By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

The damage wrought on Main Street during last month’s flooding wasn’t entirely the work of Mother Nature, town officials have discovered.

A discarded Christmas tree was the likely cause of the 2 feet of water that overwhelmed Main Street during the May floods, said Director of Public Works Carl Quiram.

“We found the tree wedged in the box culvert under Church Street,” Quiram said.

“It’s a Christmas tree someone just tossed in a drainage ditch rather than bringing it to the transfer station,” he said.

Flood waters resulting from the blockage forced Main Street to be shut down on the night of Sunday, May 14. Damage to several buildings on Church Street and Main Street followed, including at the town hall building the Village Trestle restaurant.

The flooding in that area also caused a sinkhole under Goffstown Auto Parts on Mast Road and another sinkhole on Depot Street, Quiram said.

The blocked culvert runs from Church Street through town hall parking lot and into the Piscataquog River, Quiram said.

The tree likely ran into the culvert via a stream beginning on Autumn Street and flows between all yards on North Mast Road and First Avenue, Quiram said.

Public works employees discovered the tree while doing an inspection of the culvert following the floods, Quiram said.

“We had been wondering what happened, because we’d never had problems with that culvert before. But it made sense when we saw the tree,” he said.

Now that the cause of the Main Street flooding has been discovered, Quiram said he hopes it will send a message to residents considering discarding items into drainage ditches or streams.