This Week's Winchendon News
Residents Voice Concerns About Utilities, Traffic and Parking for Proposed 22-Unit Housing on Railroad Street
At table from left, Matthew Stengel and Felix Garcia listen to Timothy Grace responding to a question from the Board
Photo copyright Town of Winchendon
At the Planning Board meeting held on Tuesday, July 7, a public hearing was held regarding the proposed conversion of the former Winchendon Furniture Company retail store complex on Railroad Street into 22 housing units. Appearing before the Board to present their initial plans and schematics were Matthew Stengel of Landtech Consultants and Felix Garcia of Garcia Engineering LLC. Also present was Timothy Grace from engineering firm Tighe & Bond, which has done some studies on the site, and one of the current property owners, Michael Surprenant, although he did not come forward to speak.
Mr. Stengel began by giving an overview of the project. "So our project is located at 61 Railroad Street. The project site consists of five parcels under common ownership. The project site is approximately 2.1 acres, and we have frontage on Spruce Street and Railroad Street. The site contains the building, which is the former Winchendon Furniture Company, that was a local business. It was in business for over 80 years. Unfortunately, they closed down just over two years ago, and since then their building on Railroad Street has sat vacant.
"The site today is mostly developed and disturbed. There's the existing building structures, some paved parking areas, graded lawn area, and a small portion of undisturbed woods along the northern property lines. Our project proposes to redevelop the site into a 22 unit residential apartment building. This would include renovating the interior of the existing building and upgrading parking and access, upgrading storm water drainage, and constructing new utility connections. The layout of the project has been designed to utilize to the greatest extent possible the existing disturbed areas. We're trying to minimize any disturbances to any woods or tree removal on the site.
"So the apartments are to be a mixture of one, two, three, and four bedroom units. There's going to be six one bedroom units, 11 two bedroom units, four three bedroom units, and one four bedroom unit. The interior of the building also includes a shared multipurpose room that would be for all the residents, and there's also a proposed shared outdoor courtyard space at the center of our building, where there will be outdoor picnic tables, benches, that type of stuff.
"Access to the site will use an existing curb cut that provides access to the existing parking lot behind the building, which is on Spruce Street. That entrance will be realigned and repaved to provide a full 24 foot width entrance and exit, and a second entrance is proposed on Railroad Street. There is an existing curb cut on Railroad Street, where there's a small paved parking area in front of the building, so we plan to utilize that existing curb cut to minimize disturbances to curbing, etc. Where we propose to reconfigure the parking area, do some regrading and realigning of the parking to provide 44 dedicated parking spaces. 11 of these parking spaces are proposed to be compact spaces, just to help reduce impervious area. Additionally, two of these parking spaces will be handicap accessible."
Mr. Stengel said that a traffic engineering firm found there would be no adverse effects on traffic in the neighborhood from changing the site to residential from commercial use.
Image copyright Town of Winchendon
Image copyright Town of WinchendonMr. Stengel said that they had received some analysis and feedback from Town Engineer Patrick Wood and the peer review engineer from Tighe & Bond, and had submitted new packets with revisions just in the last couple of days.
Also, Mr. Stengel said, they had done analysis on the impact which changing the use of the building from commercial to residential would have on the sewer flow into the municipal sewer system. (Residents will remember that the main line down Central Street was replaced as part of the Central Street Reconstruction Project.) The conversion will "almost triple" the flow into the system, he said. "We did provide a detailed analysis of this, of the sewer system downstream of our site, we surveyed the pipes from Spruce Street and Railroad Street all the way down past Central Street to evaluate the capacity for all the pipes in those roads that our site would be discharging to...We did update some of our assumptions for how we calculated the total amount of flow going through the sewer system, and we updated some of the methodologies that were used to to analyze the pipes and the average daily flows, the peak rate flows. It's our opinion that the updated analysis provides a pretty accurate representation of the of the sewer system, and our analysis does show that the sewer system does provide the appropriate capacity for the sewer flows from the site."
Mr. Garcia introduced himself as the structural engineer on the project, saying "I know that there's a housing crisis in the Commonwealth, also in the nation, and I know that this is a great project. It's going to provide increased tax revenue for the town, it's going to support local businesses as well, it's going to provide vitality to the community."
Planning Board Chair Guy Corbosiero said that because the town had not had time to review all the comments in the latest submissions, the Board would not be making any decisions tonight. Mr. Wood said that they were in middle of reviewing everything and would be happy to hear comments or questions from residents.
