By Adam Swift
The City Council is asking Acting Mayor Patrick Keefe to look into the feasibility of a city grant program for residents and small businesses who have been affected by water main breaks.
Councillor-at-Large and Legislative Affairs subcommittee chair Steve Morabito filed the request, which initially sought to ask the mayor to establish a Water Main Break Recovery Grant program that would provide up to $5,000 for residents and small businesses.
After some discussion in last week’s legislative affairs meeting, the council amended the motion slightly to have the mayor look into the feasibility of establishing a grant program.
“I’m wondering where this money would come from, do we have any idea of that?” asked Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri. “I always want to support our residents and our small businesses as much as possible, but not having a source of funding would be, I think, a little bit irresponsible.”
Morabito noted that he was making a request to establish the grant program, and that if the mayoral administration found it was not feasible to fund it, it would let the council know.
“I think when there are unforeseen circumstances that happen … when there is a water main break and you are running a business and you have to close down and you have staff to pay, part of these funds could alleviate the burden of those costs,” said Morabito.
Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky noted that if there was a water main break on a residential street and a number of residents make claims, the total of the grants could be high. He also added that most homeowners insurance also covers the costs of cleanup.
Don Ciaramella, the city’s infrastructure chief, noted that the underlying issue is with many of the water mains in the city being over a century old.
“By no means do we try to cause any harm or inconvenience to people,” Ciaramella said. “These are incidences because the water mains, which I have expressed many times, are extremely old … and the pipes have reached their life expectancy twice over.”
While the city is mandated to install new pipes that can handle up to 350 pounds per square inch (psi) of water pressure, Ciaramella said the older pipes cannot handle 50 to 60 psi.
Ciaramella noted that since 2017, the city has replaced over 14 miles of water mains at the cost of $3 million a mile. When the entire 107 miles of water mains in the city are replaced, Ciaramella said they will easily be able to handle the increased psi.
