Despite AM rain setback, Monson continuing road repairs

MONSON, Mass. (WWLP) - The Town of Monson will still lift its state of emergency at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, despite further setbacks caused by more rain.

Monson's State of Emergency has been lifted, but Wednesday’s rain set the town back once again.

Two steps forward and one step back for the Town of Monson.  By Tuesday night 7 of 12 roads were repaired but then the town was hit by even more rain early Wednesday, washing out three more roads.

“There were areas that we prepared to do some paving and close them all up today and we never got a chance to do it so it's just like one step backwards,” said John Morrell, Monson Highway Surveyor.

John said that this berm curbing, as it's called, was put in place Wednesday after the rains caused damage, but now that it's in place it should prevent future problems.

But the damage from the morning rain only added to a growing financial deficit. The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday night to pay the estimated $98,000 cleanup bill with money from reserve accounts, funds meant for other town expenses, but now will be re-directed to clean up flood damage.

“It's been a strain on the whole department here but my guys are holding up good, I've got a good crew and we're on it, we're ok,” said Morrell.

The estimated cost of cleanup included a few extra thousand dollars for the chance something like this would happen but this is on top of a nearly $190,000 bill to pay for damage from for the June 1st tornado and a still undetermined cost of the October snowstorm.

Edward Harrison of Monson said, “This was a rather small event compared to those other things we had, the big snowstorm, the tornado, the microburst, the hurricane, we've had a lot thrown at us.”

Despite the setback, the town expects to have all the roads fixed by the end of the week.