Editor’s note: As part of the Greenfield Recorder’s end-of-the-year features, we are publishing in two parts our choices for the top 10 newsmakers of 2023. Part 1 was published in Saturday’s edition. They are listed in no particular order.

Community and economic development roles

Multiple towns put their efforts toward creating new positions that focus on acquiring grants and fostering community and economic development, while others got new people serving in the role.

After hiring Grant Development Director Mallory Sullivan in October 2022, Northfield formed a new Economic Development Advisory Board in hopes of strengthening the town’s economy.

In Deerfield, Blandford Town Administrator Christopher Dunne has been hired to fill the planning and economic development coordinator position that the Selectboard has been discussing for nearly two years. Dunne will be tasked with securing grants, developing strategic support and coordination for town government and projects, working with land-use boards on bylaw development and providing permitting help.

After five years of spearheading significant redevelopment projects in Greenfield, MJ Adams retired as director of the Community and Economic Development Department in May. Northampton resident Amy Cahillane was tapped to replace her in July.

After Alec Wade, Orange’s first community development director, left the role in November 2022, he was replaced by Mikael Pyrtel. The Selectboard offered Pyrtel the job in July.

— Shelby Brock

Rhonda Anderson and Tomantha Sylvester

The 60-foot fiberglass Native American statue on Route 2 in Charlemont was sold and moved to Vinita, Oklahoma in August, due in part to the advocacy of Rhonda Anderson and Tomantha Sylvester — although this was not exactly the outcome they had hoped for.

In the year before the statue’s removal, Anderson, a member of the Iñupiaq Athabaskan nation and the western Massachusetts commissioner on Indian Affairs, and Sylvester, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and an artist in residence at Ashfield’s Ohketeau Cultural Center, called for its modification or destruction.

Through multiple public and private meetings, written letters and a petition that kick-started the discussions, Anderson and Sylvester continuously educated the public, illustrating how harmful stereotypes led to the continual erasure and mistreatment of Native Americans.

Anderson also works through the Ohketeau Cultural Center and other entities to obtain grants and run programming to provide safe, rewarding and enriching experiences for the Indigenous community and educational resources to the wider public about Indigenous culture.

— Bella Levavi

Notable Greenfield departures

The departure of many notable Greenfield officials left the city with many moving pieces.

Department of Energy and Sustainability Director Carole Collins, Health Director Jennifer Hoffman, Community and Economic Development Director MJ Adams and Greenfield Public Library Director Ellen Boyer all left their positions in 2023. Most of these positions have already been filled by new staff.

While the positions all have big shoes to fill, the employees left for a variety of reasons. Adams and Boyer retired, while Collins took a job as director of Northampton’s Climate Action and Project Administration (CAPA) Department and Hoffman left citing public harassment.

In their time working for the city, Collins helped Greenfield get recognized in 2021 by the Department of Energy Resources for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 70% since 2008. Hoffman led the city through the COVID-19 pandemic. Adams took part in planning behind the redevelopment of the former Wilson’s Department Store, putting Green Fields Market in the lower level and housing on the upper levels. Boyer oversaw the long-awaited construction of a new library.

— Bella Levavi

Glen Ayers

Retired health agent Glen Ayers, who initiated the petition launching the process to designate the former Lunt Silversmiths property as a Public Involvement Plan (PIP) site, and subsequently an audit of the site cleanup process, continued to advocate for properly remediating the contamination, as well as for increased transparency in the process.

The audit “documented that the Lunt property was not properly investigated or cleaned up, the contamination is not controlled, and the city had violated numerous sections of the hazardous waste site cleanup regulations,” Ayers wrote in a My Turn column for the Greenfield Recorder.

He wrote that, according to information on file with the state Department of Environmental Protection, the most prevalent chemical contaminant at Lunt is trichloroethylene (TCE), a cancer-causing chlorinated solvent.

“This dangerous chemical leaked into the soil and underlying groundwater below Lunt, and the spilled TCE has contaminated 6 million gallons of groundwater under the site, resulting in a contamination plume that has spread into the adjacent commercial and residential neighborhood,” he wrote. “Exposure to TCE causes many diseases, including birth defects and cancer. It is especially dangerous for children, pregnant mothers and any women of child-bearing age.”

Ayers and other members of the Lunt Neighborhood Action Group also feel there has been no transparency regarding site cleanup.

— Domenic Poli

Migrants and refugees

Forty-six immigrant and refugee families have arrived in Greenfield since June as part of the at least 5,600 currently housed in the state’s emergency shelter system.

Thirty-eight of these families are being housed at the Days Inn in Greenfield while eight are at the Greenfield Family Inn, according to Amy Timmins, vice president of community relations at ServiceNet, which has been tapped as the on-site provider through a contract signed with the state.

Many of the immigrant and refugee families are Haitian immigrants coming from the Boston area, according to Mayor Roxann Wedegartner. These families, and others, benefited from a toy drive coordinated in December by ServiceNet. The drive also benefited REACH, ServiceNet’s early childhood intervention program.

The arrivals in July were a bit of a surprise for the city, which had received just hours’ notice from the state that families with children would be provided emergency shelter in Greenfield due to a “critical shortage of affordable housing.” This initiated a flood of support from the community and ServiceNet starting working with the families to connect them with health care services, transportation, meals and landlords.

Monetary donations can still be made online at servicenet.org/donate/shelterdonate. Money can be directed to the families in Greenfield directly by including a note in the “Other” section on the form.

In response to the immigrants’ arrival, Mesa Verde owner Amy McMahan has offered weekly Haitian food pop-ups from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on Sundays to help the newcomers feel at home. The dinners feature a new menu each week and are open to the general public.

“[A woman came] who is Haitian-American from Turners Falls and she was so excited,” McMahan recounted. “With food, it’s like you close your eyes and someone can hand you a plate and you say, ‘This is where I’m from. This is what it tastes like.’”

— Domenic Poli