The seemingly never-ending NIMBY debate took a decidedly ugly turn this week in Greenfield, setting up an interesting political conundrum for town officials.
At the heart of the discussion is an ongoing neighborhood dispute between some Hope Street residents and the Pierce Brothers Coffee Roasters over the burnt coffee smell wafting from their nearby roasting facility. The odor, akin to that of burnt toast, is driving some neighbors a bit crazy — one, it would seem, more than others — and I kind of understand why. I’ve smelt the aroma myself driving by, and I can imagine having a daily front row seat for it would be especially annoying.
And yet, to have a Pierce Brothers employee recount that someone threatened to set fire to the building to “make it like the next Auschwitz,” in apparent reference to the Pierce Brothers’ Jewish heritage, is so over the top to almost deny comprehension.
“My family’s been threatened … and we’ve been subject to anti-Semitic and hate crimes committed against us,” an emotional Darren Pierce, business owner, told the Greenfield Town Council recently. “I’m appalled … life is too short to hate.”
Pierce says the bad blood has extended beyond just the neighborhood.
“People are going around to businesses saying they hate us, and I’ve got kids to think about,” Pierce added. “We chose to come to this town and we want to grow here, but I don’t think we are going to be in that building forever.”
The company is pursuing legal avenues to deal with the threats and harassment, but how does the town plan to respond? This is, after all, a thriving business which made the conscious decision to come to Greenfield and one would think the town’s leaders would want to send a strong message of support to the company’s owners. Some individual councilors did their best to do that at the meeting, but, to date, there hasn’t been much response beyond that.
Who knows? Maybe if the guy had a Confederate flag hanging in his garage, the conversation might be a whole lot different.
Across the river, NIMBY may have claimed another victim, as Montague Selectmen next week are expected to approve a new downtown noise policy that is likely to severely limit the ability of Hubie’s Restaurant and Tavern to continue hosting live music.
The proposed regulations will limit noise levels to 70 decibels, which is ridiculous by pretty much any live entertainment standard, and limit the number of allowed summer-only performances that will require a special permit.
One would assume the policy will extend to all downtown live events, although it will primarily has an impact on Hubie’s, which has been under fire from the neighborhood on this issue almost since he opened. Hopefully, the new regulations won’t signal the death knell for owner Shawn Hubert’s venture, which has been a great addition to a Turners Falls downtown area desperately in need of new entertainment options.
I guess the new Greenfield Town Council is serious about becoming a real financial check on Mayor Bill Martin.
The council leadership put forward a $202,000 cut list from Martin’s nearly $60 million fiscal 2017 spending plan, $189,000 of which the Ways and Means Committee chose to go along. Martin did his best to downplay the impact of the reductions shortly after the initial list was made public.
“It’s fine, there were some small reductions made to individual departments,” Martin said. “But there were others, which will be debated, which I plan to defend.”
The budget cuts may be just the beginning, however. Council Vice-President Isaac Mass notified School Superintendent Jordana Harper that he plans to request internal district documents related to an ongoing FBI investigation of the alleged misuse of federal funds by the district’s food services department — reminding Harper that the council does possess the as-yet-unused power to subpoena any documents it deems necessary.
“We’ve never used that before and I don’t want to now,” Mass told Harper. “But I want to understand how this came to your attention, and figure out the broader scope of what went on.”
Harper has been asked to produce the items for an executive session discussion at the next council meeting that could very well wind up being among the more interesting council debates we will, unfortunately, never see.
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former staff reporter for The Recorder and a Greenfield native.