NORTHFIELD — The whirring sound of orbital palm sanders and puffs of sawdust filled Pioneer Valley Regional School’s shop class on a recent morning as a handful of students worked to finish four wooden benches.
Since last fall, the 10 students in John Passiglia’s engineering design class have been making blueprints, designing prototypes and finally constructing benches that will be installed in Northfield’s first universally accessible trail at Alderbrook Meadow off Route 63.
According to information Passiglia received from Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, which is overseeing the project, the half-mile trail will meet all federal guidelines for an accessible trail, being 6 feet wide and composed of hard-packed fine crushed stone to ease wheelchair travel.
When representatives from Mount Grace first reached out to Passiglia a year ago, he said he was eager for his students to be involved in the area’s first fully accessible trail.
“I said ‘We’ll do whatever’,” Passiglia recalled. “I didn’t even know what ‘whatever’ was.”
“Whatever,” it turned out, involved making benches and possibly an overlook deck, Passiglia said. He said he appreciates opportunities for his students to be involved in the community, as they have been by building signs for the school district’s central office, making name plates for School Committee members, installing a GaGa Ball pit at Warwick Community School and selling Adirondack chairs at this year’s Bernardston Gas Engine Show.
“We do a lot of stuff for the community,” Passiglia said. “I want my students to be civically involved.”
The project built on skills the students learned in Passiglia’s introductory shop class, involving sanding and routing cedar boards used for the seat and back of the benches. Pressure-treated wood was used for the frame, ensuring durability in the elements, Passiglia said.
“I liked seeing how we could draw it up in (computer-aided design software) and make it from that,” said Pioneer junior Jake Hubbard of Bernardston.
“It’s a good design problem for us,” Passiglia said. “It’s all figuring stuff out, stuff that we don’t know.”
In particular, time was spent researching federal codes outlined under the Americans With Disabilities Act for accessible benches. For example, Passiglia said each bench seat must be at least 20 inches wide.
The class plans to finish all four benches before the end of the school year, and Passiglia said he may call on students to help deliver them when the trail is finished, potentially sometime this summer.
The students said they look forward to seeing their work being put to use, and plan to visit Northfield’s trail to see the fruits of their labor.
“I want to check it out when it’s done,” said Pioneer junior Andrew Pratt of Greenfield.
You can reach Shelby Ashline at: sashline@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257