Warrant Open for Fall Special Town Meeting
The Warrant for the 2023 Fall Special Town Meeting is now open for articles. The Town Manager's office will be accepting warrant articles through Monday, October 2, 2023 until 12:00 noon when the warrant will officially close.
Special Town Meeting will be held on Monday, November 13, 2023, at 7:00 p.m., at the Murdock Middle/High School Auditorium, 3 Memorial Drive. Please feel free to contact the Town Manager's office with any questions you may have concerning this Special Town Meeting.
Fall Fest Ramping Up for Its Biggest Year Yet
The 7th annual Fall Fest will take place on Saturday, October 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on Central Street between Maple Street and Blair Square. Land Use & Planning Coordinator Nicole Roberts, who organizes Fall Fest, appeared before the Board of Selectmen on Monday, September 25 to give them information and updates, and nail down some final permits, which were all readily granted. All vendor spaces have now been taken; there will be 190 booths and tables to peruse ranging from town organizations and institutions to local crafters, makers and businesses. Central Street will be closed to vehicular traffic during those hours.
Ms. Roberts explained that this year, the Clark YMCA parking area on Central Street (which has just been re-paved with fresh new blacktop) will be open until 7:00 p.m. "What we found was vendors were picking up, and they were wanting to get some food, sit down, relax for a little while, rather than just picking up and driving home directly," Ms. Roberts said. "So we've extended the Fall Fest hours in the Clark parking lot from 5:00 to 7:00. So [Kiwanis Famous Food Tent], and then we're going to have a couple more food trucks in that parking lot. And The BIG RanDom is going to play along with three other acts. So there'll be entertainment. There'll be The Harbour...So if people want to kind of sit and relax, you know, after vending all day, they can grab something to eat and listen to the band for a little while."
Ms. Roberts added that Bull Spit Brewery will have Whiskey Johnson playing until 9:00 p.m., providing more post-Fest entertainment for those who wish to walk down to 4 Summer Drive after 7:00 p.m. to enjoy it.
During Fall Fest, Ms. Roberts said, all alcohol will be served within the Clark YMCA parking area. "We're going to just segregate that whole area off because...Bull Spit will be in that parking lot as well. So we figured we can just rope the entire parking lot off. I did talk to [Clark Memorial YMCA Director] Mike Quinn. He's okay with that, rope the entire parking lot off to have no alcohol beyond this point. That way people can go about the parking lot and visit with Kiwanis and things like that if they want to." This would be more open than having a small "corral" such as The Harbour has been obliged to do in past years.
A new vendor this year who will also be in the Clark parking area is Coldbrook Springs Winery from Barre, MA.
BOS member Barbara Anderson asked about parking for the event. Ms. Roberts said, "Believe it or not, with the huge amounts of people that have come over the years? I've never heard any complaints--I don't know if anybody else has--about parking. I think people just find spots, side streets, you know, be courteous not to block driveways and not to pull up on lawns, but side streets, or some people I think carpool with one another or a lot of people might walk to Fall Fest."
Parking by Winchendon Furniture and on Summer Drive by Beauvais Insurance will be reserved for vendors. But parking will be available on Pleasant Street, including the new municipal parking lot behind the police station, and on side streets around downtown.
Along with the vendors and entertainment on Central Street itself, there will be attractions on adjacent streets that Fall Festers shouldn't miss. The Winchendon CAC, now located at 5 Summer Drive in the former bowling alley, will have tables, food, and tours of their new space. The Winchendon Farmer's Market will be set up in its usual location on Pleasant Street across from Town Hall until 1:00 p.m., vending fresh produce, baked goods, homemade crafts and farm products.
All bakers are invited to enter the 3rd annual Fall Fest Parks & Recreation Pie Baking Contest. Bake your best pie (any flavor) and register it between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. at the Parks & Recreation Booth in front of the Clark YMCA parking area on Central Street. Winners will be announced at 1:00 p.m.
Board of Selectmen Discuss Officially Changing Their Name
At their meeting on Monday, September 25, the (for the time being) Board of Selectmen seriously discussed changing the official name of that body to "the Selectboard."
