The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Stanton Park bluff stabilization nears finish
The bluff stabilization project at Bill Stanton Community Park in Madison Township is taking a bit longer than expected to complete.
This week, crews from J Severino Construction of Ashtabula placed additional topsoil onto a hillside at the park that overlooks Lake Erie.
Madison Township Trustee Kenneth Gauntner Jr. said he was watching some of the construction activity, which involved bulldozers and trucks, on the morning of Aug. 4.
“Our intention never was to create a beautiful beach, it was to save Stanton Park from falling into the lake, and to capture all of that groundwater that was really the source of the erosion. The highpressure water table is the bigger problem than anything.” — Madison Township Trustee Kenneth Gauntner Jr.
Adding the final layer of topsoil, which had been scraped off the bluff when it was regraded, would be followed by the contractor putting down grass seed and erosion-control matting, Gauntner said.
The matting is a biodegradable covering that stabilizes soil on a hillside while grass is germinating and taking hold, he added.
Although Madison Township owns Stanton Park, which is located at 5585 Chapel Road, the Lake County Ohio Port and Economic Development Authority is serving as administrator of the project.
David Anderson, the authority’s executive director, said on the afternoon of Aug. 5 that Severino intended to finish depositing topsoil on the hillside by the end of the same day. The contractor expected to start putting in grass seed and matting on Aug. 7.
Severino began working in early April on the project, which is being conducted to stabilize a severely eroded bluff at Stanton Park along the Lake Erie shoreline.
The contractor already graded what once was a steep, 70-feet high bluff into a more gentle, contoured hillside. Other parts of the project that have been completed were installation of underground drains to divert groundwater and the creation of wet and dry beaches on the shoreline.
The authority’s contract with Severino called for a project completion date of June 1. An extension was granted to June 30, but that deadline was missed, Gauntner said.
Recently, some contract issues brought work to a halt for a few weeks, but those matters were ironed out, Gauntner said.
“Severino came back on the job and now they’re doing what they were contracted to do,” Gauntner said. “I’m very pleased to see it.”
However, Gauntner expressed disappointment that grass isn’t being planted on the hillside until early August.
“The quicker we can get the grass to take hold, the better off we’re going to be, and the window is closing quickly,” he said. “We’ve got between now and probably mid-October to get anything to grow there that will hold up over the winter. So that’s still a concern of mine.”
At this point, the township plans to keep fencing in place to keep park visitors from wandering onto the hillside or trying to walk down to the water’s edge.
“It probably will be restricted well into next year,” Gauntner said.
Gauntner said it’s important for residents to understand that the Stanton Park bluff stabilization project isn’t being done to create a beach that would be comparable to the one at Madison Township Park.
“Our intention never was to create a beautiful beach, it was to save Stanton Park from falling into the lake, and to capture all of that groundwater that was really the source of the erosion,” he said. The highpressure water table is the bigger problem than anything.”
Over the last five years alone, the park has lost about 40 to 50 feet of land, north to south, because of erosion that has decimated the bluff.
The bluff stretches about 1,000 lineal feet from east to west.
Underdrains installed as part of the stabilization project so far have done a great job of capturing groundwater that had been running between layers of clay and sand, Gauntner said. Because of the highpressure water table, that groundwater was causing blowouts and slumping on the face of the bluff.
The displaced soil then would slide to the bottom of the bluff and get washed into Lake Erie.
Along with the underdrains, three pipes have been put in place that divert groundwater into Lake Erie constantly.
“Water is just pouring out,” Gauntner said.
Madison Township is paying for project with up to $490,000 in federal funding that was earmarked in 1998 to address only erosion control at Stanton Park.
“That money’s been sitting with (Ohio Department of Transportation), not with the township, because the park was bought with (federal) transportation funds,” Gauntner said.
In addition, the Lake County Ohio Port and Economic Development Authority obtained a state capital grant of about $300,000 for Stanton Park about five years ago.
The money was used to relocate park utilities that were situated in the same area targeted for the bluff stabilization project.