To the editor:

It is encouraging that the town is joining efforts with URI to document changes to Bristol’s shoreline, but to what purpose?

Photographs are useful in demonstrating flooding, sea level rise and storm damage, however, if the archive is not used for effective planning, they are just interesting pictures. To date the extensive database of images and eyewitness accounts already available has not been applied in any meaningful manner for flooding hazards in recent projects at lower Silver Creek and Tanyard Brook and the shore at Robbin Rug to the detriment of Bristol.

Hopefully this will change now.

The town can apply such information to the old gas station property at the corner of Hope and Washington Streets or let another opportunity slip by. The property was flooded this past spring along with the Silver Creek bridge, Sip and Dip and the causeway to Poppasquash. This was not the result of a great storm, but a high tide with an onshore wind. During the 1938 hurricane the Hope Diner, on the upslope side of the site, was carried inland by the waters. The property apparently floods the many times the bridge has, and the town acknowledges this by the adjacent sign warning drivers that they are entering a flood zone. Any development of this flood prone site, which is presently on the market, should be severely limited, if not curtailed.

A much better solution would be for the town to purchase the property. This could be part of a plan to help mitigate the flood hazard of lower Silver Creek that is increasing with sea level rise. Let this be the start of science-based, effective planning along our shore. Warren is doing this; why not Bristol. It also could greatly beautify the entrance to downtown Bristol. The gas station site on the north side of Silver Creek was made into a garden, why not this side?

Patrick Barosh, PhD
103 Aaron Ave.