille River.
Assisted by Zoning Administrator Kristen Leahy, the two walked through Hardwick’s long list of projects after three federally declared disasters in one year: July 2023, June and July 2024, and additional flood events in December 2023 and August this year.
Impacts include $1.5 million in costs to date, 20 roads damaged, six bridges closed and a major landslide in East Hardwick. Four at-risk properties have been purchased. Two critical facilities have been damaged and there is the future risk of continued flooding to contend with.
Upriver from town on Mill Street is Upson’s prong-one where the Inn by the River was first impacted in the July 2023 flooding. The town was able to purchase the inn property through the Vermont Emergency Management Flood Resilient Communities Fund. A pre-application has been submitted to FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) for further work.
Land where the former Inn stood was washed away and Hay’s Service Station property was impacted in the July flood this year. The state has provided temporary bank stabilization at the town’s request.
An application has now been requested for permanent Floodplain Restoration and Bank Stabilization to allow the river to spread out above town and slow the flow through town.
Downtown Hardwick, Upson’s prong-two, was flooded in July 2023, but the impact was worse in July 2024. Even though the water didn’t reach as high. Mike’s Service Station lost a portion of its foundation and the retaining wall between the pedestrian bridge and the Village Restaurant was damaged.
The back of Mike’s Service Center on Main Street in Hardwick, where the Lamoille River began to take away the foundation and retaining wall after the July 10 and 11 flooding.
More than 10 downtown properties are now being reviewed by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for Emergency Watershed Protection grants. Temporary stabilization measures were recently installed by Gravel Construction at Mike’s Service Station.
A pre-application has been submitted to FEMA’s HMGP to create a comprehensive approach for dealing with the riverbanks and retaining walls through the downtown area.
Upson’s prong-three is the lower Lamoille River where there has been consistent flooding along Wolcott Street and into neighborhoods adjacent to it and Cooper Brook. A pre-application has been submitted to HMGP to utilize town-owned property below the Cottage Street Bridge for a floodplain restoration and mitigation project identified as beneficial by the Lamoille Basin Tactical Plan in 2021. The area is below the intersection of Cooper Brook and the Lamoille River and will provide more floodplain capacity downstream from town.
Further downstream, storm water drainage and flood capacity needs to be repaired and upgraded by the Yellow Barn, the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, the Wastewater Treatment Plant and Lamoille Valley Ford. Upson suggested some sort of tunnel might drain Lamoille River water upstream from the area, feeding in into the river below Jackson dam and the new Yellow Barn development.
Upson then began to detail areas of town requiring priority attention, beginning with the Granite Street Historic District that was flooded in 2023, but was the only area of town that saw increased flooding in 2024, likely because more water flowed into Cooper Brook, he said.
A FEMA grant for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities has been applied for to help create a neighborhood focused response. A sump pump will be needed for several homes and basements in historic homes will need to be flood-proofed. Floodplain restoration at Atkins Field is likely to be necessary.
Hardwick’s Wolcott Street Fire Station during flooding the night of July 10, 2024
The Hardwick Fire Station is one of the critical facilities that has been damaged, first in July 2023 and then receiving additional damage in July 2024. The fire department currently moves all equipment to the town garage on Creamery Road in weather events, but it must now be relocated away from the Lamoille River floodway.
A Vermont League of Cities and Towns grant has been received from the Vermont Municipal Technical Assistance Program to conduct a scoping study for relocation of the fire station to Creamery Road. A new facility for the Hardwick Rescue Squad and Hardwick’s Police Department might also be considered for that location along with the town garage.
Once moved, the land on which the fire station now sits might be used for future floodplain restoration.
The critical wastewater treatment plant was also flooded in July of both 2023 and 2024 and must be elevated or relocated out of the floodplain. The town is working with state and federal partners to develop options and identify funding sources for what is likely to be a multi-million dollar project. Floodwaters reached just six inches from equipment that would have added significant expense so interim measures are being looked into for the near-term.
