Spring Tides Undo Parks Improvements

Watertown city staff and B-S Industrial Contractors employees knew the parks improvements being installed along the Black River last year likely would be swept away during the spring freshet.
As predicted, a portion of the staircase that leads river rats to the Hole Brothers kayak access site along Newell Street was damaged by the river during the spring thaw.
"We knew that might happen," City Planner Christine E. Hoffman said. "We'll probably need to move some boulders to block the river from those stairs."
Mrs. Hoffman said the city slashed concrete barriers from the project to save money. Lacking a buffer, the Black River swept away a sizable amount of gravel from the bottom three stairs. A portion of the trail B-S built that connects Bicentennial Park to Jefferson Community College also will be closed each spring because of flooding.
The city hired the Gouverneur contractor last year for $523,686, but only after the city cut portions of the park projects to save money. In September 2007, the city received a single bid for $1.3 million for the projects that were expected to cost half that amount.
"We're going to need to come up with a better solution," Mrs. Hoffman said of the staircase.
Other grading along the west side of the park was not harmed. Large boulders were put in a semicircle to protect the exposed soil.
"The river hasn't really been that high yet," Mrs. Hoffman said. "We're still waiting for the snowpack from the Adirondacks to melt and come down."
B-S was scheduled to complete improvements to Hole Brothers, Bicentennial Park, Veterans Memorial Walkway and Abe Cooper by the end of last year.
Finding that supplies were hard to come by, B-S will have to return next month to finish "punch list" items, which include the stairs, Mrs. Hoffman said.