ORANGE — As 2022 turns to 2023, the town is preparing to receive $3.4 million to clean up debris and rubble resulting from a June 4 suspected arson, while also planning for staffing changes and finishing renovations at Fisher Hill Elementary School.
“I expect we’ll have it in hand by the beginning of the year,” Selectboard Chair Jane Peirce said of the money to clean up the debris from the fire at the former cereal factory at 16-36 West River St.
The incoming state money was announced in November, five months after the towering inferno that sent embers into the air, with some landing on the vacant former blacksmith shop near 24 East River St. and causing so much damage that it had to be demolished. The vacant buildings at 58 and 50 South Main St. also sustained damage.
The town also has $600,000 in remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money and it is a condition of the state funds that the ARPA money be spent on cleanup.
Three juveniles — with ages ranging from 12 and 14 at the time — were identified on June 6 and face criminal charges in connection with the suspected arson. Due to their ages, their names have been withheld by authorities. The state Department of Environmental Protection covered the debris for the public’s safety.
Town Administrator Gabriele Voelker reported in June having spent a little more than $400,000 in ARPA money on the cleanup, which was originally projected to cost $3.8 million. That figure was revised to $3.4 million, the same amount the town is set to receive from the state.
Less than a mile away, a 50,000-square-foot addition to Fisher Hill Elementary School is scheduled to open to students when the holiday break ends on Jan. 3.
Students in kindergarten through third grade will move from the school’s pre-existing section to the new building until the academic year concludes. Students in those grades will return to the other section, destined to be gutted and renovated, in the fall, at which point Dexter Park Innovation School students will be educated in the new addition. Dexter Park, built in 1951, will be demolished and replaced with a wildflower meadow.
The addition has 30 classrooms, a main office, administrative offices, a physical therapy room and a family resource center that will be accessible without having to come in the school’s main entrance. It will also have electronic security and intruder-proof glass called School Guard Glass, which is impenetrable. The expanded 97,000-square-foot building is expected to serve Orange’s needs for at least 50 years.
Dexter Park, which serves students in grades four through six, was designated in the lowest rating by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a quasi-independent government authority. Voters approved funding a feasibility study in 2018 to study the Dexter Park issue and come up with options to repair or replace it. In 2020, residents voted to ratify a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion override they had already passed at Town Meeting to start the Fisher Hill addition and renovations. The project will cost $45 million, of which Orange will pay roughly $22 million.
The town is also poised to hire a new town administrator/treasurer and a new community development director, with Gabriele “Gabe” Voelker and Alexander “Alec” Wade announcing their resignations a couple months ago. Voelker will retire as town administrator and treasurer on March 3 and Wade left on Nov. 13 to become Boxborough’s town planner and director of land use and permitting.
To find Voelker’s replacement, Orange has enlisted help from the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management. The center will present viable candidates to a steering committee that will recommend three candidates to go before the Selectboard for public job interviews.
During her town administrator’s report at the Dec. 14 Selectboard meeting, Voelker explained she posted the open community planning position on Indeed.com, an employment website for job listings, and received nine applications. However, there was a linguistic hiccup.
“They all think — this is very interesting — that community planning is planning events,” she said. “None of the applicants, not a single one, thought that community development was economics and community development.”
Voelker said the submitted resumés made mentions of planning community parties and events. She said the town has since sent information to planning departments in every Massachusetts town with a population of more than 10,000 to find someone who “will want to change their career, advance their career, come to Orange and be our community developer.”
The towns expect in 2023 to resolve the issue of a certain family of chemicals in the water at their shared Swift River School in New Salem.
The Wendell and New Salem selectboards voted a few months ago to support the installation of a system to filter out PFAS6, a set of six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances used in common consumer products like food packaging and outdoor clothing. New Salem, on behalf of both towns, is submitting an application for state grant funding for the work, according to Wendell Town Coordinator Glenn Johnson-Mussad.
“And the state does have PFAS grants available for smaller communities,” Johnson-Mussad said.
Tests of the school’s tap water in the fall of 2020 revealed elevated PFAS6 levels, though no state drinking water regulations had been violated. New Salem and Wendell immediately began brainstorming remedies for the situation. The towns are splitting the roughly $75,000 cost for engineering firm Tighe & Bond to install the filtration system.
The contaminants — also found in carpets, soaps, detergents and anything containing a fire retardant — are the result of groundwater seeping into the well under the school. Some people who drink water containing PFAS6 in excess of the maximum contaminant level may experience certain adverse effects on the liver, blood, immune system, thyroid and fetal development. PFAS6 may also elevate the risk of certain cancers.
Johnson-Mussad will begin his second year as Wendell’s town coordinator on Jan. 24. He said he looks forward to chipping away at the learning curve and having some institutional knowledge of town events and procedures.
“It’s great. The people are really wonderful. I like all the people,” he said last week. “I’ve learned so much.”
Johnson-Mussad, who will turn 52 on Dec. 31, replaced Alisha Brouillet, who was hired in mid-July 2021 and by November announced she needed to step down for personal reasons.
After much preparation, Vincent and Laura Barletta hope to open the New Salem Museum and Academy of Fine Art at 37 South Main St. in March.
What initially appeared to be a simple process has dragged on after some in town were concerned about noise pollution, alcohol use and environmental impacts. A lawsuit was filed in state Land Court about a year and a half ago by abutters Steven and Jane Schoenberg, Peter and Sandra Fisher, Dorothy Johnson and Susan Arnold, who objected to the special permit issued to the Barlettas by the Planning Board, which is listed as a defendant along with the Barlettas. Johnson is listed as a plaintiff but died in February.
The New Salem Planning Board voted on Dec. 21 to approve the parking plan for 37 South Main St.
A painting studio on the top floor is expected to be the site of workshops conducted by the artists who are featured in the Barlettas’ collection. According to the facility’s website, the academy’s curriculum “will be based on the concept of a graduate program, where students can immerse themselves in the different techniques displayed throughout the collection.”
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.