A Board member asked about whether 44 parking spaces would be enough for 22 units. Mr. Stengel said that he was figuring one parking space per bedroom, while trying to minimize the amount of impervious (paved) area. "I think I could squeeze in some more parking spaces, but we were trying to keep all the parking along the one sort of path of travel behind the building. We weren't trying to place a second parking lot due to the grades and complications with grading and drainage at the site," he said.
Another Board member asked whether parking spaces would be assigned, whether a family had a teenager and so on who needed a car because there isn't much public transportation available. She also asked, what about visitor parking? Mr. Stengel said that there is some public parking on Railroad Street (the angled spaces right in front of the buildings).
Timothy Grace, senior engineer with Tighe & Bond who has been working on the project, came forward to say that "the applicant has met the minimum requirements" and "There is obviously a need for additional parking, especially in downtown areas."
There were more questions about increased sewer and water usage. Board member Amanda Phillips expressed skepticism that peak sewer use would only be 53.8 percent of capacity, considering that some families would use more water and send more wastewater down the drains than others. Mr. Stengel said that guidelines for municipal sewer systems, TR-16, are "less conservative" than the guidelines for private septic systems, known as Title V. The studies done compared the rate of flow throughout the town with their projections for this project. The sewer line from Railroad and Spruce Streets connect to Grove Street, which connects to Central Street, which are all 8-inch lines. Those meet a 15-inch line down by Beech Street.
They were calculating about 70 gallons per bedroom per day, totalling roughly 3,000 gallons per day from the project, he said. "The 3,000 gallons per day, roughly, that's generated by this development is a fraction of a percent once you get into the capacity of a 15 inch pipe."
After some further discussion of whether the estimates for the project were too low, Ms. Phillips asked about snow removal plans, referring to her experience with this at the Winchendon Housing Authority. "Where are you putting the snow if you have all these cars here?" she asked. (Side note: Winchendon typically has an on-street parking ban during the winter months.)
Mr. Stengel said, "On the site plan we do show snow storage areas surrounding the parking and the park. If the Board doesn't feel like we are providing enough snow storage, we can designate additional areas. I know that most of the parking is curbed. We could provide areas where there is no curbing, we could, we could provide snow storage area signs, so that there are designated areas for the snow to be moved during the winter." The snow storage areas are grassy lawn areas, not parking spaces.
Another Board member suggested that there were many large vacant buildings around town that at one time had used water and generated wastewater and now do not, so she didn't think the impact of this development wwas a concern. Wouldn't the lack of industrial/commercial usage that existed in the past offset new demands from new residential projects? Mr. Stengel said that in his opinion, he thought that it would, as long as the treatment plant was not currently as its limit for the town's needs. It was also clarified that the construction would have a Phase 1 and a Phase 2, with each one connecting to the sewer lines at different points, and they would be evaluating the effect of those connections as construction went on.
(Side note: some of the old vacant mill buildings, when built, originally released their wastewater directly into the Millers River, and when this changed, many of them were not operating at high capacity. The comparison may not be straightforward.)
Mr. Grace said, "when it comes to sewer analysis, there's a fair amount of hand waving involved." It was hard to know just how much wastewater a unit might generate per bedroom or per bathroom. He also explained that while the town knows where its infrastructure is, the actual condition of all the pipes involved is a variable. Some of them were installed in the late 1890s. Some of them are vitrified clay pipes which have probably cracked and that means some "infiltration" or leaking of groundwater into the pipes.
Board member Mary Harrington said, "I think that you need to look at exceeding the standard, because this has a potential to really overload our sewer system as it is already, and we need to go down the line and really do an analysis and figure out the actual condition of the pipes, not just the location, not when they would put in all that, and I think that it may be impetus to upgrade, which would be a great partnership, since this is a huge undertaking, and I think it's very positive, too. Look a little bit beyond just the minimum in parking and sewer system, a lot beyond the minimum."
Asked about whether any of the apartments would be affordable, Mr. Stengel and Mr. Garcia said they didn't really know what the owners planned to do, ultimately, with the project when it was completed. They had purchased the building to renovate it and make it habitable for people.
The Board opened the floor to comments from the public.
Resident Mike McRae came forward to say, "I did some research myself, and I found out that a 22 unit building can use upwards of 2300 gallons of water a day, that's 800,000 gallons a year. I also did more research, and found out that you can put 51 to 65 people in a 22 unit building, and they've said that you figure anywhere from 80 to 90 gallons of water a day per person, so you take the low end of that, you get 80 times 55 people, that's 4400 gallons of water times 365 that's 1.6 million gallons of water.
