RISING SUN COMPLETES WORK ON VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK

Rising Sun Commissioner Dave Warnick shows how stormwater will now run into Veterans Memorial Park under control of stones, ponds and pipes.
​CECIL WHIG PHOTO BY JANE BELLMYER

‘Just waiting for
the grass to grow’

RISING SUN — Commissioner Dave Warnick walked gingerly through Veterans Memorial Park on Friday, showing where former swampy ground was now dry in spite of recent rain, a result of the $700,000 remediation program funded by the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund. 

“The Ecotone project is complete,” he said of the Forest Hill company’s effort to redesign the creek, slow down and redirect the stormwater entering the park, and stop flooding and erosion.

Warnick walked carefully to avoid disturbing areas with grass seed.

“Now we’re just waiting for the grass to grow,” he said.

The bulk of the work was completed last year. The second phase recently built the ponds in the park and at town property off Dairy Street. Ecotone added more turns to the stream and also made the stream bed wider. Using wood from trees felled for the project, workers added more water calming fixtures to the creek.

The biggest challenge was the large grassy area, the low point in the park where water would collect in between the picnic pavilion and the basketball court.

“We had trouble getting it to drain,” said Warnick, Rising Sun’s Parks and Recreation commissioner.

Ecotone devised a system that sends the water underground.

“It’s 80 feet of corrugated plastic pipe with a sock on the end,” Warnick explained.

Inside the sock is plastic pellets that help slow down the water, allowing it to soak in rather than float on the surface. That takes care of the average rainstorm.

“This is still going to be swampy at some point because it’s a swale,” Warnick said.

However, much of the water is redirected, and there are plans to keep the basketball courts accessible. He used almost $5,300 left over from another park grant to purchase lumber for a footbridge. In those extreme cases that footbridge over the lowest point, to be built at a later date, will allow access to the basketball courts with dry feet.

“They also built this collection pond,” he said, pointing to the system installed along Park Circle. It’s 6 feet deep and filled with stone,” Warnick said.

He expects the water will seldom rise above the stone, however, another depression is next to it with a drain to carry the overflow underground.

“That second pond will only have a few inches,” he said. “Before, what would happen is water would come out of the pipe and run straight through the park to the stream.”

More of these step ponds were installed along the chain link fence on the town’s Public Works property to also slow down runoff.  Warnick was pleased to show that the extreme erosion that runoff created was gone and should not return. Warnick walked the park in the dark during a recent downfall to see the step ponds work.

“It was pretty amazing,” he said.

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Article was published on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018 in the Cecil Whig. It was written by Jane Bellmyer (jbellmyer@cecilwhig.com).