BOS Vice Chair Rick Ward opened the discussion with a review of history. "Next year, the town of Winchendon will be celebrating its 260th birthday," he began. "We've had a Board of Selectmen since 1764, and so there have been hundreds of Selectmen and it was a Board of Selectmen, period. It was select men from the town of Winchendon, who were picked. That's why they're called Selectmen. For two reasons, either you select men, which we've consistently done for about 230 of those 260 years roughly, or you also picked the select men of the town, which we pretty much did, which were land owners, people who had businesses in town and that type of thing."
For just a couple of decades, he went on, "We have women who are on the Board of Selectmen. And I can remember a couple of them, Jemaine Brooks, one of the earlier ones, Beth Hunt, Amy Salter, and the four woman we have on the board now.
"Using the term Board of Selectmen, after all these years, is archaic, it's totally out of date. And it's not appropriate anymore. And towns throughout Massachusetts are changing their Board of Selectmen to Selectboard and, in fact, the MMA, [Massachusetts] Municipal Association, has officially changed that association to be Selectboards, not Selectmen anymore. There is a bill in the legislature in Massachusetts to actually change the state constitution, which has the word Selectmen in it 17 times, and they're trying to get that taken out."
Mr. Ward went on to say that he was "the minority on the Board," the only "Selectman," and he feels it should be the Winchendon Selectboard. To change the term, voters would have to approve amending the town Charter, which requires a two-thirds majority vote at Town Meeting, followed by a ballot vote, which would be on the ballot at the town election in May. The Charter is "the overruling document," Mr. Ward said. The Bylaws would then also need to be changed to update the terminology, but amending the Bylaws only requires a simple majority vote at Town Meeting.
Over 100 towns in Massachusetts have already undertaken this process and changed to Selectboards. The cost is minimal, Mr. Ward emphasized, because things like stationery are all digital, so it's not as though the town offices would need to throw out reams of paper and re-order everything.
"I would like to get the board's feeling on this because I would like to make a motion that we get an article on this Town Meeting coming up in November to start this process rolling," Mr. Ward concluded. "So I open it to the board."
Board Chair Audrey LaBrie, who was joining the meeting via Zoom, thanked Mr. Ward for the background information, saying "Selectmen" also refers to the word "human." She went on, "Speaking strictly for myself, I am perfectly comfortable with being called the Board of Selectmen. I don't take offense at that term. When anyone calls me Chairman, I don't take offense. So speaking for myself, I'm gonna vote no."
Mr. Ward responded that it was understandable that Ms. LaBrie might feel that way. "But we need to be inclusive in this town to everyone," he said. "And when you have a Board, and in fact one of the towns that saw this process through, when a woman Selectman was running for the Board of Selectmen, she tells a story that her daughter questioned why she would want to run when it's a board of men. Why are you running against you know, it's a Board of Selectmen.
"We need to be inclusive and not put up any roadblocks to folks coming to the town and want to get involved. In fact, Board of Selectmen is the only board, the only committee that we have in this town that is gender centered, as far as a gender in its name. None of the others have that. They're totally open, free...they're gender-neutral, but this is not."
Mr. Ward pointed out that when he runs a meeting, he never calls anyone Selectwoman or Selectman--he calls them "Board member" because that feels right to him. "I don't like change. I like the old ways, but I just can't sit here," he said.
After asking for any further comments, Mr. Ward said he would like to make a motion. "I move to insert an article in the November 13, 2023 Town Meeting Warrant, quote, to see if the town will vote pursuant to General Law Chapter 43B paragraph 10A to the town Charter, to add an amendment that says the Board of Selectmen shall now be known as the Selectboard. And in all places in the Charter where Board of Selectmen appears it be changed to read Selectboard. And I will point out that the Charter says Board of Selectmen 58 times, so we will have to go and change those to Selectboard."
The Board voted to approve Mr. Ward's motion 4-1, with Ms. LaBrie casting the "no" vote.
Board of Selectmen Consider Proposal for a Moratorium on Further Solar Fields in Winchendon
At the Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday, September 25, Board member Melissa Blanchard introduced a proposal to place a moratorium on further commercial solar fields within the town of Winchendon.
"It's been brought to me by many people in the town of the concern over our vast forestry that's been cut down and turned into solar fields, and with all the rains and every problems we've been having with runoff, our trees are one of our best resources we have," Ms. Blanchard began. "It not only protects our wildlife, but it protects our environment and it keeps the water from running off. it protects the soil from eroding, it filters the water. It gives us our oxygen that we breathe, and yet we're tearing down all of our natural trees to put up solar fields, which are full of chemicals that are then eroding and being put into the earth.
