DPW tasked with work on town-owned farms

Dracut » Town employees are trying to balance the requirements of about 40 projects, contributing to delays in constructing a small parking lot for Yapp Farm.

The various projects are “all important to one person or department or another and are all above the staff ’s day-to-day busiTown Manager Ann Vandal told the Board of Selectmen this week.

As a consequence, “The staff has not been treated properly,” Vandal said.

Several townspeople have spoken urgently on the need for work at the Yapp and Beaver Brook farms.

Dracut has adopted a do-ityourself approach, where possible, to keep project costs down.

The Department of Public Works will work on the Yapp Farm parking lot. If the work were contracted out, the final cost of the project would be considerably higher, because a contractor would have to pay “prevailing wages.”

Vandal explained, “With Yapp and Beaver Brook, we can do the work when we have some relief on the daily maintenance of town property and buildness,” ings. The DPW has some talented workers who take pride in their work and they do a great job, but they are pulled and tugged for many tasks.”

Plans for the farm’s parking lot were revised three times.

“Each revision requires a full engineering review,” Vandal said.

In addition to the various reviews, “We also worked to keep the neighbors happy,” she said. “Now that the final layout has been determined we will now do some test pits to engineer storm water features. The ground work will begin in the spring. “

Yapp Farm is a property at 650 Marsh Hill Road the town acquired in 2015 under the provisions of the Community Preservation Act. The town also acquired Beaver Brook Farm that year under the provisions of the CPA.