ATHOL — Much of the important work that gets done in communities like Athol gets done by people willing to commit some time to making their community a better, more vibrant, more pleasing place to live — in other words, by volunteers. Athol Planning and Development Director Eric Smith told the Athol Daily News he is looking for volunteers to sit on a couple of committees, one dedicated to revitalizing the downtown retail core and another charged with addressing energy related issues.
When it comes to the Downtown Vitality Committee, Smith said, “We don’t always, but we try to have people who are either downtown business owners or property owners to join the committee. But we also have citizens at large who are interested in supporting and helping to revitalize the downtown.”
The DVC meets once a month at Town Hall, generally on the second Tuesday of the month.
“Some of the projects they’ve been working on in the last couple of years,” he said, “we’re doing that wayfinding and branding project. We’re hoping to wrap up a couple of different design concepts to take before the Selectboard later this summer. I submitted a grant to get some consultant assistance for the development of design guidelines, and that’s a project in which the Downtown Vitality Committee will be taking a leadership role.”
Smith also said the DVC is likely to be working closely with the town’s Economic Development and Industrial Corp. regarding the redevelopment of the area surrounding the now-closed downtown parking garage, which is slated for demolition. In June, Town Meeting voters gave the EDIC ownership of the garage and the property it occupies.
He also said the DVC helps to oversee the popular Fourth Fridays program, which takes place on the fourth Friday of each month throughout the summer. The committee will also be working with the oversight committee of the town’s Parking Benefits District on projects that could be funded with receipts from downtown parking meters.
“There’s really an opportunity for someone to kind of come in and take an active leadership role in revitalizing downtown,” said Smith. “It doesn’t have to be a downtown business owner. If we got a couple of submissions of interest and one was a business owner and the other wasn’t, we would welcome anyone who is interested in downtown. But we’d definitely like to see a downtown business owner or property owner, if possible. At the moment, we only have one vacancy, but we could also look at having an associate member position.”
The Energy Committee currently has one official opening, with the potential for another seat opening up in the not-too-distant future, according to Smith.
Among other things, he said, “The committee is still trying to tackle the Town Hall heating issue. They still haven’t been able to crack that nut yet. So, that is something a new person could hopefully provide some direction and guidance on and have an interest in.
“Originally, this committee was established to help oversee and make recommendations on the Green Communities grant project, and that’s still something they would be involved with. But we’re now early in the process of working on the Net Zero Energy program. So, that would be a newer role for this committee.”
The goal of that program is to improve and modernize energy usage in municipal buildings and departments in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. It is formally known as the Athol Municipal Decarbonization Plan.
“I do see the committee as having a more active role in some of these larger energy planning issues and decarbonization projects,” Smith continued. “When we were working on the Athol solar zoning bylaw process, it could be excruciatingly difficult at times, but I always kept saying to folks, ‘Look, when it comes to these issues we should probably think more globally and do some kind of climate planning,’ and it’s good we’re doing that kind of work now as well.”
Anyone interested in joining either committee should email Smith at: esmith@townofathol.org.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com