Wow, 24 hours of heavy rain in sporadic downpours! What better time to check out Cottone Field (CF) - live! (Well, OK, just from the perimeter.)

To give you some idea of the extent of rain fall during the past 22-23 hours, all you had to do was check out the Spring Street Extension (SSE) which runs from the southern end of the Broad Street Green to Spring Street in Olde Wethersfield. When Beaver Brook overflows and you have more than 12-15 inches of standing and running water over the SSE, you KNOW you have a lot of rain. (Approximately 2.5 inches of rain fell between 8/20 and 8/21/2004! This far exceeded the ~1.8" which fell a week ago.)

So, what? Well, whatever fell in Old Wethersfield had to fallen on Cottone Field! I wondered over to the CF neighborhood at 15:00 today, digital camera primed and ready. I checked the appearance of the field and then took a walk south from the Church Street Extension (CSE) south along about 300 yards of Heritage Way (in the Follybrook right of way (FROW), taking pix along the way and back.

Some observations:

1. Despite the heavy rain, CF seems to have fared well. When I arrived at the CF, it was still thundering, lightning, and raining moderately hard. By the time I left, about a half hour later, all of that had tapered off and only drizzle continued (for a while before starting up again). In that elapsed time, I noticed that the diagonal northeast half of the field looked very well drained. But, the SW half still showed some standing water, though none of which I could call a puddle. Apparently, since the SE half of the field is the final path for all of the water, it got a little (note, little) bottlenecked.

2. Along the northern and eastern two sides of the field, but outside of the "curb", there was quite a linear puddle and stream of water. At the north end, probably yesterday, a worker had to dig an trench to the outside of the gravel perimeter to prevent the muddy perimeter water from flooding onto the field proper. On the eastern side, the entire perimeter, gravel and grass both, were covered with a couple inches of the same muddy water.

The curb was laid over the 12" drainage pipe (culvert) which skirts the field. The gravel outside of the curb has been highly compacted and apparently is not allowing water to flow down to the pipe. If this outside gravel hem is going to be additionally sealed with blacktop, then penetration will be completely eliminated. The risk here is that dirty water from the eastern "high grounds" will flood onto the field. Hopefully this has been anticipated and the "uphill" drainage system (when completed) will work far better that what we see today.

Now to Heritage Way and the outfall of the WHS fields' drainage systems.

3. Walking past and through the small torrent flowing through and around the CSE roundabout, I turned onto Heritage Way. Over about a third of the 300 yards I walked, dirty, orange water was flowing at quite a good clip, somtimes shallower, sometimes deeper. Most of the overgrown land between the trail and the WHS property was partially covered with water, some standing and some flowing.

The effluent of Cottone Field in several locations easily flowed over the trail. The erosions caused by perhaps last week's and the past 24 hours of rain had apparently done some but little damage to the trail. Because of the thicket (at this time of year) which surrounded the culverts exiting the field, I could only approach it without really seeing it. However the sound of water rushing out of it tempted me to try (for a pix). Not fully equipped for further exploration, I returned to the trail.

4. A little further south I passed the bleachers and press box, a handly point of reference. I noticed ahead of me that some more significant damage (erosion) had been inflicted on the trail. But this was not at the level of any portion of Cottone Field. Rather it was due to the exuberant (and apparently efficient) drainage from Esposito (baseball) Field! Interesting. So apparently the drainage system of Cottone Field works well and that of Esposito works very well; from a higher elevation, it probably develops more pressure and hence flow.

(As I turned around and headed back (to CSE) I noticed one of the surface drainage pipe lids ("manhole cover") part of the eastern tributary of the Follybrook drainage system. I wondered how that poor woman, her family and her neighbors on Follybrook Blvd, just south or the WHS property, were managing during these heavy rains.)

5. At the southern end of the West Way Extension (WWE), I was able to get my umbrella-protected camera between the two doors of the gait. I clicked off a shot from that spot toward the western bleachers across the playing field, already overlaid with the turf-blanket. I was concerned with what I saw: the turf had large wrinkles in it, as if it was displaced by the water that hit the field or some piece of mechanical equipment. I thought to myself that this will surely be addressed on the next good day (tomorrow!?), though it disturbed me to see it at that time.

Thoughts:

In light of the heavy rain we have had (evidenced by Beaver Brook and the Spring Street Extention, the drainage system at CF seems to have passed Mother Nature's test. Hopefully the drainage system at CF will be enhanced and tweaked to adequately deal with the rushing water from the uphill eastern side.

Hopefully the wrinkled turf will be straightened out and will not be a recurrent problem after Town accepts the work as faithfully completed.

The Town (Physical Services) crew had better keep a good supply of gravel and stone dust handy to keep Heritage Way in good shape, especially after heavy rains such as we have had recently. Additional culverts might be needed do deal with the outflow from Esposito field and perhaps even Cottone Field, even if that entails raising the trail by a could of feet in that stretch. (What would the Army Corps of Engineers have to say about that?)

Editorial:

Somebody, at Town Hall and at the MDC needs to help that poor lady and her family deal with the recurring, couple feet of sewage/surface-drainage in her basement during rains like this.

Incidentally:

A covered pile of very fine sand now fills the center of the end of the CSE. Also, at the northern end of the field, there are many large bales of previously, rigidly frozen, then crushed rubber particles (made from tires, I was told). These, I have been told by a highly reliable source, will be mixed or intermingled as they are applied as "in-fill" to the fully deployed turf-blanket.

Not so incidentally:

At the close of today, 8/21/2004,
there are only 10 (ten) full days left until September 1, 2004.