Editor’s Note: This week, we set the 2016 behind us while looking ahead into the new year. This is the second in a series.
NORTHFIELD — As 2016 comes to a close, a plethora of projects are on the horizon for northern Franklin County, including school renovations in Northfield, expansion of the Bernardston fire station and broadband network improvements for Warwick and Leyden.
Northfield Elementary School will undergo an estimated $250,000 of maintenance projects, according to Town Administrator Brian Noble. The work includes repointing the brickwork, rewiring the electrical system, replacing carpeting and flooring, replacing the north building’s roof, repaving the parking lot, painting the exterior and corridors, and possibly replacing the boilers.
“I think it’s absolutely necessary,” Noble said of the repairs.
Additionally, Noble said the town will be applying for a community preservation grant to repair the front entrance to be historically consistent with what it might have looked like when it was first built in the early 1900s, while complying with modern codes.
“(The doors) are not energy efficient and have suffered some non-historically correct repairs over the years,” he said, noting that the door frames are “sagging.”
Noble said residents will vote on whether to allocate the necessary money during the annual town meeting.
Also in Northfield, the Zoning Bylaw Revision Committee has been working since 2015 to draft a revised, updated zoning bylaw and is nearing the end of its work, currently intending to put the bylaw to a vote during 2017’s annual town meeting following several months of community outreach.
Northfield residents also recently voted to re-establish the Town Governance Study Committee, which will examine the government structure of Northfield for possible improvement in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Bernardston Fire Station Expansion Committee has been working with architects from Stevens & Associates to come up with building designs for a new or expanded building at the station’s current location at 18 Church St. However, when the committee presented the design ideas to residents during a Nov. 15 public forum, residents proposed looking at new properties altogether.
Fire Chief Peter Shedd said the committee originally hoped to have designs and an estimated cost finalized by the end of January. However, as the committee is now considering three other lots, Shedd said that date has been pushed back to mid-April.
“Hopefully we’ll have a plan and be presenting it to the townspeople at the end of April,” he said, noting that he hopes the final design, funding and land purchase can be voted on during annual town meeting.
Construction, Shedd said, likely won’t commence until 2018.
Not far from the fire station and the town center, Happy Valley Compassion Center, a nonprofit medical marijuana organization, has had two Bernardston properties under consideration for a grow facility: the former Bella Notte restaurant at 199 Huckle Hill Road and an undeveloped lot on Northfield Road behind The Inn at Crumpin-Fox.
Developers expects to have a decision concerning which property will be the new grow facility within the first three months of 2017.
Also on the horizon for Bernardston is the replacement of the 16-foot-long bridge on Turners Falls Road. Town Coordinator Hugh Campbell said a construction bid is set to go out in March, and the bridge will be replaced by the end of summer.
With the start of the new year, Warwick officials are considering where to use the remaining $50,000 of the town’s Green Communities grant.
The $137,850 multi-year grant must be completely used by June 30, according to Town Coordinator David Young.
Young said $25,000 will be used to purchase highly efficient electric air source heat pumps for several Town Hall offices, and another $12,000 to $15,000 for used wing plows for the Highway Department vehicles. Another $5,000 will be used to purchase a mini split heat pump for the highway garage, leaving a few thousand dollars left to be allotted.
Upgrading and expanding the town’s broadband system will also continue through the end of 2017, Young said.
The improvements include new wiring for the two towers at Mount Grace and Orange Road, replacing the 900 megahertz transceivers and adding 5 gigahertz equipment. Additionally, Young said the committee will contract out the installation of roughly a dozen 60-foot internet masts in parts of town with spotty service to improve the signal between towers and residences.
Leyden also continues to work toward implementing a townwide broadband network.
According to Broadband Committee Chairman Bob Ryan, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute is on track to start a pole survey in late December or early January, gathering the GPS coordinates of each pole and overlaying the coordinates on a map of the town. The next step will be to move the wires on every pole in town to make space for fiber lines.
“At that point, we’ll have the information we need to file an application with the utility companies,” he said.
After ordering the wire in March, Ryan said MBI will start the wiring process in fall 2017.