Overview:
Athol has been awarded a $25,000 state Land Conservation Assistance Grant to update its Open Space and Recreation Plan, which expires in February of next year. The grant will pay for the town to hire a consultant to update portions of the plan. A public survey will be conducted as part of the update process. The town has also received a $15,500 Shared Streets and Spaces grant for the placement of bike racks in downtown Athol.
ATHOL – A newly-acquired state grant will go towards an update of the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan.
Assistant Town Planner Heidi Murphy said that she was able to secure a $25,000 state Land Conservation Assistance Grant which will pay for the town to hire a consultant to update portions of the plan, which expires in February of next year.
If the plan were to expire, Murphy said, “we would not be eligible for trails grants, parks grants; we could potentially miss out on a lot of funding. The grant is for $25,000 and in reality, a complete plan update usually costs about $50,000, but we received the maximum we applied for.”
Some of the groundwork toward updating the plan may have already been done, Murphy added.
“When I first started working here, Brian Hall, who was on the Open Space and Recreation Commission, he had actually done a majority of the updates,” she added.
Muyrphy explained that the consultant will likely be charged with doing the public outreach as pat of the update process. Murphy said Town Planner Eric Smith would handle wording and distribution of a public survey.
“We’re going to have (the consultant) handle public engagement, and they’ll also help with updating the open space inventory,” she said.
Murphy said the town may also get some technical assistance from the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission.
“In order to receive grants from the state, you have to have a valid, current open space plan,” said Open Space and Recreation Commission member David Small. “This is really helpful, especially given that we don’t have a lot of staff, particularly with the fiscal constraints the town is in right now. So getting this grant is really important.”
Small added the town should have enough time to complete the update before the current plan expires.
“Most of it is really already complete,” he said. “The parks are still there and the open spaces, so the update is really coming up with an action plan for the next seven years. That’s what we have to update. We just have to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
In a letter to the commission, Murphy said the town has also received a Shared Streets and Spaces grant of $15,500. The program is overseen by the state Department of Transportation. The funds will pay for the placement of some bike racks in downtown Athol. They will be placed on a strip of grass near the Athol Area YMCA and will accommodate a total of 16 bicycles. She added the installation completes the first phase of a bike rack installation program she had planned to administer in increments.