Gulf Road to be closed Tuesday

Selectboard members voted during their Aug. 22 meeting to notify Northfield residents that Gulf Road will be closed Tuesday, Aug. 29, through the CodeRED mobile alert system.

According to Highway Superintendent Thomas Walker’s note in the meeting’s agenda, the road will be closed to replace a culvert.

Selectboard seeks three EMS facility panel members

After voters turned down two of the three articles pertaining to the development of emergency services facilities at June’s Special Town Meeting, the Selectboard voted to expand the committee to include three new members.

The board will be accepting applications for the three positions until Sept. 14 at noon, with a focus on strong citizen interest and involvement.

Currently, Police Chief Jon Hall, Fire Chief Floyd “Skip” Dunnell, EMS Chief Mark Fortier, Selectboard member Heath Cummings, Finance Committee member Bernhard Porada, and Planning Board member Steve Seredynski serve on the committee, but Selectboard members emphasized the importance of citizen’s voices.

“I don’t think the composition of the committee itself needs to change. I think there needs to be more citizen input, whether they’re on the committee or not,” Cummings said. “People need to show up to these meetings and not just to the vote because most of the time when they show up to our meetings that we have had, they have misconceptions left and right and assumptions that are so far out of fact.”

Cummings added that citizens attending the Emergency Services Facilities Committee meetings will help prevent these misconceptions.

In June, voters failed to pass an article to transfer $450,000 from the town’s Capital Stabilization Account and $312,012 from an account containing proceeds of the sale of a cell tower easement.

Although voters passed the second article, which asked voters to raise or appropriate $500,000 for fiscal year 2024 toward the costs of an emergency services building, they voted against authorizing the Selectboard to acquire a property at 168 Main St. in the third article.

The string of setbacks came after voters turned down an article in April that sought $13.5 million to pay for a new 18,200-square-foot public safety complex at 121 Main St. 

“I felt like there was a lack of trust on the town’s side, like we were trying to pull something over their eyes,” said Selectboard Chair Alex Meisner, referring to June’s meeting. “We need a new direction on where our facility committee is going to be heading.”

Northfield hosting 350th parade

Town Administrator Andrea Llamas announced during the Selectboard meeting that Main Street will be closed on Saturday, Sept. 30, from 1 to 3 p.m. for Northfield’s 350th Parade.

A fireworks show and craft fair with local sellers will commemorate the town’s birthday.

“It’s a sense of history and community,” Llamas said after the meeting. “We have lots of participants, so we’re really hoping that residents and non-residents will come out to watch. It’s going to be a good show.”

Llamas told the Selectboard she will send postcards to residents on Pine Road and Highland Avenue notifying them of the road closure and keep the Selectboard and town updated on the parade’s progress.

Selectboard signs boat ramp cleanup contract

After disastrous flooding across Franklin County, the Selectboard signed a boat ramp cleanup contract as damage control.

According to Town Administrator Andrea Llamas, the Selectboard serves as the middleman for the cleanup, with the state giving the board the money to pay for a vendor that will clean off, test, and dispose of the silt and debris on the boat ramp.

“It doesn’t cost us anything, they pay us” Llamas said, referring to the state government.

Selectboard member Sarah Kerns described the boat ramp as “really silty,” with Chair Alex Meisner adding that he finds the ramp “disgusting.”

Grant development director begins program to attract businesses

Mallory Sullivan, the grant development director for the Selectboard, shared her plans to apply for a vacant storefront program grant, run through the National Office of Business Development.

Sullivan said the program will likely involve creating a directory of vacant property where businesses were once located in the past 10 years.

Prospective business owners and anyone interested in the property will then be able to read the directory in Town Hall or on the town’s website as a catalog of potential locations.

Sullivan said contributing information on vacant property to the directory would be “completely voluntary… completely free” for interested residents.

“What this really is about is helping to connect prospective business owners or people who want to open up shop in Northfield with people who have available properties,” Sullivan said.

Town Administrator Andrea Llamas said in a phone call on Thursday that she and Sullivan will first send letters to owners of vacant property where businesses ran in the past 10 years before applying to the grant in early November.

Selectboard member and Economic Development Advisory Board Chair Sarah Kerns expressed frustration with Sullivan’s presentation, claiming that the committee created a spreadsheet of business owners in Northfield at its last meeting, which Sullivan attended.

“It seems to have taken advantage of the work that we’ve done and bypassed it,” Kerns said.

Sullivan insisted that she viewed the committee’s developing spreadsheet and the vacant storefront program as different projects, with the program being more targeted for attracting new businesses or expanding businesses.

In response, the Selectboard discussed whether Sullivan’s presence at every Economic Development Advisory Board meeting is beneficial.

Andrea Llamas defended Sullivan’s involvement as important due to the overlapping goals of the advisory board and grant development director, but added that she would alert the Selectboard if Sullivan was overbooked with the advisory board in the fall when grant deadlines pile up.