The bridge on Heath Road in Colrain near Adamsville Road is going to re-open soon. Repairs were done this year. It was closed after Tropical Storm Irene over five years ago.
The bridge on Heath Road in Colrain near Adamsville Road is going to re-open soon. Repairs were done this year. It was closed after Tropical Storm Irene over five years ago. Credit: FILE PHOTO

Affordable housing discussion planned

SHELBURNE — Alyssa Larose of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments will hold a discussion of proposed zoning changes in Shelburne to encourage additional and affordable housing units at the Senior Center of Shelburne Falls on Monday, Nov. 26, at 2:30 p.m. This is a preliminary effort to get feedback for a public zoning presentation Wednesday night, 7 p.m. in the Shelburne Town Hall (Memorial Hall), according to Senior Center Director Cathy Buntin.

Colrain’s Heath Road bridge to re-open

COLRAIN — The newly constructed $1.2 million Heath Road bridge between Adamsville Road and Heath reopens Tuesday, Nov. 27 — ending four years of more costly school bus detours for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District.

The old bridge closed in April 2014 due to failing girders detected during a state bridge inspection. The remote and little-traveled bridge was put on a Mass DOT “to-do” list, and demolition of the closed bridge began this summer.

However, the detour route, in the years the bridge was closed, was too narrow for a conventional school bus; so the Mohawk school district had to order a van with four-wheel drive to make two round trips daily to transport Heath students to Mohawk and to elementary schools. The extra cost to the school district was about $275 per day, or roughly $46,000 per year.

According to Mohawk schools Superintendent Michael Buoniconti, the annual cost of the extra bus for this year is $47,309. “We’ll reduce the added bus on Jan. 2, so there will be some savings during this school year,” he said. The cost reduction to the district will be about $23,650; however, since regional school transportation is reimbursed almost 70 percent by Chapter 71 state aid, the net savings to the district will be about $7,100, he said.

Buckland board OKs garage contract

BUCKLAND — Now that town voters have approved spending $2.8 million for building a new highway garage, the Selectboard has approved a contract with low-bidder Westfield Construction Co. Westfield bid $2,475,321 for the work. The additional $347,532 is for a project manager and construction contingencies. The Selectboard has also hired City Point Partners to be project manager and clerk of the works for the garage project.

The next step is to notify the contractor and to set up a pre-construction meeting, to go over materials to be ordered and a construction schedule.