Back in the
days when the care and maintenance of Harwinton’s
sixty some miles of "town owned" highways
were among my main concerns in life, the common expressions
of discontent most often received in the Selectman's
office had to do with surface water drainage and it's
real or imagined adverse effect on various private
properties.
Rarely would a complainant
acknowledge that the sire he or she had chosen for
property improvement - at a level below a highway
or the land of others, in a wetland, or near an existing
culvert outlet - had any bearing on the drainage problem
of concern. In fact, it was usually said to be the
"towns water" that was causing the problem.
The observation sometimes shared
with those having a sense of humor among the aggrieved
was" The town owns no water and whereas rain
falls from the sky, water belongs to all (or to no
one)! Also of little satisfaction for the complainants
was the additional factual information sometimes offered:
Water entering or descending upon Harwinton seeks
only to return to Long Island Sound and the sea by
the path of least resistance; be it across public
property or privately owned driveways, garage floors
or lawns.
All of the water that falls
upon or runs through Harwinton, that does not evaporate
or leave through subterranean fissures in the bedrock,
drains across the town's southern border by way of
Poland Brook on the east side, the Naugatuck River
on the west side, and from central Harwinton by way
of Leadmine Brook, near the location where the corners
of the towns Plymouth and Thomaston come together
at the Harwinton town line in "Poverty Hollow".
"Poverty Hollow"
is a small undefined area of south central Harwinton,
located at the mouths of narrow stream valleys in
a "hollow" formed where Rock Brook and Curtis
Brook converge with lead Mine Brook, before joining
the Naugatuck River about 1 mile downstream of the
northerly edge of Thomaston.
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