A water pumping booster station, with a controversial history, soon becomes the property of the City of Haverhill.
The Haverhill City Council voted Tuesday to accept the station at Crystal Lake Golf Club from Lowell Five Cents Savings Bank. The booster station at 806 North Broadway was a 2009 requirement related to construction of a 50-home Crystal Springs subdivision. Department of Public Works Deputy Director Robert E. Ward told city councilors water pressure to homes in the Parsonage Hill area is finally upgraded.
“The station has been operational since December, 2019. We’ve got a few people who have called me and let me know that it has dramatically improved,” he said.
Michael Maroney and Maroney Construction Co. built and sold some houses a decade ago, but the city’s Water Division refused to approve more homes along Front Nine Drive until there was progress on constructing the booster station. After Maroney built 13 more houses, the city said in Superior Court, he still failed to construct the required station and went on to begin building four more home. Following a stop work order, Lowell Five Bank took possession of the land and agreed to build the booster.
Further, neighbors unsuccessfully sought in Essex County Superior Court to block the station—and the rest of the subdivision—by having the land declared as wetlands.
The council voted 7-0 to approve that transfer with Councilors Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien and Michael S. McGonagle absent.