Markert’s Pond refreshed

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Staff Writer

AMHERST — A deteriorating pond at the heart of a South Amherst neighborhood, once a place where families could fish and ice skate, is being restored.

Crews from the Department of Public Works and Conservation Department, spurred by neighbors who live in the Orchard Valley section of Amherst, are finishing up several weeks of work that has included installing a new concrete flow structure and improving an earthen dam at Markert’s Pond.

“It is very exciting,” said Adrienne Terrizzi, a Pondview Drive resident who spearheaded efforts as the pond began turning into a marsh. “The pond is really important to Orchard Valley.”

Terrizzi is confident that the flow structure and the dam will succeed.

“It should do the magic work of keeping the pond in a better state than it’s been in the last decade,” Terrizzi said With the ability to control how much water flows out from the pond, Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek said he anticipates the pond to be filled again within the next two weeks.

“The goal would be to bring it back as close to historic levels as possible, making it a habitat for ducks, geese, herons and whatnot,” Ziomek said.

Even though the project has been expensive, with Ziomek pegging the costs at between $8,000 and $10,000 for materials, it became a priority because of its history.

“Neighbors and residents are very fond of talking about going there to catch frogs

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Conservation department worker Bradley Bordewieck rebuilds a dam Tuesday around the new outlet control structure at Markert's Pond in Amherst. The work is part of an effort to rescue the pond, which was draining excessively due to a broken flow structure. Below, a frog sits on a lily pad in the pond.

GAZETTE STAFF/SARAH CROSBY

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in the summer and skating in the winter,” Ziomek said.

The pond is circled by Pondview Drive, developed in the late 1960s. It began life in 1930, when the children of Herman and Anna Markert, who purchased the property in 1920, built the pond, primarily for recreation, but also for the ice blocks that could be sold in the winter months.

The latest work included a lot of planning and assembling of resources since 2014, when a work day was held coinciding with the MassImpact Day of Service at the University of Massachusetts. Residents worked alongside students assisting town land management staff in a cleanup.

In 2015, town engineer Jason Skeels began evaluating the pipes bringing water to the pond, both from streams and stormwater drains from neighborhood streets, and from the pond through the outflow structure below the dam. He then had to determine what could be done to keep the water in the pond.

Last year, the old flow structure was removed, but the town left intact an original outflow pipe. The new 9,000pound concrete flow structure was assembled off site and installed, with a crane lifting it and putting it in place.

Skeels explained that wood can be inserted into and removed from the flow structure to control the level of the pond. By removing these pieces, the pond levels can be lowered in advance of a storm.

The work also included rebuilding and repairing the earthen dam. Skeels said this will be graded on top so people can again walk on it and connect to a perimeter trail.

Gretchen Crowley, whose father was one of the siblings who helped build the pond in 1930, said she remembers riding bicycles from her Bay Road home to the pond when it was in the midst of agricultural fields.

“It was a fun place for us growing up,” Crowley said, speaking from her home in Florida.

She found her father’s handwritten notes showing that the original dam was 9 feet tall, 10 feet wide at the top, 40 feet wide at the bottom, and 50 feet long.

Crowley said she is glad to see the pond rescued, observing how quickly the landscape changes.

“Maybe another generation of kids will build their own Tom Sawyer rafts,” Crowley said.

Ziomek said once the work is complete, the area will be cleaned up and put together, with the trails enhanced and benches installed.

The attention for the pond is unusual. Though municipally owned, given to the town by a company known as KV Realty during the development of the subdivision, it had been more than 20 years since any substantial work was done in the area of Markert’s Pond. In 1992 a path was created and a wooden bridge was built over a gully. And in 1980, a Boy Scout cleared weeds as part of an Eagle Scout project.

Noting that she is already hearing more frogs, Terrizzi said she hopes young families moving to the neighborhood, as well as other residents, will appreciate the natural landscape, which is part of the 5acre Pondview Conservation Area.

“The important story is Markert’s Pond is on the move,” Terrizzi said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.