By William Tauro

Thank God we here in Somerville have the Somerville Auxiliary Fire Department Unit here to help us during emergencies especially in the time of floodings. This team of dedicated firefighters do a tremendous job in helping the residents pumping out their basement and much much more.

Throughout the City of Somerville flooding over the past 18 years has been a normal thing and it has never been corrected. Millions of hard earned taxpayer dollars have been spent over the past years on the Washington Street bridge, the William “Billy” Joyce Bridge, bridges on Central St., Lowell Street and even side streets like Richdale Avenue where residents of that street even took to using canoes on several occasions to get around the severe street floodings. The city has been overspending with our taxpayer dollars over the years applying bandages on the flooding problems with shotty workmanship repairs instead of actually correcting the problems from the source.

The biggest contributing factor of flooding throughout the city are the century old caved in chimneys throughout the city. These underground connections referred to as chimneys are over a century old and have caved in. When water goes into a sewer, it travels through piping which directs through these chimneys then the flooding waters travels it’s way into the mainstream to open water.

If a chimney is collapsed due to deterioration of centuries of overusage, it cannot filter the water upon a strong demand as necessary therefore causing severe back ups which results in street and basement floodings. The correct way to fix this problem is to dig up all the chimneys replace them with modern state of the art equipment that will handle the water load and disperse the water properly as needed. There are no shortcuts and there are no temporary bandaging to correct this situation. Unless you actually roll up your sleeves and get the job done correctly you will always end up with the same discouraging outcome.

As mayor I will make sure that these problems are properly and professionally dealt with and that they are done on time with no cost overruns nor excuses. We have to use common sense to help contribute to a better Somerville. #TEAMTAUROforMAYOR2021