In southern Franklin County, four towns find themselves prioritizing longstanding capital projects and supporting town staff as the calendar flips to 2023.
Following a jam-packed year in which the town welcomed NUPRO’s new headquarters and residents twice approved Tilton Library’s expansion project, the town is gearing up for another busy year as its town campus and South Deerfield revitalization projects begin to take shape.
As all of these projects came together, however, the strain on town staff was evident at Selectboard meetings. Chair Trevor McDaniel said getting their arms around the various capital projects is important, but 2023 is also a year for supporting staff.
“For me, it’s … making sure we’re well equipped, trained and supporting of our staff because nothing happens without them,” McDaniel said. “It’s a planning year; it’s a support year.”
The town campus project includes the Leary Lot near Berkshire Brewing Co., the South Deerfield Common, Town Hall, the 1888 Building (formerly the South County Senior Center), the South Deerfield Congregational Church and Tilton Library. While most of the projects are in the preliminary phases, McDaniel said the Leary Lot and South Deerfield Common should get underway in 2023.
Selectboard member Carolyn Shores Ness said the campus, while ambitious, is possible with the collaboration of its Connecting Community Initiative committee, which formed in November 2021.
In an attempt to bring money to the town, the Selectboard has also lobbied local legislators, state officials and U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern during tours of the 1888 Building and South Deerfield Congregational Church. In each visit, state officials said they were impressed with the thoroughness of the town’s planning.
“It’s going to happen, we just need to put it all together. We’ve got a lot of grants out there that we’ve applied for,” Shores Ness said. “I’m very optimistic for the year moving forward.”
On top of capital projects, the town also has two outstanding lawsuits. The first is a November 2021 complaint filed in land court seeking a determination on the public status of Steam Mill Road, which will decide if the town must continue to maintain a section of the road it has maintained for at least 20 years.
The second is an appeal of the North Main Street Park that was filed by an abutter. Franklin County Superior Court has set a trial date for September 2023, which may throw a wrench into the town’s plans because it got a $938,500 Land and Water Conservation grant to help fund the park’s construction, but that money must be spent by June.
Deerfield will also be celebrating its 350th anniversary all year long, with a gala planned for New Year’s Eve and a birthday parade and fireworks scheduled for later in the year, along with a variety of other activities.
Like its northerly neighbor, 2023 will be a year of building up Town Offices staff for Whately.
With the 250th anniversary celebration and water merger projects in the rearview mirror, Selectboard member Fred Baron said the only major agenda item at this moment is the former Whately Center School, which is currently in the request for proposals (RFP) process. The Center School’s RFP period will close at the end of January.
The town, however, is starting the new year with searches for a treasurer/collector and a community development/assistant town administrator, as well as a new fire chief because Chief John Hannum has reached the mandatory retirement age.
“We’re plugging along … trying to get things done that need to be done and keep the taxes down while we do it,” Baron said. “Things don’t get any cheaper, whether breaking down, wearing down or needing improvement, and we do the best we can.”
Baron said a screening committee will be convened to find Hannum’s successor and “the existing leadership of thee Fire Department is going to get back to us any day with a new job description.”
Job descriptions for the treasurer/collector and community development/assistant town administrator are both posted on the town’s website. Baron said a screening committee will also be convened to replace longtime Treasurer/Collector Lynn Sibley.
“Lynn has been working with the town in a lot of different roles for years and she’ll be hard to replace,” he said.
Taking some time to look back at 2022, Baron said the completion of the Water District’s merger was “long overdue” and was a major accomplishment. The highlight of the year, though, came in June during the town’s 10-day 250th birthday celebration.
“I think the organizers and absolutely everyone involved in the 250th celebration did a great job,” Baron said. Baron’s wife, Susan, and Highway Superintendent Keith Bardwell were the celebration committee’s co-chairs. “Even though it turned out to be a year late, it was worth the wait. It’s gotten fabulous reviews.”
After a year in which the town committed to creating a public-private partnership in the growing carbon credit market and showed its aging public safety buildings to state officials, Selectboard Chair Philip Kantor said 2023 will look very much the same, as Conway will pursue these projects further.
“We’re still really proud about that,” Kantor said of the public-private carbon initiative the town hopes to launch next year with grant funding. “It really is quite impressive.”
The potential entry into the carbon market, which the board signaled its support for in June, could provide incentives for private landowners and the town in exchange for investing in forests that actively sequester carbon. Even in these early stages, the potential first-ever private-public partnership in the market is drawing eyes to Conway, as Kantor said national media organizations have begun making inquiries.
On the same day the Selectboard showed its support for the carbon market, it also brought State Auditor Suzanne Bump and other state legislators to town for a tour of its public safety buildings, including the Conway Fire Station, which is so small the fire engines need to be retrofitted to fit into the garage and still have to be parked bumper to bumper.
In 2023, Kantor said Conway expects to begin funding the engineering of its public safety buildings, as well as making improvements to Town Hall. He expects money to be appropriated for these early steps within the first few months of the year.
“We do have a long-term plan to make our public safety buildings fit for human habitation and to fix the Town Hall up, so all town employees can have offices in the Town Hall,” Kantor said. “We’ve been reserving our remaining ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds, so we can borrow a lot less or nothing at all.”
On top of these two initiatives, Kantor said the town, like everyone else, is still coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflecting on 2022, he said the town has been fortunate to continue to be spared from death and illness.
“We survived year three of the great pandemic with no deaths in town and nobody in intensive care,” Kantor said, noting the town has a “really high vaccination rate.”
With additions to Riverside Park having been completed in the summer, Sunderland will now work on the town’s streets in 2023, particularly in the town center.
Selectboard Chair Tom Fydenkevez said the town’s focus will be on installing sidewalks on Plumtree Road, which connects Routes 116 and 47; examining a “reconfiguration of School Street” by Town Hall; and continuing work on the Village Center, which was the focus of a 2021 Rapid Recovery Program study.
“The state’s looking at doing something with that,” Fydenkevez said of the town center, where Routes 116 and 47 intersect, noting that town officials want to collect as much information as possible so they can “offer some options” to the state. “It’s really developing what we consider for the center of our town, trying to figure out what’s going to be best for the businesses.”
The town will also be welcoming some new residents when Sanderson Place, the new affordable senior housing complex, opens its doors for move-in. Fydenkevez said the project, much like many others around the county and state, hit a snag in getting building materials, but is expected to open “really soon.”
Looking back on 2022, Fydenkevez lauded the community for its continued efforts in putting together vaccination clinics. Beyond COVID-19 response, a recent example of how people came together was over the past weekend when volunteers from Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately came together on Christmas Day to prepare, serve and deliver meals to seniors.
“We’re very fortunate to live in a community that you put out a couple of calls and all of a sudden people are not only donating their time, they’re donating monies,” Fydenkevez said. “People step up to answer the call.”