Town Manager Updates BOS on Movement Forward With Whites Mills
Winchendon receives a $740K Grant to Remove High-Risk Whites Mill Dam
Current view of Whites Mill Pond. The stretch between the two red bars will revert to a small stream, similar in size to the north branch of the Millers River on the other side of the mill complex.
Google Satellite image
At their meeting on Monday, November 14, Town Manager Justin Sultzbach briefed the Board of Selectmen on his recent work regarding the Whites Mill property in Winchendon Springs, particularly the dam by the mill which the state has designated a serious hazard. Since 2015, the entire 55-acre property has been under the stewardship of John and Amelia Giovanoni of Royalston, MA, through several different legal entities. Currently, the property is recorded in the Town of Winchendon Assessor's database and the Worcester County Register of Deeds as owned by the Mill Farm Initiative, Inc., of which John Giovanoni is listed as President, Treasurer and CEO and Amelia Giovanoni as Director, in the Massachusetts Secretary of State Corporate database.
"Since I got to town, I've been working pretty closely with some privately owned parcels in town in an effort to try to get them back online," Mr. Sultzbach began. "And one of the larger of those is the Whites Mill building up in Winchendon Springs along the New Hampshire border. So when we're looking at those types of parcels that are kind of underutilized, what I like to do is try to sit down and look at what the obstacles are and chip away at them one by one and make it a little bit easier to try to make those pieces of land useful. So for this one, I've been working with Peter Gagliardi for the past year and a half."
Mr. Gagliardi was working on behalf of the property owners, Mr. Sultzbach stated. He retired in 2020 after serving Way Finders Inc., a major developer of housing solutions based in Springfield, MA, as their CEO for 28 years. His career comprised "doing exactly this kind of work, working with communities to bring underutilized parcels back online. Oftentimes underutilized industrial parcels, and so Peter has really been a wealth of experience," Mr. Sultzbach said.
Describing an issue that has been a strong concern for some years, Mr. Sultzbach continued, "as part of that effort, one obstacle we did identify is the dam located on that property...a large earthen dam on this site, that kind of artificially built up this whole area. So a lot of it is wetland. There are some homes up at the further end which I think created some of that animosity in the past about potentially drawing down that body of water. It is a man made body of water. If the dam was breached, it would reduce that down to about a 10 foot wide river or creek where it was originally and there'd be pastoral land back there."
The dam has been identified by the state as a high hazard dam. "So the issue being that if that were to go, unfortunately the direction it would roll is straight down Maple [Street] and straight through downtown." While there would be some small risk of loss of life, there is a very large risk of impact to private property and public infrastructure.
Working with the property owners and Mr. Gagliardi, the Town Manager's office was able to obtain a $740,250 grant from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs through its Dam and Seawall Program. "The important part is no matter who owns that property, whether it's the current owners, previous owners, future owners, the value of fixing and removing that obstacle on that property is going to stay in town, no matter who owns it. And I think the most important piece is, by removing that obstacle, it makes that parcel more appealing to future potential owners who could develop that property," Mr. Sultzbach emphasized.
Showing the Board a Google Street View of the mill complex, Mr. Sultzbach said, "If we could get something going on this property, I think there's high potential for mixed use commercial residential development, using the existing structures, or at least six out of seven of them. And in doing so, you'd be bringing this property back online, it would be generating tax revenues, so it takes some of that pressure off of all of our other residents and businesses. But you'd also be preserving this historic asset, and I think for Winchendon in particular given its unique history, manufacturing, it's important to try to preserve these buildings when you can." He spoke of the possibility of working with the state for funding, using a public/private partnership model, and extending town water and sewer to Winchendon Springs at the state's largesse. This could have the collateral benefit of creating more water and sewer users and help stabilize rates for everyone in town, without adding betterment fees because the state would provide the funding.
This was just laying some groundwork, Mr. Sultzbach stated. "If somebody wants to step forward to improve this parcel, that would very much be a community conversation. I would expect that any developer that would come through the door and want to work hand in hand with the town to make sure what they are putting in there, meshes and makes sense with the community's needs at that given time."
Board Chair Audrey LaBrie raised questions about the town investing resources in a privately owned property. Mr. Sultzbach clarified that that Mr. Gagliardi was working for the owners, not the town. "We want to make sure that the town's best interests are protected," he said. "For any decommissioned property in town, whether it be this one or another one, the RHI building, any of them, from an economic development perspective, that's very much one component of my role. I will always advocate for those businesses, all of them equally across the board. So there's no special treatment. IGA. We have a lot of them."
