COLRAIN — The oldest church building in town, the 1797, kerosene-lit Christian Hill church, will be the subject of the next Colrain Historical Society talk on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. The talk will be held inside the Christian Hill Church, so participants are advised to bring flashlights, as there is no outdoor lighting.
When members of the Second Baptist Society built their church in 1797, they used the scribing joinery, an internal mitre cut for wood, prevalent in Europe for hundreds of years. But they also employed a truss design soon to be adopted in the young United States.
Lyonsville carpenter Jeremy Topitzer will describe this unique joinery at this Colrain Historical Society meeting.
The church is the oldest one in Colrain and one of the oldest buildings in town, according to Society Chairwoman Belden Merims. To reach the Christian Hill church, drive north on Route 112 to Thompson Road on the left, just before the iron bridge. At the end of Thompson Road (3 miles), turn left. The church is on the right on Christian Hill Road. For more information, call Merims at 624-3453.
BUCKLAND — A special town meeting will be held on Sept. 18 in the Town Hall at 7 p.m.
The purpose of the meeting will be to pay two bills left over from the fiscal year that ended in June, and to provide money for Buckland’s share of engineering services for the Shelburne Falls Wastewater Treatment Facility’s mandated infiltration/inflow study.
Shelburne and Buckland residents living within the Shelburne Falls village area share the sewer system, and the state is now requiring this study, to determine where there are cracked or leaking pipes.
The two unpaid bills are for Highway Department expenses, and for Planning Board expenses during the past fiscal year.