UMF has had to deal with two separate flooding situations in
the past week.
FARMINGTON – One of the university’s athletic storage sheds floated down the Sandy River Thursday after playing fields were flooded. The shed, which had housed a golf cart, floated about 500 yards by Thursday morning from the far end of the varsity soccer field.
University of Maine at Farmington spokesman Tom Donaghue said the last thing he heard, it had become stuck in some trees.
Contrary to what is being said around town, Donaghue said with a laugh, the university is not opening a yacht club.
A week ago a university parking lot at Prescott Field partially submerged 39 student vehicles after the Sandy River overflowed its banks.
As officials are still trying to deal with that disaster, now they have athletic outbuildings submerged in water and one renegade shed.
Donaghue said he didn’t know what happened to the golf cart and didn’t know if there was any equipment in the building. The university’s athletic director is on vacation, he said.
“We’ve had enough,” Donaghue said.
Farmington had received nearly 3 inches of rain between Wednesday morning and early Thursday. Ice jams in the rivers caused some of the problems.
The flooding also caused Farmington Emergency Management Director Terry Bell to shut down a portion of Front and Prescott streets and the Intervale on Route 4.
It was reported just before 5 p.m. that a vehicle had gone around barricades on Front Street and water had gone up past the windows. Firefighters had to get the operator out of the vehicle and water.
Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis met with representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers Thursday to see what could be done to prevent future flooding.
Davis said they got some good ideas but there was nothing the corps could really do for them.
It’s a Department of Environmental Protection issue, Davis said.
The department has prohibited gravel mining in the shallow Sandy River that winds through Franklin County. There are many sand and gravel bars along the shores and within the river, where ice sometimes gets caught and jams the river.
If the department changes the rules to allow gravel mining, Davis said, “It is our opinion that it would help if there weren’t as many areas for the ice to get hung up on.”
dperry@sunjournal.com
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