Projects to remove debris from river channels along the Lamoille River, Cooper Brook and Haynesville Brook are expected to happen this fall.
A long list of work to replace and upgrade damaged roads and culverts noted a new Kate Brook Road culvert installed August 1, damaged asphalt on Belfry Road still requiring repair, Bunker Hill Road reopened August 1, the Smith Farm Road shoulder repaired August 1, upsized culverts installed on Dutton, Nichols Pond, Stage House, Wright Farm Roads and the Hardwick section of Stannard Mountain Road repaired July 25 and Tucker Brook Road reopened July 30.
The six damaged bridges are on Tucker Brook Road where a temporary fix held in 2024. The Carey Road box culvert bridge also received a temporary fix in 2024. The Riverside Farms Bridge, destroyed in 2024 is now receiving a temporary replacement. Fisher’s Folly Bridge, damaged in 2023 and 2024, received a temporary replacement in August. Hardwick Farms Road now has its third temporary replacement bridge over two culverts that was completed in August and the East Main Street bridge in East Hardwick, damaged in 2023, was removed in May 2024.
Ten property buyouts have been completed or are in process with a pre-application submitted for floodplain restoration on the Lamoille River and Cooper Brook.
A home at 41 Brush Street in Hardwick after flooding July 9-11 hangs out over the river. It was burned in a May 2023 fire, gutted for insurance before the July 2023 flood that began to wash away an entry porch and severely undercut by the river in this year’s flooding.
NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection assistance has been requested and 13 properties were reviewed after the 2023 flooding. Three properties were accepted into the program, two on the Lamoille River and one on Haynesville Brook. All need bank stabilization, two have been engineered and bids have been requested. The last is still in the engineering phase.
Another 13 properties were reviewed after the 2024 flooding and only one didn’t meet the program standards. Most were on the Lamoille River, one was on Cooper Brook. All are awaiting notification of being accepted into the program.
The select board voted on July 18 to re-open the buyout requests. The town has received inquiries from floodplain homeowners. All interested owners have flooded on multiple occasions. Several will not seek a buyout if the town is able to install flood mitigation or other protection for their property. Vermont Fish and Wildlife is interested in purchasing two parcels on Haynesville Brook.
The town received five requests from homeowners to elevate their properties after the July 2023 floods. One was completed in August that year and has remained above all flooding since. Two additional requests came after July 2024’s flood.
The State of Vermont has allocated money for elevation projects in five towns, including Hardwick. The town is now waiting for the state to create a framework for the funding.
Pre-applications have been submitted for four commercial properties in the Wolcott Street commercial district to receive assistance with dry flood-proofing their structures.
Additional projects in the works include working with the Lamoille County Planning Commission to do flood modeling with a grant that has been received from the U.S. Economic Development Administration that must be completed by 2025.
A watershed study of Cooper Brook is being done through NRCS to inform strategies for flood mitigation in the Atkins Field and Wolcott Street areas.
A pre-application has been submitted for a Hazard Mitigation Grant to cover the cost of adding a generator at the police station, allowing it to operate through power outages.
A study of Jackson Dam and Hardwick Lake’s impact on flooding must be done. An Advance Assistance Grant has been applied for to conduct a scoping study on possible flood mitigation plans there, including the feasibility of dredging.
The list of next steps involves refining the town’s disaster response, developing future funding strategies and partnerships, studying new conditions as they occur, working with state and federal partners to identify priorities, working with upstream and downstream communities to examine the entire Lamoille River Basin and creating projects eligible for FEMA reimbursement.
Upson suggested cost estimates for many of the projects involved that easily totaled many tens of millions of dollars. At one point he suggested the total could reach $100 million for Hardwick projects not yet funded.
Looking into the future, the town must work with the rivers, streams and brooks, upgrade infrastructure and always help businesses and residents stay safe and remain in the floodplain if possible.
Many in attendance were impressed at the amount of work accomplished to date by town employees and the many projects now in process and being contemplated for the future.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
