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Resident details decades of basement flooding; Select Board votes to take no action but will consult counsel
Summary
A Dalton resident described repeated basement flooding tied to sewer design and asked the Select Board for compensation. The board voted to take no action on immediate relief but directed the town manager to consult town counsel and return with recommendations.
Cheryl Nelson, an Old Windsor Road resident, told the Select Board she has “suffered probably 25 incidents of flooding over the past 37 years” and asked the town to cover recent expenses tied to repeated sewer backups.
Nelson said the neighborhood’s sewer configuration leaves her house at the low point and that she recently installed a sewer ejector system that appears to be working but does not eliminate ongoing backups. “I have 18 documented, but it’s at least 25 times,” she said, describing chemical and sewage entering her basement and a long history of intermittent flooding she traced back decades.
Board members debated responsibility for the problem. Some elected officials and staff said the homeowner owns the lateral and the stub to the trunk line and generally bears the cost of pump‑up systems when a house is lower than the main. Others noted the town contributed $100,000 to the project when the sewer was built and that the system’s engineering and construction were performed by the city of Pittsfield before the town accepted the trunk line.
Select board member (speaker identified in the transcript as S3) said the board should consult the town attorney given that litigation has been threatened. Another member urged town staff and the resident to seek an agreement that could avoid court. The board then voted to take no action on the resident’s request at that meeting and instructed the town manager to consult with counsel and report back with feasible options.
The vote to take no action was not a determination on legal liability; it was a procedural outcome that leaves open a staff‑led negotiation or a future recommendation to the board. Multiple members warned that any compensation could set a precedent—several residents use pump systems to connect to the trunk line, they said—and emphasized the need for legal review before any settlement.
Next steps: the town manager will consult town counsel and return to the board with options or recommendations. The resident said she has already engaged counsel and would prefer to avoid court if the town can cover recent expenses.
