PRINCETON: Town, district seek solutions for flooding issues around high school

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Staff from the town and the school district are scheduled to meet Friday to find a solution for the flooding in the area of Princeton High School during major storms like the one late last month that caused water damage to the school.
A storm in the Princeton region July 30 brought around a half foot of water in a span of a few hours, such that town officials have said the municipal storm sewer system was “overwhelmed” by so much water in so short a time.
For the school district, there is a detention basin on school property, along Walnut Lane, designed to hold water and then slowly release it into the town system. But when the system is backed up, the water has nowhere to go, according to the school district Tuesday.
The majority of water damage occurred in the boiler room, said Gary Weisman, plant operations manager for the district, on Tuesday. Other parts of the high school had water damage as well, he said.
Mr. Weisman, who will attend the meeting along with town engineer Deanna Stockton, said the focus of the session would be to identify what is causing the problem and a solution to it. The timing of these discussions is propitious, as Ms. Stockton said Tuesday that the town is in the midst of a road design for improving a stretch of Walnut Lane.
The July storm flooded streets, caused water damage to buildings and even required people to be rescued from their vehicles. In its aftermath, town officials have said the intensity and the frequency of these storms is increasing.
“It came with a vengeance,” Mr. Weisman said. “In terms of the suddenness of it, I don’t think anyone could have predicted that.”