"Okay, one, do we have the storage capacity up on the hill to handle that extra volume? As a taxpayer, I don't feel like building another [water] tank for that, but if we have to, okay. But my point is the wastewater treatment plant. When we did the Lincoln Avenue extension, I checked with Roy Gilbert, and we were told by the town that we were near capacity at the wastewater treatment plant. That thing has never been built out. Okay, so you've got all that capacity that's not being figured into this thing. Okay, now if you take that much water or wastewater going into that facility down there, I wonder who's going to pay for that. Because you just can't go into a wastewater treatment plant and do 10 percent. If you're going to go in there and do anything, you're going to have to upgrade that facility from from beginning to end, all up to local codes, state regulations, and everything else. That's huge money, and I've been in construction my whole life."
He had spent $17,000 upgrading his own septic system, Mr. McRae said, and while he understood paying taxes for his fair share of Town Hall, the schools, and so on, he didn't want to pay for an upgrade to the treatment plant.
"Before you move on any of this stuff, we have people in town that work for the town, they know what is the capacity of our water tanks, they know what the capacity is of the wastewater treatment plant," Mr. McRae went on. "We got to get them in here before you go any further, and find out what they got to say first...this thing scares the hell out of me. I don't have a problem with that development, but this other stuff, I got a real problem as to who's going to pay for this."
Kim Hayes, a resident of Grove Street, came forward to express concerns about "the Grove Street corridor." She said, "the Grove Street corridor is the main spine, the backbone of that whole neighborhood. It was interesting when they were talking about the parking, because I can tell you where the overflow parking is going to go, and it's going to go onto Grove Street. I have a couple of questions about the parking study, and I want to know if the parking study included Grove Street Corridor, because that corridor is a local destination hub. It's not only used by residents, it's used by the whole town, whether it's G.A.R. Park, whether it's the elementary school, whether it is the [Catholic] Church. That is a busy line, and now it's turned into a speedway as people connect from Central Street to 12 North, so it is already being used for things it's not intended to be used for."
She went on, "We can't forget about the 44 units on the other end of Spruce Street, which is where the vets are going to be going. Now I'm a vet, so I'd like to welcome the vets, but they need to be safe coming down that corridor, and people from the Railroad Street development will be using that cut through Spruce Street. It's right there, and right at that intersection is where the kindergarten to second grade bus stops twice a day, and parents are already nuts about the speeding traffic that goes up that street. There are no sidewalks on the east side of it, and what is on the left is crumbling and can't be plowed. It turns into a skating rink, it freezes over where the water drainage comes in."
The design planning for the Central Street Reconstruction project mentioned how dangerous Grove Street is, Ms. Hayes said. In addition to all of this, when the Blair Square project begins, huge amounts of traffic will be taking Grove Street to get from Central to School Street and vice versa. "They're going to head right over into those interior streets that are not built for this. That's interstate traffic," she pointed out--School Street/Route 12 is a principal route to New Hampshire.
"I have high hopes for Winchendon," Ms. Hayes said. "I've been here for seven years. I think it's an awesome place. I think it sits in a great location. There is going to be money that's going to have to be spent from wherever. I know there's Complete Street money, I know there's other types of money out there that needs to be looked at, and you're right. I think this is a great opportunity for some private/public partnership in making sure that we do this, but we do it right, and we keep our kids safe."
Maynard Street resident Adrienne Tomasi came forward to ask about lead abatement--a new, 2026 state law bans sale of homes to families with children under the age of six unless they're certified lead-free. She also asked how the project will handle trash management, since there is no municipal trash pickup in Winchendon. "What promises can you make to the community that were won't be trash everywhere?" she asked. Mr. Garcia said that the project will have dumpsters for residents. "I live on the street. I've lived here for four years. I just simply do not think that this town has the capacity, the infrastructure, any of the money to foot the bill on these guys' development project based on the infrastructure that we have," Ms. Tomasi said.
Maynard Street resident Sharon Turcotte came forward to ask about the parking area entrance off of Spruce Street, saying that visitors and so on end up parking on that street. She questioned whether there would be water flow off the property from leaking pipes, or melting snow, that would end up in the basements of homes in the neighborhood. She also questioned how often the dumpsters would be emptied and whether they would be visible and unsightly to the neighbors. Mr. Corbosiero said that by law, dumpsters must be enclosed with a privacy fence to keep them out of sight.
Asked again whether the units would be for the general market, low income people, seniors or so on, Mr. Garcia reiterated that the owners would make that decision depending on what worked for them financially. They might end up being condos, rather than rental units. "Right now it's a warehouse that's not occupied, so we want to make it occupied, make it a nice place for people to live," Mr. Garcia said. "There's a crisis in the nation where there's not enough houses, so we want to make a positive impact to this town."
