The Hour is reporting that work to drede Fitch pond will being in 2008.

$350,000 plan to reduce flooding in the Olmstead Place neighborhood will get under way early next year with the dredging of Fitch Pond, according to Department of Public Works officials.

“There’s multiple parts to (reducing) flooding at Olmstead. Part of it is dredging the pond and increasing its capacity. Part of it is increasing the 30-inch (outlet) pipe to a 36-inch pipe and making sure that pipe remains clean. Part of the solution is cleaning the culverts,” said Harold F. Alvord, director of public works. “Current (pond) retention is a one-year storm and what we’re proposing here would take it to a five-year storm.”

On Tuesday night, the city’s Conservation Commission approved the pond dredging plan, as based upon a study by engineering firm Tighe & Bond and put forward by the public works department.

With the approval, the department will put the $350,000 Olmstead/Fitch stormwater management capital project out to bid in search of a contractor. The project will dredge the heavily-silted pond, increasing its stormwater retention ability, replace and lower the pond outlet, fix pond berms and replace 800 feet of 30-inch drainage pipe, from the pond to Myrtle Street, with a 36-inch pipe.
“We want to do the work in late February or March. That’s the time of the year that has the least impact on an existing wetland,” Alvord said. “We want to do all the planting in the spring.”

Fitch Pond lies at the base of the hill behind the former Fitch School on Strawberry Hill Avenue. During heavy rains, the pond frequently floods and drains over onto nearby backyards and into households on Olmstead Place. Many Olmstead Place residents have driveways that slope downward from the street into their garages.

Two Olmstead Place residents are grateful that the pond dredging project will start. At the same time, they believe the pond is not the main culprit behind their flooding woes.

“I asked (the city), if they were going to approve (the dredging plan), don’t approve it thinking they were going to help flood victims,” said Diane Cece, who lives at 37 Olmstead Place. “It means we’re going to flood 10 minutes later instead of five minutes (later). The problem with the pond is lack of maintenance, as is most of the flooding in Norwalk. When the city storm system fails is when we flood, which has nothing to do with the capacity of that pond.”

Dee Arnone, who lives at 39 Olmstead Place, said the pond has not been dredged, to the best of his knowledge, since he moved into the neighborhood 44 years ago.

He believes that two culverts are the primary culprits behind flooding in his neighborhood. Arnone said those culverts — one at the Metro-North Railroad tracks, the other at Fitch Street — were recently cleaned. Keeping them clean is key, according to Arnone.

“It’s very critical that those two culverts be cleaned. It’s really a maintenance problem,” Arnone said.

As for the pond dredging project, Arnone is hopeful that it will help.

“We’re at wit’s end down here. Anything (the city is) offering is going to help,” Arnone said. “They know more about engineering that we do. So far, things are flowing good down here.”

source: The Hour Norwalk’s plan to reduce flooding begins early 2008, By ROBERT KOCH, NOVEMBER 17, 2008