Editor’s note: Many media outlets write about the year’s top national and international news stories and newsmakers. As a community newspaper, the Greenfield Recorder chose to focus on local news. This is the second installment of the 12 Top News Stories of 2021, which are presented in no particular order. The first was in Wednesday’s edition.
MONTAGUE — Following the early 2021 closure of the Farren Care Center, a long-term care facility that cared for people with medical and mental health problems, parent company Trinity Health shook the community by recommending the facility’s demolition Nov. 8.
The Farren on Montague City Road was closed upon Trinity Health’s determination that the building is outdated and would be too expensive to bring up to modern standards. The closure plan entailed the merging of the Farren with Holyoke’s Mount Saint Vincent Care Center.
“The intention is to do the best to serve our residents in the best way possible,” Trinity Health of New England Senior Communities spokesperson Christine Looby said in August 2020. “But a large infusion of cash to bring the building in Turners Falls back to modern standards just didn’t make sense.”
The decision was met with heavy backlash from the community, with many concerned residents arguing that the timing was too abrupt for patients and their families to change facilities. People also voiced concern regarding potential negative economic impacts of a relatively large employer leaving the town.
“This is terrible timing,” David Roulston, a Greenfield lawyer who has served as guardian for many Farren patients over the past 30 years, said in September 2020. “Couldn’t be worse.”
Public grievances were renewed when the recommendation to demolish the Farren was brought forward by Trinity Health during a Selectboard meeting on Nov. 8.
“That was really the first time I heard the community really pause and gasp relative to this,” Town Administrator Steve Ellis said at a Nov. 29 Selectboard meeting.
The town plans to continue conversations with Trinity Health before making a decision.
— Julian Mendoza
MONTAGUE — The General Pierce Bridge, a primary route between Montague and Greenfield, closed for a two-year construction project on April 26.
This closure is for a $13.7 million rehabilitation of the bridge, designed to keep it standing for another 25 years. The rehabilitation, carried out by Northern Construction Service, is mainly focused around rebuilding the deck, and replacing some of the steel support structure underneath. A full replacement was considered, but was estimated to cost at least $60 million.
“I remember being a young kid in middle school and high school, running on that bridge and thinking, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe this bridge is still standing,’” former Selectboard member Mike Nelson said at a February 2020 meeting. “Fast forward, I’m pushing 40 years old, and I still can’t believe the bridge is standing.”
Town officials and the public alike have remained hopeful that repainting of the upper structure might possibly be included in rehabilitation plans, something that was initially factored out. The town is waiting on word from the state Department of Transportation (MassDOT) on whether repainting may be possible.
“I’d just like to see really good-quality paint on the bridge to help protect the steel, and help that investment last even longer,” Montague Selectboard Chair Rich Kuklewicz said in February 2020.
Initially slated for completion in fall 2023, Town Administrator Steve Ellis announced at a Selectboard meeting Oct. 12 that General Pierce Bridge construction is now set to be complete by May 13, 2023.
“That is a huge improvement, particularly right before the summer season right when we have a lot of guests and visitors who come to the community,” he said.
— Julian Mendoza
Following years of advocacy from Gill and Erving, the towns began working with the state Department of Transportation to have suicide prevention barriers installed at the French King Bridge.
The project will be funded 80% by the Federal Highway Administration and 20% by MassDOT. According to David Comerford of MassDOT’s contracted design firm Gill Engineering, the barriers will be 9 feet tall, and are intended to match the style of the bridge and limit disrupting the view of the river. The design was endorsed by the Selectboards of Gill and Erving.
“Once I can see that it’s done, and I can walk across that bridge and know that some other mom isn’t going to have to walk up there and cry, then I’m good,” said Oxford resident Stacey Hamel, whose stepson, Bryan Hamel, was suspected to have jumped from the bridge.
Erving and Gill town officials were surprised to find that the French King Bridge project was kept off of MassDOT’s Capital Investment Plan in spring 2020. It wasn’t until February 2021, following a series of inquiries from town officials, that MassDOT announced the project is finally moving ahead, with design work set to finish this year, and construction planned for the summer of 2022.
