In Plymouth, Jenney Pond is located toward the lower end of Town Brook. There’s a public park there and a historic grist mill. Jenney Pond is part of the Historic District, so it’s an important location…this according to David Gould, Plymouth’s Director of Energy and Environment. And Gould says that as part of the work that’s been done for the last 20 years to restore Town Brook, not much has been done yet to address Jenney Pond, but that’s about to change.
WATD’s Bobbi Clark has more…
David Gould explains the restoration plan for Jenney Pond:
“So part of that will be dredging of Jenney Pond as well as replacement of the old wooden foot bridge to make it ADA compliant, with lots of new paths and landscaping and lighting.”
Gould adds that….
“…instead of removing the dam at Jenney to increase fish paths and water quality, we’re going to do what’s called a nature-like fishway, which is essentially a bypass channel that runs around the dam and will tie-in to the downstream end of Town Brook. And what that will do is allow increased upstream and downstream passage of river herring in Town Brook while also leaving the dam intact.”
And there’s a considerable amount of work that needs to be done…
“…to bring Jenney Pond dam back up to dam safety standards. So, we’ll be having a capital request in the spring for the funding to do that. The nature like fishway is currently at ten million dollars from NOAA towards that project. And all of the paths and lighting and landscaping, we have another million and a half dollars available from Community Preservation towards that phase of the project.”
Dredging is expected to start in the next few weeks leading to the replacement of the footbridge.
In Plymouth, Bobbi Clark, WATD News.
