CHARLEMONT — Meeting this week with congressional aides, selectmen laid out the problems of this town of too few people, too few volunteers, too many old bridges and no broadband.
“We actually get a lot of young people here to work in the recreation industry,” Selectman Toby Gould remarked. “But we don’t get them to stay here (to live) because there’s no broadband.”
Selectmen say that, on weekends, this town of 1,000 residents gets 2,000 visitors using the river. And without cellphone service, visitors cannot call for help in an emergency. “As our (recreation) industry grows, the number of potential accidents grow,” selectmen’s Chairwoman Beth Bandy pointed out.
The town has an aging population. And the town’s volunteer ambulance service does not always have enough two EMTs available for responding, in compliance with current state standards.
“We’re on a collision course. We’re running out of people, but the expenses are still going up,” Bandy said.
Broadband Committee Chairman Robert Handsaker said the lack of broadband is becoming a serious economic development problem. “We have started building up the tourism industry,” he said. “We should have a thriving second-home market — but we don’t — because of broadband.”
“MBI (the Massachusetts Broadband Institute) is still expecting way too much from the towns,” he said. “Our capital cost (for a fiber optic network) would be $1.7 million that Charlemont has to borrow, and you have to pay that back with your 600 homes. Right now, we’re struggling, and don’t think we can do it along, on an affordable basis.”
Elizabeth Quigley from U.S. Rep. Richard Neal’s office, Everett Handford from Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office and Jessie Cooley from state Rep. Paul Mark’s office listened to town officials and suggested grant programs and other resources that might help the town pay for its bridge repairs and broadband costs.
This summer, selectmen hosted a few multi-town summits to discuss common problems small towns have providing services in communities with shrinking populations and few job opportunities. The town has formed a Capital Planning Committee to budget for and schedule regular maintenance of town infrastructure for the future.
The congressional aides said they would look into grant or loan programs that might help the town — especially concerning its old bridges.
The town has a $3 million budget but a $5 million bridge problem, said Selectman Toby Gould.
Charlemont has 46 bridges “that we know of,” said Selectman Sarah Reynolds. She said five aging bridges are a priority, two small bridges are closed, and the Legate Hill bridge, soon to be rated, now serves as a detour. If that bridge gets closed, it could affect about 90 people, she said.
Bandy pointed out that most of the town-owned bridges were built right after the flood of 1938. “Engineers say the life expectancy (of bridges) is supposed to be around 70 to 75 years,” she said. “That’s now.”
Gould said the town used to repair many of its own small bridges, but now the state requires the work to be done in a more costly way that “seems like overkill” for a small town.
Handford suggested the town look into the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER grant program. TIGER stands for The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery. It provides federal grant money for road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve national objectives. Handford said the town might be able to apply for grant money in time for the fiscal year 2017 grant application deadline.
Quigley said the town might be able to get a USDA Rural Assistance loan to help the town pay for its broadband fiber optic network. Both aides said they would contact Town Administrator Peg Dean within the next two weeks with information that might be helpful.
Other issues raised during the 90-minute session included rising school costs, regional school bus transportation, and staffing the town’s volunteer ambulance service with two EMTs for each trip, as is required by the state. In the past, the service was allowed to respond to calls with a driver/first responder and one EMT.