The Whites Mills have been waiting for movement forward for some eleven years. Built in 1860, the mills were used for cotton manufacturing, then hosted the White Woolen Mill. Around 1963 the buildings became home to Ray Plastics/Mylec Sports, which manufactured plastic toys there. At that time, Winchendon Springs was a village with its own zip code, and an annex to the mill complex housed the Winchendon Springs Post Office. In 2011, Ray Plastics/Mylec moved to their new facility out on Gardner Road. Since then, the Whites Mill complex has stood vacant. In 2013, the Boston-based Centers for Alternative Medicine approached the town about converting the mills into a medical marijuana growing facility, but this plan did not materialize.
According to the Worcester County Registry of Deeds, in April of 2015, the property was acquired by Brandywine Farms, Inc. (an entity of the Giovanonis), from Mill-Win Inc. (an entity of the LeClerc family who had owned the mills since 1963). Brandywine Farms immediately ran into costly site remediation needs, including the removal of contaminated soil, which was done, and the deteriorating earthen dam. Brandywine Farms appeared before the Board of Selectmen with a proposal to convert the buildings into low-income housing, but the plans did not move forward. In the summer of 2020, Brandywine Farms opened a Farmer's Market outside the mills, and described plans to develop the 100,000 square foot mill complex and its grounds into a mixed-use facility including apartments, hydroponic indoor farming, a grocery store, offices, community space, tiny houses for camping, a 50,000 square foot year-round greenhouse and an emergency water supply for the town. After a few weeks, the Farmer's Market closed. In October of 2020, Brandywine Farms transferred ownership to another entity of the Giovanonis, Mill Farm Initiative Inc., which is the current owner according to the Worcester County Registry of Deeds and the Town of Winchendon Assessors database.
In the fall of 2020, Mill Farm Initiative announced plans to breach the dam, and was talking with then-Director of Department of Public Works Al Gallant about coordinating the timing with the annual autumn draw-down of Lake Monomonac, to minimize the amount of water flow from the lake into the Millers River, according to then-Town Manager Keith Hickey. But the breach did not proceed at that time. Since the end of 2020, Winchendon citizens have not been made aware of any further plans for the property by Mill Farm Initiative. The mill buildings are continuing to deteriorate, with a portion of the roof having collapsed in one of the buildings.
For previous Courier coverage of the Whites Mills, see:
"Brandywine Farms Opens New Farmer's Market in Winchendon Springs" in the July 2-9 2020 edition of The Winchendon Courier
"Brandywine to Begin Breaching Dam by Former White Mill" in the September 17-24 2020 edition of The Winchendon Courier
"Mill Farm Initiative Seeks New TIF Agreement from the Town" in the October 29-November 5 2020 edition of The Winchendon Courier
"Board of Selectmen Deny Tax Abatement Request to Mill Farms Initiative" in the December 17-24 2020 edition of The Winchendon Courier
Also of interest:
"White's Mill Dam breach favored", Gardner News, September 7, 2018.
Overhead view of the mills complex. The dam is seen curving along the edge of the water to the right.
Google Satellite image
The mills seen from Glenallen Street in 2013.
Photo: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Conservation Trusts Working to Protect Land Around Lake Monomonac
In its current newsletter, the Winchendon Springs Lake Association announced that a local partnership between North Country Land Trust and Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust is working on plans to permanently protect property around Lake Monomonac, including the headwaters of the Millers River which runs through town, from development.
The WSLA writes,
"One of the best ways to protect Lake Monomonac is to limit development within the Lake Monomonac watershed. Rising from the hills of New Hampshire's Wapack Range, the Millers River flows south over the Massachusetts border. In Winchendon, dams dating back to the colonial era turn the river into Lake Monomonac--a 700+ acre lake with a long, low-rising peninsula at its southern end.
"At one point, the construction of over 200 houses was proposed on a peninsula that extends into the lake. This would have dramatically impacted the beauty of the lake and potentially harmed water quality.
