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October 25, 2006
Culvert!
Several months ago, our neighbours across the street had a culvert installed, draining from their yard, across the street, and into the ditch on the other side. Dana wandered out, in the midst of this, to ask what we had to do to get one of our own. He was rather surprised when our town foreman told him that he'd order one right away, and make sure it was installed before freeze up . . . all at no cost to us. Having lived in larger cities my whole life, the idea that the town would do something like this and not make us pay seemed rather astonishing.
This morning, a backhoe showed up and began digging. The culvert was delivered. We discovered a substantial foundation for something (16" wide walls, formed on both sides, plus a concrete floor) beginning just outside of our hedge and continuing well into the street. We're not entirely sure what it was for (or why it's in the street), but it appears likely that it was a cistern of some sort. I'll have to check the town's archives to see if there's any mention of a structure having been there at some point. Considering that a significant portion of the town burned in the 1930s, anything's possible. The guys dug a huge trench right across Main St., installed the culvert, filled the now very muddy hole, and were done in time for a slightly late lunch. Thanks!!
So, we now have a nice shiny culvert, which will hopefully prevent us from gaining a temporary lake in the front yard come spring melt. And, with all of the other improvements we've made to our drainage, I'm really hoping (with crossed fingers) that this means we won't have any water in the basement either.
Posted by plainstext at October 25, 2006 02:41 PM
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Comments
try old insurance maps too, they may show locations of previous structures. that's how I proved the tale of our neighbor's house being moved to the back of the lot so that our could be built.
Posted by: ben at October 26, 2006 05:03 PM