Brief thoughts on some of the events making news from around Franklin County and the North Quabbin area:
Once again, we tip our cap to the local legislative delegation for their hard work to convince others in the General Court that there are issues in our part of the state deserving not only the legislature’s attention but also state money.
This time around, it was in the override of Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto and restoring about $300,000 for the local Opioid Task Force.
“All of us in the Franklin County delegation made a pitch to get this restored,” Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, said. “I was at the (Democratic National) Convention and bugging Speaker (Robert) DeLeo about it the whole time. (Rep.) Steve Kulik in his position on Ways and Means was making a lot of noise there, and even Rep. (Susannah) Whipps-Lee was making a lot of noise on the Republican side. It’s a great example of our delegation working together on this; it’s really important funding, and to have it zeroed out would have been horrendous.”
And while Mark didn’t mention our state senators, we know that Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and Sen. Benjamin Downing were advocating to add this money back. Thank you. Job well done.
Greenfield residents should keep their fingers crossed when it comes to an attempt to get money to turn a Brownfield site at 34 Riddell St., into a skate park.
Greening Greenfield, a group of residents looking to make the community more sustainable, has submitted a proposal that’s a finalist in ArtPlace America’s 2016 National Creative Playmaking Fund. ArtPlace America is a “collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies, and financial institutions that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities.”
Given how difficult it can be to raise funds for this type of project, winning this money would turn the idea from a dream to a reality. The answer should come at the end of the year.
We’re among those keeping our fingers crossed.
We would like to think that plenty of area residents took advantage of the Free Fun Fridays program at Historic Deerfield last Friday. The program, a project of the Highland Street Foundation, provides free admission to a number of sites in the state, including zoos and state parks.
It’s too bad, though, that there couldn’t have been some sort of coordination with the Franklin Regional Transit Authority to provide bus service from Greenfield for the people who don’t drive or didn’t want to use their car.
Maybe events such as this are something the FRTA should try to do in the future.