FARMINGTON – Rain cost the town at least $10,000 this weekend, after a flooded brook washed away a culvert near Route 43.

The culvert, on Skunk Hollow Road over Cascade Brook, was washed away Saturday night, Franklin County Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Hardy said Monday.

“It was a big culvert,” Hardy said, explaining when it was pushed downstream, it blocked the next culvert, which carries water under Route 43. Water flooded part of Route 43 for a while, Hardy said, damaging the road. Highway Director Mitch Boulette removed the debris blocking the Route 43 culvert, Hardy said, and that road is safe. Part of Skunk Hollow Road over Cascade Brook is closed, though, he said.

Replacing the Skunk Hollow culvert will probably cost around $10,000, Town Manager Richard Davis said. The time frame before it’s replaced is hard to estimate, he said, because it depends on how long it takes for the new culvert pipe to be delivered. “Within a week, probably,” Davis said. Since Skunk Hollow loops around, residents living along the road can still reach their homes, even without the culvert, Davis said.

The town probably won’t need to appropriate more money to pay for the replacement, Davis said. “It’ll come out of the highway department budget,” he said.

Fixing Route 43 is the state’s responsibility, he said.

Also this weekend, Route 4 near Front Street in Farmington flooded. A car bypassed the barriers indicating the road was closed, got stuck in water about 4 feet deep, and was abandoned around 2 a.m., Hardy said.

“It seems like it happens every time (the roads flood),” Davis said. “We’ve started billing people for it, if they’re negligent and have gone around the signs.”