Athol Select Board approves Lord Pond Plaza name change

ATHOL – Following a brief presentation by Planning and Development Director Eric Smith, the Select Board voted to change the name of Lord Pond Plaza to Mill Brook Crossing.

The board voted 3-1 at its meeting on Tuesday, July 7, to change the name, with Vice Chair Marc Maxwell opposed.

Smith told the board that just over 56% of the 291 people who responded to an online survey supported the name change. He also noted that the Historical Commission and Downtown Vitality Committee had voted in favor of the name change.

Mary Holtorf of the Downtown Vitality Committee, who was in attendance at the meeting, said she’s “still partial” to the name Lord Pond Plaza, but sees the greening of the plaza and the name change to Mill Brook Crossing as part of a larger effort to revitalize the neighborhood. She noted that the town hopes to redevelop the area off Canal Street, which borders the plaza, into residential and green space.

“So I think we can still work with the name Lord Pond; maybe Lord Pond Plaza, but maybe Lord Pond Park,” she said. “I see this all as part of a much bigger effort.”

The redevelopment of the site includes daylighting the Mill Brook, creating wetlands, green space and pollinator gardens. The finished site will include space for community events, increase the safety of traffic moving through the plaza and reduce the heat island created by the dark asphalt covering the nearly six-acre parking lot.

Select Board Chair Bill Chiasson said that earlier Tuesday afternoon, he had visited Ocean State Job Lot and spoke to the manager who, he said, was in favor of changing the name to Mill Brook Crossing. The plaza is also home to the Senior Center, North Quabbin Veterans Center, and the North Quabbin Chamber of Commerce.

Chiasson said that Ocean State “is the only taxpaying business that’s there. I thought it would be good to have their input, and the manager thinks it would be a nice change.”

Board member Mitch Grosky then moved to formally change the name of the plaza to Mill Brook Crossing, seconded by Russell Raymond.

“I’m still not in favor of changing it,” said Maxwell, who had expressed opposition at the board’s May 5 meeting. “I think it’s great we had the survey and stuff, but I don’t think it was a good enough slice of the voting public. I’m just generally not in favor of changing anything. If we were naming it after a war hero or a town person, it’d be different. But in my opinion, it’s just trying to make the name sound fancier, and I’m against it.”

Chiasson said that Mill Brook is in and of itself important to the town of Athol.

“Without Mill Brook, first of all, there never would have been a Lord Pond, because Lord Pond was only formed by damming up Lord Brook,” Chiasson said. “But Mill Brook is named that because it provided power for some 11, 12, 13 different mills – much more so than the Millers River.”

“At the same time, there are no more working mills along Mill Brook,” said Maxwell.

Smith told the board that there have been discussions about installing some signs, possibly near the footbridge that was built over Mill Brook, about the history of the old mills to honor the Lord family.

“We brought this up months ago, before we did the survey,” said Raymond. “We wanted the voters of Athol, the residents of Athol, to decide on the name of this plaza, and they voted. I’m willing to go with what my constituents in Athol want us to do.”