GREENFIELD — The Community Preservation Committee spent Thursday evening reviewing its final three applications for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding — the removal of invasive species at Millers Meadows, the restoration of historic paintings at the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage and the renovation of three buildings on Bank Row.
The state’s Community Preservation Act allows municipalities to adopt a property tax surcharge of up to 3%, the revenues from which are matched by state funds. Greenfield joined the CPA in 2020 with a local surcharge, allowing the city to receive state-matched funding for projects and initiatives related to housing, historic preservation, open space conservation and outdoor recreation.
This year, the committee received $666,456 in requests through 11 applications. With $262,200 in CPA funds at its disposal, the committee will decide which projects to support, and forward its recommendations to City Council for a final decision on funding.
Bank Row renovations
The most expensive request made at Thursday’s meeting was Spike Segundo LLC’s ask for $65,000 to restore “derelict” buildings at 1-5, 19-23 and 25-27 Bank Row under the responsibility of the city, the Greenfield Redevelopment Authority, and other state, local and federal entities.
The funding, if approved, would complete a “critical 15-year restoration” to windows and facades at the Bank Row buildings, the application states. Developer Jordi Herold, who is leading the project, appeared before the committee on Thursday.
Noting that this year, the Community Preservation Committee is faced with roughly three times more requests for funding than it has available to distribute, committee Chair Susan Worgaftik asked Herold whether the project would still be viable in the event that it was only partially funded.
Herold said that given the large scope of work involved in the facade and window replacement, which is estimated to cost a total of $113,483, a large budget shortfall could result in deferring historical building renovations.
“It really depends on what the magnitude of the shortfall is,” Herold said. “If the shortfall is a $5,000 shortfall, then the historic markers would possibly be something that would be deferred for a long time. … Although a lot of the facade work proposed here involves the windows on the Franklin Pond block, it also involves improvements to all of the aspects of the retail block — Catalpa Coffee, the soon-to-open Bear’s Den Bar in the old Seymour location, Magpie and Manna House. All of those have significant historical facades that we would be doing work on.”
Historic painting restoration
Museum of Our Industrial Heritage President James Terapane carried two paintings into the John Zon Community Center to detail the museum’s $24,600 request to preserve a collection of historic paintings recovered from the former Kennametal facility after it closed last spring.
According to Terapane, the oil-on-canvas paintings, measuring approximately 36 by 40 inches, each depict a milestone in the company’s history from 1871 into the 20th century. Terapane wrote in the application that two of the paintings were acquired by the Historical Society of Greenfield while the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage houses the other nine.
The application states that the museum has already spent an estimated $1,000 to have the paintings dry cleaned, inspected and placed into transport containers. While the application refers to the pieces of art as being in “excellent condition,” Terapane notes that cleaning and minor repairs have been advised to restore them to their “original brilliance.”
“It’s a really interesting project,” Community Preservation Committee Vice Chair Becky George said to Terapane. “I’m curious to know whether the public would have an opportunity to see these during this project, or if they’re interested, if there’s a place they can go to see them before they’re preserved.”
Terapane explained that while the museum does not have a space to show all the paintings, residents can certainly go to the museum to see them, or perhaps, the museum can host a temporary exhibit somewhere to showcase the art. The museum’s goal, Terapane added, is for the paintings to hang permanently in a public place, where they can be enjoyed by the community.
Millers Meadows invasive species removal
The Community Preservation Committee also reviewed the Planning & Development Department’s request for $20,000 to create a habitat for wildlife, remove invasive plant species, and create nature paths and walkways for recreation at Millers Meadows, the stretch of land between Colrain Street and the Green River.
With the project expected to cost $30,420 and the area’s tendency to flood, committee member Donna DuSell said she liked the project, but thought that plans to annually mow walking paths and the meadow area, and install benches along the paths, in addition to planting native species and removing invasive species, seemed “ambitious.”
“For me, it’s not so much the price tag, as much as it is reclaiming the land and getting it to a place where it’s more wild and a little more native. … It’s a very ambitious proposal,” DuSell said.
City Grant Writer Athena Bradley, admitting that flood risk is a problem, said that should CPA funding be awarded, she would contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency for floodplain mapping.
When George asked how litter left behind by the residents camping or living around the area might impact the project, Bradley responded that while there are people who illegally camp in the area permanently, litter is a minor problem.
“There are several regular people who encamp there overnight, which isn’t supposedly allowed, and there are some trash issues, but we’ve been working there for the whole year, and there’s not a lot of trash. There is a trash can that sometimes overflows, ’cause people dump their trash there,” Bradley said. “We don’t want to burden [the Department of Public Works]. They’re already overstretched. That is a concern and we’d have to work with DPW to manage that.”