"It just seems like we have such a beautiful town and it seems to be slated for more and more solar fields. You can drive by the vast amounts of them already in town, we have a few, and it is an eyesore. Where there used to be trees, there is now just arrays of photovoltaic. And I'd like to see the town protected and not just opened up to developers that want to cut down our forests because they can, and put up these solar fields, and then we're going to be left with the detriment to our land. Our future children are not going to have the woods to be able to roam through."
Board Vice Chair Rick Ward said he wanted KP Law and town counsel to comment on his questions, but first, he wanted to ask, "A moratorium on an arbitrary business like solar fields. First of all, is it legal for us to do that? And second, is that the prerogative of the Board of Selectmen or does it require a Town Meeting vote? Because I've researched this in several towns and it's like Town Meeting usually decides this."
Ms. Blanchard responded that it would be a Town Meeting vote, because it would be a town Bylaw.
Mr. Ward continued, "The next question is how long can a moratorium bind for? I've checked online with several towns that have done this. And from what I'm getting from these sites, it can't run for more than a year, a moratorium. And so that's a concern. I have the same concerns that member Blanchard has because I asked myself when I was thinking about this, what's better for the environment? Solar panels or trees? And I tried to do as much research as I could and what the only answer I could get in my research was, Well, the state is committed to solar. Our legislature is committed to solar. So there's a big drive for solar."
Mr. Ward said that he liked trees and would prefer to see trees replace a demolished building, for example, but solar panels seem to "get us to whatever number that is we're trying to get on carbon emissions" faster. The town does not have any bylaws related to solar fields currently. Mr. Ward pointed out that many towns set moratoriums to give them time to craft the appropriate bylaws for their community (as Winchendon did in 2017 for cannabis businesses).
After discussing the possible need for the Conservation Commission to be involved, and the short deadline for the Fall Town Meeting Warrant, the Board voted to put a "placeholder" article in the Fall Special Town Meeting Warrant for an article about a moratorium on solar fields, to be filled out after the Warrant closes on October 3.
The solar fields already installed in Winchendon can be viewed using Google Satellite; there are quite a few of them. A very large complex of connected solar fields has been proposed for most of the open space on the east border of Winchendon. (see "Town Boards Hear Initial Pitch for 1,400-Acre Solar Campus in East Winchendon" in the November 17-24, 2022 edition of the Winchendon Courier)
Win for Biodiversity: Habitat Restoration Project Begins at Guiney Memorial Forest in Royalston
Chestnut-sided warbler, a species whose population thrives in early-successional forests, will be monitored through eBird at Guiney Memorial Forest in Royalston.
Photo by Matt Tillett
ATHOL (September 25, 2023) - Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust is a recipient of a Cornell Land Trust Grant for 2023. The Cornell Lab's Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative awarded grants to 14 land trusts throughout the country to assist with management and restoration of private protected lands, integrate bird conservation into prioritization and planning, and develop partnerships within the birding community to amplify conservation efforts.
Mount Grace's work funded by this grant will focus on Guiney Memorial Forest, a 33-acre wildlife sanctuary in Royalston. This small sanctuary has various habitat types, including maturing white pine, hemlock, and hardwood forest as well as a diverse understory, spruce-fir tamarack forested swamp, and more.
Protected in 1998, Father John Guiney's family donated this 33-acre property to Mount Grace on the condition it be maintained as a wildlife sanctuary. Funds from this grant will be used to restore habitat and create habitat management demonstration areas that support targeted bird populations and can be used as outreach and educational tools for land trust staff, conservation practitioners, and private landowners.
Work will take place concurrently with work at Birch Hill funded by a US Forest Service Landscape Scale Restoration Grant. Partners include the Ruffed Grouse Society, National Wild Turkey Federation, Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game and Department of Conservation & Recreation. Work will include outreach to birders participating in eBird surveys of the site and outreach to landowners interested in replicating site management techniques to improve bird habitat on their own land.
"Small landowners play a significant role in forest stewardship in southern New England," says Stewardship Manager Tessa Dowling. "This project is an opportunity to engage local landowners in bird-friendly forestry by demonstrating ecological restoration work on a scale that is relevant to private owners of small forest tracts."
Work is set to begin by the end September, with opportunities to join eBird monitoring efforts soon to follow. To stay up to date on this project, visit mountgrace.org.