There were no further questions or comments from members of the Board or the public. The Board voted to continue the hearing to August 18, which would give everyone time to consider the extensive feedback and comments made to the plans so far.
Some background information:
The legal notice of the public hearing names Seed Amor Enterprises LLC as the owner of the property. According to documents filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth Corporations Division, Seed Amor Enterprises LLC was organized on November 11, 2024. Its purpose is given as "purchase, renovation, management and sale of real estate" and its address is given as 13 Railroad Street, Winchendon, MA--in other words, the vacant property itself. This is typical of real estate LLCs of this type. The two managers of the LLC are Michael Surprenant and Andre DuBois.
The Town of Winchendon Assessor's database lists the owner of the properties as George J. Ladeau (also with a mailing address at 13 Railroad Street). The Courier took a dive into the Worcester County Registry of Deeds to see if there was updated information there. It turns out that George Ladeau remains the owner of record for the properties because he actually holds the mortgage for them. On November 14, 2024, Seed Amor Enterprises LLC purchased a bundle of linked parcels (as Mr. Stengel said at the beginning of his presentation), with addresses on Railroad, Central and Spruce Streets, for $650,000. Seed Amor Enterprises LLC is responsible for all property taxes and other expenses.
Mr. DuBois also had an interest in Winchendon properties on Main Street and School Square, but his mortgages for those properties have been discharged, and his name is not recorded as being connected with them now. The School Square property is listed as owned by Clear Path Properties & Management, LLC. According to the Secretary of the Commonwealth Corporations Division, Clear Path Properties & Management, LLC was organized in 2022 to rahabilitate and manage rental properties. Its sole manager is listed as Michael Surprenant, with an address in Chelmsford, MA.
Heywood Healthcare School-Based Services Named 2026 Outstanding Community Health Worker Program of the Year
Gardner, MA - June 26th, 2026 - Heywood Healthcare's School-Based Services (SBS) program has been recognized as the 2026 Outstanding Community Health Worker Program of the Year by the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers (MACHW), honoring over two decades of innovation and impact in delivering care to students and families.
The award was presented at a special recognition event attended by healthcare leaders, school partners, community organizations, and program staff. The honor highlights Heywood Healthcare's integrated model of care, which places Community Health Workers (CHWs) at the center of school-based services.
Over the past 25 years, SBS has grown from a single School-Based Health Center at Murdock Middle/High School into a comprehensive, multi-district program that includes School-Based Health Centers, Telebehavioral Health, mentoring, substance use services, and community resource navigation. Today, the program serves students across five school districts, with CHWs
embedded directly in schools to coordinate care, remove barriers, and connect families to critical resources.
The program's impact is significant. In the past year alone, SBS supported more than 6,000 mental health sessions, nearly 1,900 medical visits, and over 1,200 referrals. Nationally, school-based health programs reach more than 1 million students across 1,800 schools, yet only approximately 2% of students have access, underscoring the importance of expanding models like Heywood Healthcare's.
"Today, we are honored to receive the 2026 Outstanding Community Health Worker Program of the Year Award," said Christie Cutting, Director of School-Based Services at Heywood Healthcare. "While this award has our program's name on it, it truly belongs to our entire team. Every day, our Community Health Workers meet students and families where they are, in schools, in the community, or on the other end of the phone. They build trust, navigate complex systems, and ensure no student falls through the cracks. I couldn't be more proud of the compassion and dedication they bring to this work."
Community Health Workers serve as the foundation of the SBS model, acting as the bridge between schools, healthcare providers, families, and community agencies. They coordinate services across programs, support access to care, and help improve outcomes for students, including increased access to services, reduced emergency department utilization, and decreased school absences.
"This recognition reflects the power of a model that brings care directly into our communities," said Rozanna Penney, President and CEO of Heywood Healthcare. "Our Community Health Workers are at the heart of this work, building trusted relationships and making a meaningful difference in the lives of students and families every day."
The success of the program is driven by strong partnerships with local school districts (Athol-Royalston Regional School District, Gardner Public Schools, Narragansett, Regional School District, Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District, Winchendon Public Schools), community organizations, healthcare providers, and grant funders. Together, these collaborations ensure that students receive comprehensive, coordinated care in the environments where they learn and grow.
As Heywood Healthcare looks to the future, the organization remains committed to expanding access to school-based services, strengthening partnerships, and continuing to innovate in support of youth and families across the region.
