FirstLight Hydro Generating Co. will fund four projects centered around sustainability and community improvements in Gill, Montague and Erving through its new “FirstLight Sustains” grant program.

Initiatives from the Erving Public Library, Nolumbeka Project, town of Gill and Youth Climate Action Now/Brick House Community Resource Center are among a pool of 13 across Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania to receive a combined $59,500 through this first-ever round of awards. Each of the four Franklin County projects were awarded $5,000. Recipients are “implementing activities and projects that meet the goal of improving the quality of life in those communities,” according to FirstLight.

The FirstLight Sustains’ review and selection committee considered two main criteria when choosing recipients. One area of consideration focused on climate action and education in an effort to “promote awareness of, appreciation for, or access to public conservation and sustainability efforts, and support the protection, restoration and betterment of natural resources,” according to FirstLight. The other area of consideration related to community building and supporting “efforts to enhance the communities in which we live and work through public safety improvements, public art projects, placemaking and community-led services.”

“We were very pleased with the incredible response and the thoughtful grant proposals that we received in our first year of the FirstLight Sustains program,” Andy Brydges, FirstLight’s director of community relations, said in the statement. “We are proud to support these organizations and these projects that will make a positive and immediate impact on our shared communities, something we value highly at FirstLight.”

Town of Gill

The $5,000 grant given to Gill will support the replacement of the front steps on the Riverside Municipal Building. This is expected to make access to the building safer, while also serving as a step toward reopening the building’s museum to the public for the first time since its closure shortly before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Historical Commission Chair Kit Carpenter, the structural integrity of the front steps has been declining for some time, to the point where they are now “crumbling.” The opposite side of the building has a ramp as an alternative access point, but the ramp is primarily intended for use by Four Winds School, which is housed inside. Carpenter said the Historical Commission, which convenes in a room beside the school, wants to infringe on the school’s space as little as possible.

Additionally, replacement of these steps will allow the Historical Commission to reopen Gill’s museum, located in the commission’s meeting room, to the public for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission has discussed plans to reopen the museum consistently during its monthly meetings, but members have established that they would not do so until the steps are replaced.

“We are very much anxious to do that, so we’re going to be very pleased once those steps are finished,” Carpenter said.

“The new steps will be safer and more attractive, and a much more fitting entrance to the revamped museum,” Town Administrator Ray Purington wrote in an email. “On days when the school is in session and the museum is open, the new steps will allow most museum visitors to directly access the museum without disturbing the students.”

Nolumbeka Project

The Nolumbeka Project’s award will help offset the cost of featuring guest speakers and artists at the annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival, which reprises the 12,000-plus-year tradition of Indigenous peoples from across the Northeastern United States gathering there, according to event coordinator Diane Dix.

“The festival costs some $30,000 a year and that’s a lot of money to raise, so we’re really grateful for that [funding],” Dix said. “We depend on people’s donations and grants like this in order to make it free and available for everybody.”

“We usually need to raise about $30,000 year in and year out, and all of that comes from sponsors,” Nolumbeka Project President David Brule added.

Erving Public Library

The Erving Public Library’s $5,000 grant will help staff maintain the native perennial pollinator garden. The plant bed, which was implemented in 2020, was converted into a full garden last year with help from the state’s Library Services Technology Act “Dig In” grant program.

Library Director Abigail Baines said the grant will be used to extend the flower bed closer to the road, add varieties of perennial plants and fund related educational events. She noted that the state has endorsed a 2024 summer reading theme “Read, Renew, Repeat” focusing on the conservation of native species. Baines hopes that Erving Public Library’s garden can function in harmony with what children will be learning next summer.

“Hopefully, the work will correspond with some of the programming at the garden,” she said, noting that she expects work to begin in either spring or summer 2024.

Youth Climate Action Now and Brick House Community Resource Center

Youth Climate Action Now and Brick House Community Resource Center’s award will benefit the maintenance of three pollinator gardens in Turners Falls: two at Montague Town Hall, one at Unity Park and one downtown.

Project leader Peter Wackernagel said the grant will cover reimbursement costs for work done this past summer, as well as fund supplies for next summer’s seasonal maintenance. Specifically, the money will be put toward wood chip mulching, removal of invasive species, fostering biodiversity through “a wider range of pollinator species” and additional signs.

The gardening program has also received funding from Greenfield Savings Bank, the New England Grassroots Environment Fund and the town of Montague, according to Brick House Executive Director Tom Taaffe. In addition to being grateful for having better means to purchase supplies, Taaffe said support for the gardens means more work opportunities for local youth, who are the primary caretakers of the gardens. Wackernagel said he employs youth for six- to seven-week periods each the summer with funding from MassHire’s YouthWorks employment program.

“I think it’s really great that FirstLight and all the other funders … could come together,” Taaffe said, “and create positive work opportunities for kids so we can make our contribution to unify the community.”

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.