A Rochester couple said excess runoff has hampered their ability to operate a cranberry bog after the Highway Department installed a series of stormwater drains.

On Wednesday night, Selectmen heard from an attorney and engineer hired by Richard and Lillian Reynolds of 211 Braley Hill Road.

Speaking on behalf of the Reynolds, attorney Walter Kalisz said the couple purchased the property in 1985 and ran a cranberry bog on the site until shutting it down in 2003. He said they stopped growing cranberries a few years after Braley Hill Road was reconstructed in 2000.

At that time, the Highway Department installed four stormwater outflows that redirected runoff.

“The water is now draining onto their land, which made the cranberry bog inoperable,” Kalisz said.

Instead of growing cranberries, the Reynolds use the bogs to hold back water during heavy rainstorms so neighbors downstream aren’t inundated, said Richard Rheaume, an engineer with Prime Engineering, Inc.

“That’s resulted in the bogs becoming retention basins,” Rheaume said. “Because there are pollutants in the road you can’t in good conscience use the bogs.”

Rheaume provided Selectmen with two solutions. Each one included plans to run a pipe that would bypass the bogs, but one plan involved reconstructing part of Braley Hill Road.

Town Administrator Mike McCue said Town Counsel Blair Bailey has met with the Reynolds' attorney. McCue also spoke to the Highway Surveyor Jeff Eldridge.

“[Eldridge] remains more than happy to continue the discussion on what can reasonably be done to alleviate this situation,” McCue said. “It’s an ongoing conversation.”

Selectman Rich Nunes requested the board be updated on the issue within two months.

“There should be some sort of feedback as to how things are going,” Nunes said.