29 April, 2015
This past winter was truly challenging for all, including the Water and Sewer Department. The unrelenting snow and record breaking cold, had crews working long hours snow plowing, hydrant clearing, and thawing out frozen water lines. The frost was over 4 ½ deep in some areas and proved very difficult to make repairs and thaw water lines. We would like to send out a huge thank you to all those, who again helped keep the fire hydrants clear. Your help was essential in providing fire safety.
We would like to remind everyone that our State Mandated water use restrictions take effect May 1st through September 30th . You can find out the requirements here @ www.hopkintonma.gov/water
We have added a weather station at our Wood Street garage to help track the weather conditions that we record. It provides a multitude of readings and is available to everyone for viewing on our weather page, @ www.hopkintonma.gov/water. There are also links to several apps that provide the weather conditions from the station on smart phones and tablets and a link were you can look up our recent weather history.
This year we are partnering with Weston Nursery to provide a 15% discount on rain barrels to our residents. Please check out the details on our website under rain barrels.
We have also met with our local garden centers in an effort to promote the efficient and proper techniques for watering plants and shrubs to our residents as they make their purchase. In addition to the usual perennial flowers, they all offer low water use and drought tolerant plants and shrubs. They are all very knowledgeable and well versed in proper planting and watering techniques and are happy to pass that along to their customers. Some also host seminars and speakers throughout the year that may be of interest.
For more information please visit westonnurseries.com, angelsgardencenter.com, and evergreenhavengardencenter.webs.com. Peter, Jeff, and Al would be more than happy to assist you.
Another great resource is very our own Hopkinton Garden Club www.hopkintongardenclub.org with whom, we have hosted joint seminars in the past.
We have seen an increase in the number of people walking dogs in the vicinity of the town wells. We asked you to please make sure you pick up after your pet to ensure protection of our drinking water supplies. Please see the DEP advisement on our website under dog walking.
In an effort to keep our residents and businesses informed, we will utilizing the town websites, newspapers, cable TV and the CodeRed phone call system for emergencies. You can also follow us on Twitter @hopkintonwater for instant department updates. In addition you can subscribe to our notice feed here: http://www.hopkintonma.gov/home/about/follow to receive all of our public service announcements.
