The coming year will see continuing and completed infrastructure projects, as well as changes to public safety departments and their associated facilities in Leyden, Bernardston, Northfield and Warwick.
Leyden Municipal Assistant Michele Giarusso said she will be continuing to pursue various grants for town projects. Sought-after grants may support roadway and culvert repairs, Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness efforts and the installation of electric vehicle chargers at the town office building at 7 Brattleboro Road.
“Eversource already has provided a plan, and there is grant money available,” Giarusso said of potential car chargers. “So I was just about to be looking at that — getting quotes for that.”
Discussions regarding the town’s public safety departments were at the center of several Selectboard meetings this fall, resulting in the recent formation of the Leyden Public Safety Advisory Committee. This group will meet throughout 2022 as residents and town officials assess the status of the Leyden’s public services — police, fire, emergency medical service and emergency management services — and potentially how they can work more interdependently.
Leyden Police Lt. Mike Akin is currently serving as acting police chief following the resignation of former chief Daniel Galvis.
Galvis’ resignation came in October following an extended review and public criticism after inappropriate emails sent by the chief during his tenure came to light.
Other potential changes could come from conversations regarding the potential regionalization of Leyden’s Police Department with neighboring towns. According to both Giarusso and Bernardston Town Coordinator Louis Bordeaux, the towns held an initial meeting this fall on the topic. Both said Leyden Selectboard member Erica Jensen is looking into regionalization grants to assist with costs of this potential merger.
“That’s still hanging out there, but it’s probably not anything that’s going to happen quickly,” Bordeaux said.
For Bernardston individually, Town Coordinator Bordeaux said the town will continue pushing forward with construction of a multi-million dollar addition to its existing fire station. On Dec. 21, 2021, the town’s Fire Station Building Committee approved the interior floor plans for the project.
“Regarding the fire station, we are hoping to be moved in by this time next year,” Bordeaux said in late December.
Other developments in Bernardston this year may include the construction and opening of a retail marijuana dispensary next to The Heirloom Collective’s existing cultivation facility, located at 87 Northfield Road (Route 10), as well as expansion of the cultivation facility itself. In late August, the Planning Board approved a special permit allowing The Heirloom Collective to build a 40,455-square-foot addition onto its existing cannabis grow facility and construct a 4,500-square-foot office and retail dispensary in Bernardston’s Expedited Permitting District.
In December, the Bernardston Selectboard and The Heirloom Collective agreed on a revised host community agreement, which set a flat rate for the organization’s community impact fees, with a five-year payment plan of $112,500, $137,500, $162,500, $162,500 and $112,500.
Like Leyden, Northfield will also continue discussing changes for its public safety departments. After former Chief Robert Leighton announced his retirement, effective July 8, 2021, Northfield began the process of hiring a new police chief. Sgt. Alexander Pirozhkov served as acting chief until Jon Hall, a former lieutenant with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Police Department, was ultimately hired and sworn in as the new chief on Dec. 6.
Along with this change of leadership in the Police Department, Northfield will continue to plan for the future construction of a shared public safety facility for Police, Fire and EMS departments. Selectboard Member Barbara “Bee” Jacque said they are aiming to provide more information on this project to residents by a scheduled Special Town Meeting on Jan. 24.
Jacque said the town will also continue to make headway on the Pauchaug-Schell Bridge Greenway project. The Selectboard approved aspects of this project design this year, but Jacque said they hope to see construction begin during the spring and summer. She said this project is “essential to Northfield’s vision as a recreation destination” and will reconnect the east and west sides of town. Additionally, Northfield is the only town in Franklin County to be divided by the Connecticut River. Jacque said the greenway will reconnect the east and west sides of town.
“As soon as the weather gets construction worthy, I think the first order of business is demolition (of the old, existing bridge),” Jacque said. “We’re looking forward to that project actually getting underway. It’s no longer something on paper, it’s actually something that’s in the works.”
Other pending projects for Northfield include reconstruction of the Northfield Road/Warwick Road project. Warwick Town Coordinator David Young said this year’s infrastructure work will see completed reconstruction funded by a joint $2 million grant provided to Northfield and Warwick to cover reconstruction and paving costs for nearly 2 miles of roads on the primary route between the two towns.
Additionally, Warwick is reaching the end of a construction milestone for ongoing upgrades to the Warwick Broadband network. The town is also looking to join a cable franchise agreement with the company Spectrum for a federally subsidized fiber-optic network to be built in Warwick and Royalston.
“We were attractive because they’ll essentially get to build off of the Orange-Athol system, a previous stand-alone one,” Town Coordinator Young said. “They’re essentially just expanding something.”
While Warwick may not be able to reopen its town-owned elementary school in 2022 as originally projected, Selectboard and Warwick Education Committee members say their efforts will continue through the new year.
According to Education Committee Vice Chair Tom Wyatt, Warwick representatives met via Zoom with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in early December regarding the end-of-the-year deadline for Warwick’s initiative to form a new school district and re-open the elementary school.
“The positive news from the meeting was that the department recognized Warwick’s strong commitment to our long-range education plan and were impressed with the detail and effort we have shown,” Wyatt said. “…The message we got was not one of ‘if’ Warwick could start its school district and re-open our school but ‘when’.”
He said DESE informed Warwick that, based on the current regional school agreement, the town could not leave the Pioneer District (PVRSD) until July 2023. According to Wyatt, this delay from a planned July 2022 withdrawal was due to a timing issue with Warwick paying off its share of the 2018 state loan to the Pioneer Valley Regional School District.
While Warwick representatives are disappointed by the delay, Wyatt said DESE “expressed a desire to help Warwick re-start in some ways in the fall of 2022 at the Warwick Community School (WCS).”
Wyatt said Warwick will continue working to establish some level of elementary public education to take place at the Warwick Community School for fall 2022 — as part of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District for the first time since the district voted to cease use of the property in January 2020.
“Our 2022 goals also include funding education support programs — before/after school, early childhood at WCS, plus preparing for a successful transition to an independent district,” Wyatt said. “… A transition plan for reopening WCS is a big job. There is much to be worked out with the town, DESE and PVRSD but with community support, it can be done.”