Timed with the planned installation of safety barriers on the French King Bridge, town officials in Gill and Erving are also collaborating to install a plaque in memory of lives lost to suicide there.
“There’s been so much loss at that bridge,” Gill Town Administrator Ray Purington said. “I think it’s important to give people the space and place to reflect.”
— Julian Mendoza
GREENFIELD — Mayor Roxann Wedegartner executed years-old plans to test the conversion of Court Square into a pedestrian plaza this year, garnering mixed feelings from the community.
The project — which originally came forward in 2017 with a goal of creating more quality open space around the Greenfield Common — involved closing Court Square to vehicular traffic. It was implemented with funding from the state Department of Transportation’s Shared Streets and Spaces Program. First steps of the pilot project included alteration of traffic patterns on June 25 and barricading the entryway a week later. After months of outdoor events and casual pedestrian occupation, Court Square reopened for vehicular traffic on Nov. 24.
As anticipated by nature of it being a trial period, the project pleased some and concerned others.
“I’ve heard great things,” Precinct 3 City Councilor Ashli Stempel-Rae said in July. “I saw many of the constituents who were really upset about this change enjoying themselves on Sunday (July 11) at the Village Pizza party.”
On the other hand, City Clerk Kathy Scott said a petition to reverse the pilot project was submitted to her office by resident David Lewis on Aug. 16, with signatures exceeding the minimum required. Following a public hearing on the petition at an Appointments and Ordinances Committee meeting in October, Scott relayed the legal opinion on the petition as requested by the mayor, which states that while City Council should hear the petition, it cannot grant the request as executive powers for the city — which include the day-to-day use and operation of public ways — are “vested solely with the mayor.”
To reopen Court Square in November, staff at the Department of Public Works removed the temporary planters and street furniture; re-established one-way, southbound-only traffic on Court Square from Main Street to Bank Row; and re-established short-term, handicap and loading zone parking spaces.
— Julian Mendoza
COLRAIN — The cotton bleaching company allegedly responsible for the deaths of more than 270,000 fish following an acid spill at its Colrain facility in 2019 agreed earlier this month to pay nearly $1.5 million in settlements.
Barnhardt Manufacturing Co. spilled dozens of gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid into Colrain’s North River in September 2019. The incident wreaked havoc on the river’s aquatic life, with locals reporting seeing dead dace, bass, trout and longnose suckers. The settlement was announced Dec. 7 by state Attorney General Maura Healey, the Baker-Polito administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“The sulfuric acid spill caused by this company was devastating for the Colrain community and left long-lasting damage to the North River,” Healey said in a prepared statement. “Today’s settlements will hold Barnhardt accountable for harming this rich ecosystem and will provide significant funding to restore nearby natural resources and fisheries.”
The state and federal settlements will also require Barnhardt to take steps to comply with water pollution, hazard management and chemical accident prevention laws at its bleaching facility and associated wastewater treatment facility. Barnhardt is also required to undertake additional training, planning and operations to prevent releases in the future.
Barnhardt will pay up to $500,000 in penalties, including $200,000 to the state’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Fund, and will finance “the replacement and/or enhancement of one or more culverts located in the Deerfield River watershed in Colrain, at a cost of $300,000,” according to the Attorney General’s Office. The company will also pay the state more than $360,000 to fund environmental restoration projects, to compensate for the harm to natural resources and fisheries, and to reimburse the costs of assessing natural resource damages.
In a separate statement, Barnhardt President and Chief Operating Officer Lewis Barnhardt said the fourth-generation family company has taken its responsibilities seriously and has worked to address problems identified at the Colrain site, hiring experts to conduct inspections, reviews and maintenance.
“At the time of the accident, the tank was surrounded by a concrete containment structure. A small drip — at a drip rate of approximately once every five minutes — was observed around supply piping on the side of the tank in late August 2019,” he stated. “The drip was believed to be from a connection or seal and was being entirely held within the concrete containment area. The company had previously decided to replace the tank and not allow it to take any more materials.”
— Domenic Poli