BERNARDSTON — The Selectboard is considering placing an article on the May 25 Annual Town Meeting warrant that would request to hire an economic developer.
As presented by Planning Board member John Lepore during a Selectboard meeting earlier this month, the developer would be paid around $50,000 per year and would be tasked with securing grant funding that would support an updated Master Plan targeted for 2035. Lepore’s presentation included issues to address, qualities of Bernardston to preserve and grants to pursue that would both help attract visitors and maintain quality of life for residents.
The town’s last Master Plan, a document intended to bring “the members of a community together to create a collective vision for their town” and examine “how the socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of the whole region might change” over two decades, was finalized in 2015 and 2016, Lepore said. He said the town has to be proactive to avoid falling behind the curve of progress.
“There’s a lot happening in the world,” he said. “Things are changing very quickly. Turn on the news. Bernardston has to stay up front.”
“We see a tremendous set of opportunities available to the town and we need help in order to take advantage of it,” Planning Board member Rawn Fulton said.
Lepore identified four primary issues standing in the way of Bernardston’s general progress: degrading landscapes, underuse of landmarks, an aging population and departure of youths, and rising infrastructure costs.
“We don’t really have a plan of what sustainable economic development means,” Lepore said of the latter item.
Lepore said a revised Master Plan would look to address these issues by preserving and highlighting points of interest, such as the Stone Arch Bridge, Bernardston’s “vibrant center village” and its rural landscape. The town, he said, should be “a place where those 40,000 cars that go up and down the interstate every day have a reason to stop.”
Lepore identified participation in the state Department of Transportation’s Complete Streets Funding Program as one particular grant opportunity that an economic developer might hone in on. According to state guidelines, these grants fund local multi-modal infrastructure projects that improve travel for bicyclists, pedestrians, public transit users and people using other forms of transportation.
“We could do a tremendous amount of putting signage up, noting these particular places and doing a lot of things to really make Bernardston even more attractive, but within the guise of what we believe,” Lepore said.
Additionally, Lepore mentioned that the town should consider paying a $13,000 fee to qualify for a $50,000 annual state Department of Conservation and Recreation grant that would fund an updated Open Space and Recreation Plan, which is defined by the state as “a tool through which a community plans for the future of its conservation and recreation resources.” Bernardston’s Open Space and Recreation Plan was last updated in 2009.
“I’ve been seeing over and over and over news stories above the fold, front page, Greenfield Recorder, week after week,” Fulton said. “Ashfield, Colrain, Leyden, Charlemont, Hatfield, Greenfield, Turners Falls, all these towns getting large grants. Hello? I don’t see much about Bernardston.”
After residents in the audience applauded Fulton, Selectboard member Stanley Garland explained that Bernardston had been “shot down” as prospective recipients for many grants largely due to lack of low-income housing in town that would otherwise qualify them for an award.
“I was in contact with Sen. Markey’s office the last couple weeks,” Town Coordinator Louis Bordeaux added. “He’s saying that there’s $16 billion coming to Massachusetts. We don’t qualify for a penny of it.”
Attitudes toward securing more grant funding for Bernardston were continuously met with clapping from the large audience. Residents voiced support regarding the prospect of adding an economic developer, prompting the Selectboard to field different financial options to maximize the idea’s feasibility.
“An economic developer would be a huge asset to the town,” Church Street resident Celt Grant said. “I wonder if it’s something we could share with another town like Leyden, who we’ve already got mutual arrangements with, and make it more doable for the taxpayer.”
The Selectboard also agreed to consider a payment model that would pay the economic developer based on his or her success, increasing the wage in relation to the amount of grant funding he or she is able to secure the town.
The Selectboard will mull the idea in anticipation of Annual Town Meeting, which is slated for 7 p.m. on May 25 at The Farm Table event center at 219 South St.
“We’ll take everything under advisement and see what we can do,” Selectboard Chair Robert Raymond said.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.
An earlier version of this story included a photo caption that listed an incorrect location for the Stone Arch Bridge. The bridge is over the Fall River near River Street.