The world hopes for a better 2021. And, if all goes according to plan for North Quabbin towns, it will also be a productive one.
This often overlooked region of the state is also rife with resources and ideas for the future.
Students are learning remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a new school building is in the works for them.
Bids on the site work for the town’s elementary school project were due Dec. 22 and Orange School Building Committee Chair Bruce Scherer said the work is expected to start in early to mid-January and consist of utilities, retaining walls and a new driveway.
A contract was recently awarded to T&M Equipment Corporation, in Springfield.
“We are meeting on site on the fourth (of January) — a walk-through, get-to-know-each-other kind of meeting,” Scherer said. “And we anticipate work to start shortly thereafter.”
This will be site work, and construction on the new school building is expected to start in the summer.
“It’s nice that we’re actually going to be able to put a shovel in the ground,” Scherer said.
A three-story, roughly 50,000-square-foot addition will be built onto Fisher Hill Elementary School, and Dexter Park Innovation School will be demolished. All students will be moved into the expanded and renovated building, which is expected to serve the town’s educational needs for at least 50 years.
Dexter Park was built in 1951 and the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a quasi-independent government authority, in 2006 designated it a “Category 4” school, its lowest rating. Voters approved funding a feasibility study in 2018 to study the Dexter Park issue and come up with options to repair or replace it.
The work is projected to cost $57.6 million, with a $45.7 million construction cost. Orange will contribute $23 million, to be raised through the debt exclusion residents ratified in July. The Massachusetts School Building Authority will cover 80 percent of the project’s eligible costs.
Scherer said Raymond Design Associates is handling the project “from soup to nuts, literally everything from drainage to construction of the building … to computers that are going to be in there, furniture.”
T&M Equipment Corporation is a women-owned heavy civil contractor, according to its website.
“They have a reputation for good work,” Scherer said.
Another big change could be in store for Orange in 2021, with the idea of converting town clerk from an elected position to an appointed one expected to be placed on the warrant for next year’s Annual Town Meeting. If it passes then, it will go to a vote at the polls at the next election.
A town clerk’s duties include issuing licenses, certificates and notifications, and other administrative work.
All Selectboard members seem enthusiastic about the idea, with the exception of Alexandre Schwanz.
“I don’t think that’s what Orange wants,” he said at a previous meeting weeks ago. “I don’t think it’s in Orange’s best interest.”
Schwanz’s opinions, previously emailed to the Greenfield Recorder, state “a significant salary increase would be necessary to recruit an appointed town clerk.” He said Town Clerk Nancy Blackmer earns less than $50,000 a year and the salaries of appointed town clerk positions on the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s website start at more than $76,000. He also said the “newly appointed office would be perpetually filled by inexperienced professionals seeking to start their careers and then move on to bigger and better positions.”
Notably, Mailloux strongly disagrees with Schwanz.
Mailloux has said putting the option up for a vote at the Jan. 16 Special Town Meeting would not provide voters with enough time to consider the issue. Moderator Christopher Woodcock this week shared a declaration to recess and continue the Orange Special Town Meeting, originally slated for Jan. 7 at Orange Town Hall, to Jan. 16 at 9:30 a.m. in the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School’s parking lot. He determined the current public health crisis posed too great a risk for those who plan to attend.
This new year will be the first one in nearly four and a half decades that Edward Chase has not been on the Wendell Police Department. But this is only one of the changes coming.
Wendell has entered into an inter-municipal agreement with Leverett for that town to provide its policing services. Wendell has contracted with the Leverett Police Department to respond to calls for service and in now in the middle of a 90-day agreement to experiment with the idea.
Leverett Police Chief Scott Minckler said the towns are in the agreement’s final days, as it ends Jan. 14. The Wendell Police Succession Committee is set to meet again Jan. 11, and Minckler said a new temporary agreement will be discussed.
Minckler said this new agreement will last either another 90 days or until the end of the fiscal year, on June 30.
“It will give us a better amount of time to work out a full agreement,” he said, adding that the towns are making some final tweaks to the agreement, which they recently got from their attorneys.
Minckler said there is still a great deal of enthusiasm about this plan.
“We’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from the Wendell residents,” he said. “So far, it’s been a very positive experience.”
The chief said his department has up to this point only responded to calls for service in Wendell. Starting Jan. 1, however, the department will conduct a few hours of patrols each week.
Minckler said his department has three full-time officers, with the third starting on Jan. 4, and six part-timers.
He mentioned the Massachusetts State Police responds to calls for service in Wendell when Leverett officers are unavailable.
Leverett and Wendell share a town line in the middle of the woods. There is a roughly 1-mile stretch of road in Shutesbury separating Leverett and Wendell.
Jeffrey and Natalie Reynolds have operated a bed-and-breakfast in Bar Harbor, Maine, and a bakery and coffee shop in Orange. But this is their first crack at running a general store in the wintertime and during a pandemic.
The Reynolds purchased the New Salem General Store at 410 Daniel Shays Highway and its land from Rick and Lori Oliver on June 30, in the middle of the public health crisis.
Jeff Reynolds said the store seems to be providing a sense of community and comfort during these troubling times. He said he and Natalie have only added, not subtracted, from the store the Olivers established. The Reynolds expect to sell gourmet chocolates and chocolate-dipped strawberries for Valentine’s Day
“We’re pretty excited,” Jeff said. “Now’s the time we’re going to look at product expansion.”
He said his customers have largely been cooperative and understanding of the mask requirement during the pandemic. He said masks are even at the front counter if customers forget one.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.