GREENFIELD — Amid increasing reports of flooding causing significant damage to homes, particularly in the area between Haywood, Smith and Hastings streets, the city is seeking state funding to help mitigate the issue.

Precinct 7 City Councilor William “Wid” Perry noted at a Community Relations Committee meeting Monday evening that since the 1980s, a sewer line believed to be privately installed in the area of Haywood and Smith streets has backed up during rainstorms, causing significant flooding in the neighborhood.

“As soon as we moved in, the backyard turned into a pond,” Perry said about his home on Haywood Street in the 1990s. “I was told that when the builder built the houses in the area, they built their own sewer line. There’s a sewer line that runs between Haywood and Smith. … Because that was 80 years ago, the town’s not responsible for it [and] the builders are long gone.”

Precinct 4 City Councilor John Bottomley, who represents the affected neighborhood and lives on Haywood Street, said he recently met with Mayor Ginny Desorgher and Department of Public Works Director Marlo Warner II to discuss the matter. He said the mayor expressed interest in creating a working group to examine the issue and seek funding to remedy it.

In the discussion, Bottomley said officials referenced a 2020 hazard mitigation report from the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), which lists the top risks for Greenfield as flooding, hurricanes, storms, severe thunderstorms and microbursts. The document also references urban runoff and drainage systems that are insufficient in managing heavy flows and can result in flooding and property damage.

“This affects millions of dollars in property, and there’s already damage to garage foundations, probably, if not already,” Bottomley said. “We have to identify the problem because we don’t actually know where all the stormwater runoff is or how to fix it.”

The 2020 document, Bottomley added, also lists multiple streets — including Hastings Street, Spring Terrace, Riddell Street and Haywood Street — that are in need of culvert replacements or repairs. The Maple Brook Culvert, which contains most of the city’s stormwater flow, was listed as one of the primary issues.

“This seems to be part of a bigger problem, and I’m hoping that with the help of state legislators, we might be able to get funding to evaluate that section of town to find out how to mitigate that,” Bottomley said. “There has to be at least a start to figure out how to evaluate the system.”

City Council President Lora Wondolowski, mentioning the frequent complaints the city receives from residents in the area, said it is still unclear whether the pipe in question is private or public, adding that, “At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is figure out a solution.”

Wondolowski added that Desorgher has reached out to state Reps. Natalie Blais and Susannah Whipps about securing state climate resilience funds. She said the legislators feel the city has a “really good shot” at receiving funding.

“I know it matters who’s responsible for it and who owns it, but if we can get something to happen for it, regardless of who owns it, then we can move it,” Wondolowski said. “[The Department of Public Works] is getting a quote from [the engineering firm] Tighe & Bond to find out the costs of evaluating the system.”

While flooding puts homeowners at risk for significant structural damage, the area’s homeless community has reported devastating losses from the floods, with reports of tent communities near Green River Park being wiped out during storms.

At the Unhoused Community Committee’s inaugural meeting in May, member Christie Allen, who is homeless, shared photos of her flooded campsite at Green River Park. Allen added that with ice and snowmelt earlier this year, those who sleep at Green River Park had to walk through cold, wet conditions only to find their tents and personal belongings ruined.

“The flood was bad,” Allen said at the time. “From the beginning of the site all the way in, it got flooded from the ice and snowmelt. We had no way of getting into the woods to get to our site. … It is a very dangerous situation and something we need to address right now.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.