Robert Gabrielli’s little green watering can holds only 3 gallons, and that’s not nearly enough to keep his beloved Penacook blooming.
And he knows he has only himself to blame.
No, tumbleweeds aren’t rolling by, but – Monday’s rain notwithstanding – these are dry times in the town square, caused by the shutdown of Gabrielli’s once-plentiful access to water, controlled by the city of Concord.
The Union soldier, proudly guarding the heart of the village, no longer looks out on a lush landscape.
The grass, once green and manicured, is dull and uneven. The inner circular area of the roundabout, once brimming with color and personality, is dry and lifeless.
The retired doctor, once on the front lines of this glorious facelift for the town in which he practiced medicine for nearly three decades, wonders what the future holds, armed with only that little green watering can.
“Right now, I am shut off,” Gabrielli said last week. “I have no clue. I’m at their mercy, totally.”
Gabrielli is referring to Concord officials, who gave him the green light two years ago to use city water in the village, after the roundabout was finished. Gabrielli took it upon himself to plant, seed, water, even plow with a tractor.
The area had been looking good, until officials this spring inspected the meter that measures water use. They found that the good doctor had opened the floodgates, spreading water beyond the agreed-to section by installing his own irrigation system.
Gabrielli said Chris Jacques, the grounds division superintendent for Concord Parks and Recreation, had checked the Penacook meter and told him he had gone too far. Jacques suggested I call David Gill, the Director of Parks and Recreation.
Gill offered not a drop of information, failing to return requests for comment.
But it’s clear from Gabrielli’s impish smile, as he explained what happened the last two summers, that for the good of the village, he had pushed his luck too far.
“They said, ‘Go ahead and water right over there and we’ll pay for over there,’ ” Gabrielli said, pointing across the curving road to the rotary. “Then I overdid it because I thought it looked so good. I got caught up. I wanted Penacook to feel proud of itself.”
And if you’ve been to downtown Penacook over the past two summers, you saw the fruits of his labor. As Gabrielli explains it, four years ago, volunteers such as Matt St. Onge, Dave Duhamel and Bonnie Sargent began fertilizing, mowing, watering.
Meanwhile, Gabrielli renovated his former office building, in the heart of the village at Merrimack and Village streets. He received permission to water the inner part of the roundabout, then spread plants and flowers all over the place – near the pharmacy, in the portion near the statue, over by the gazebo, over by the convenience store, over by the gas station.
“These projects needed water,” Gabrielli told me.
And those projects got water. Gabrielli showed me how, opening four green rectangular covers that exposed pipes and levers. He had a key that unlocked a plastic head covering one particular pipe. The system provided water to four locations – the store, the statue, the roundabout and the gazebo.
But Gabrielli got greedy, in both 2016 and ’17. He installed 10 sprinkler heads and spread them all around the center of town. Then he put them on a timer, which set them off during the wee hours of the night. Flush to the ground, they’d rise up and, according to Gabrielli, do their work, accompanied by a very distinct sound.
“Psh, psh, psh, psh, psh, psh, psh.”
That’s Gabrielli’s impression of his sprinklers. “What I did was totally inappropriate,” he conceded. “I didn’t get permission as I put sprinklers in all around to water the lawn.”
The results were startling: Flowers with rich colors, yellow and purple and pink. Perfectly manicured grass. Tall, strong, healthy green plants. Some of this flower power was donated by local nurseries, some paid for by Gabrielli himself.
Things, though, have changed, ever since the water was shut off this spring. Gabrielli said Jacques – the grounds division superintendent for Concord Parks and Recreation – checked a meter under one of those green covers and saw that far too much water had been used.
“They were very nice to me,” Gabrielli told me. “They didn’t even slap my hand hard. Nowhere near as hard as they could have, and maybe should have. I understand where they are coming from. They have city budgets.”
But Penacook has no flowers. Or at least very few. In the circle, Gabrielli planted 14 cleomes, which he said are hearty flowers that don’t need much water and one day will burst with color.
“These things will grow to be monster,” he said.
The rhododendrons he planted last year are dying from lack of water, as are large patches of grass. A 3-gallon water can – which Gabrielli fills at the building he owns 100 yards away – only goes so far.
“This all used to be beautiful green grass,” Gabrielli said.
Then he laughed to himself.
“Of course, it took a little bit of water.”
(Ray Duckler can be reached at 369-3304, rduckler@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @rayduckler.)