"Conserving this land would help link two existing pieces of Massachusetts' Winchendon Springs Wildlife Management Area, connecting them to hundreds of acres of forest conserved by the Town of Winchendon. The resulting protected landscape would include forest, wetlands, and much of the south shore of White's Mill Pond, and would ensure that species could range unimpeded through diverse habitats likelier to provide resilience despite climate change.
"This project offers a great opportunity to add recreational land for the town. Cart and timber roads on the hill offer many potential routes for new trails. The nearby wetlands are habitat for numerous varieties of native birds. Conserving the land also helps secure the watershed of both the lake and the pond which then drain into Whitney Pond and the Millers River.
"Taken together, the various parcels involve ~325 total acres, most of which will be permanently protected. North County has partnered with a conservation buyer who is generously funding a portion of the project by purchasing some of the land, with further project support provided by Mount Grace's Leigh Youngblood Conservation Opportunity Fund. Six additional lots (about 12 acres) with existing frontage on Route 202 will be reserved as housing sites, with the partners considering options for affordable housing. The rest of the land, including 200+ acres on the hill and 50 acres south of White's Mill Pond will be permanently protected and open for public use.
"Conserving Monomonac Forest will require community support to help the two land trusts guarantee that the land is open to the people of Winchendon for recreation and continues to provide critical wildlife habitat on the Millers River headwaters."
A somewhat rough diagram of the area that NCLT and MGLCT hope to preserve around Lake Monomonac.
Image credit: WSLA
In a multi-phase project, NCLT and Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust are working to purchase the majority of land once owned by Monomonac Lake Shores, Inc. "If successful, this land would then be permanently protected from development," the WSLA writes. "One parcel, which lies between Lakeview Drive and Monomonac Road West is more than 200 acres. Another 60 acres will be added to the Winchendon Springs Wildlife Management Area on the south side of White's Mill Pond. Working with the Department of Fish and Game, Mount Grace, a local private conservation buyer, town administrators, the WSLA, and many concerned Winchendon folks, NCLT is pulling the necessary partners together to get this project off the ground."
Monomonac Lake Shores, Inc. ceased to exist in the 1960s, so long ago that the Massachusetts Secretary of State Corporation Division has no record of it at all. It has left a large footprint on the Winchendon Zoning Map, which still shows more than a hundred individual parcels almost all of which have no information attached to them in the Town of Winchendon Assessor's database, and for which the current ownership and provenance is unclear. (The Worcester County Registry of Deeds shows many pages of tax takings and foreclosures.) Also shown on the present-day zoning map are planned streets for this massive proposed Levittown-on-the-Lake development, which exist only on paper. A small number of the lots currently have homes on them, but the vast majority are untouched woods. Another artefact of the aborted 1958 subdivision are restrictive deeds that violate the town's current zoning bylaws (specifically the Right To Farm bylaw).
The 253-acre parcel that comprises most of the central (non-waterfront) area of the peninsula was picked up on foreclosure by Auto Credit Rehab Corporation of Andover, MA from the Lake Monomonac Association in 2011, according to the Town of Winchendon Assessor's database. This parcel was extensively logged over the summer of 2022 and is now so sparsely treed, the change is clearly visible on Google Satellite images (such as the one of Whites Mill Pond at the top of this page). It had been listed for sale earlier this year, with the caveat that development potential was limited due to the parcel's importance to the Millers River watershed. This may be the parcel referred to above as being "more than 200 acres" and between Lakeshore Drive and Monomonac Road West.
Directly adjacent to the parcels on the east side of Whites Mill Pond are parcels owned by Winchendon Forest LLC of New Hampshire, which may be developed as portions of the large "solar campus" presented to town Boards last week (see "Town Boards Hear Initial Pitch for 1,400-Acre Solar Campus in East Winchendon" in the November 17-24 2020 edition of The Winchendon Courier).
The WSLA notes that old cart and logging roads criss-cross the hill on the lake's southern peninsula, serving as hiking trails. MassWildlife lands are open to fishing, hunting, trapping and wildlife watching, according to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
A portion of the 1958 subdivision that never materialized, still on the zoning map. The streets were never even rough-cut. The large area outlined in yellow on the right is one of the parcels in the proposed large solar campus project.
Town of Winchendon Assessor's Map
Map showing parcels belonging to the current Winchendon Springs Wildlife Management Area. Jigsaw puzzle enthuasiasts may like to compare this map to the map of parcels proposed for the solar campus project in last week's Courier.
Mass.gov
