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Williamstown Selectmen Back Mohawk Trail Partnership
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:15AM / Wednesday, April 27, 2016
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Tom Matuszko of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission addresses the Board of Selectmen.

Bob O'Connor of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, foreground, talks as Selectmen Andrew Hogeland and Jane Patton listen.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen on Monday agreed to support a drive to create a 21-community economic development and conservation project stretching from the Pioneer Valley across North Berkshire.

Tom Matuszko and Bob O'Connor of the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership Project told officials about the group's plan to seek enabling legislation in Boston to establish the partnership and open the door to federal grant money from the U.S. Forest Service.

Matuszko explained that since the woodland project began more than two years ago, its focus has changed to put more emphasis on economic development.

"When we started, we intended to have a primary focus on forest land conservation," said Matuszko, an assistant director at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. "But committee members wanted to refocus toward economic development.

"If there was someone who wanted to start some kind of [forest-based] business, we would have some funds or a resource for business planning. We also have a program where there would be a revolving loan fund for these kinds of opportunities."

Matuszko said the businesses could be tourism related or small scale producers. The partnership also could provide guidance and possibly financial assistance for private landowners looking to responsibly manage their woodlands.

"There also is an opportunity for research and development," he said. "One of the branches of the Forest Services is a research and development branch. They're doing innovative work looking at using wood products — it's the lignin [organic polymers] in the wood that has the same properties as some of the polymers that are being used. There is some effort going on in the Forest Service to look at that type of manufacturing.

"If we can entice them to work in this area, we can get some research and development out here for that kind of thing."

Matuszko asked the board to sign a letter in support of legislation being developed on Beacon Hill. He mentioned that Berkshire County Reps. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, and Paul Mark, D-Peru, already are behind the initiative.

The Selectmen were supportive but held off on a vote to sign the letter until it received a copy, which was not provided in advance of Monday's meeting.

Matuszko said that if the commonwealth creates the partnership as a legal entity, it would be coming back to the town to ask it to formally opt in as a full-fledged member.

Selectman Hugh Daley asked Matuszko and O'Connor for assurances that if the town ultimately does opt in, it would not obligate individual landowners to participate.

"It just gives more options for them," said O'Connor, the forest and land policy director for the commonwealth's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

"The legislation says it does not grant the state or federal government or the towns any more power than they have now," Matuszko said.

Conversely, if the town chose not to join to the partnership, Williamstown landowners would not be eligible for any programs funded through the group, Matuszko said.

The Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from each town, created a draft budget that assumes $25 million in state and federal contributions over a five-year period. Under the current plan, $15 million of that would go into a trust fund.

Matuszko said the partnership would break new ground nationally, but the idea has garnered support among Forest Service officials in Washington, D.C.

"This is new to the Forest Service," he said. "They haven't done this type of program. A lot of their programs are based on lands that the federal government has acquired. Even though there is publicly-owned land in this area, we're primarily focused on privately owned land.

"The initial reaction from the Forest Service was disbelief, but as we explained it further they seemed to warm up to it."

The federal government factored into another major topic of discussion at Monday's meeting: an update from Town Manager Jason Hoch about the Spruces Mobile Home Park decommissioning project.

Hoch told the board that the town is at the point where it is about to formally take possession of the property from Morgan Management. During the park closure period, the town has managed the mobile home park, but Morgan still owns the land.

"Once we close with Morgan, there's a ticking clock of 90 days to get a clean deed from FEMA," Hoch said.

One of the conditions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that funded the town's takeover of the flood-prone park and the relocation of its residents is that the land be returned to a "natural state."

Although all of the structures have been removed from the park, the utility poles remain, and their presence creates two issues for the town.

One is that National Grid's bill for removing its poles and lines came in significantly over what the town budgeted for that part of the project, according to Debra Turnbull, the town employee who has managed the park since the town assumed control.

"We had other costs with overruns, like asbestos remediations," Turnbull said. "We've had challenges in the budget. Now we're getting to the end, and our wiggle room is tighter and tighter.

"At this point, we're good, but we're tight."

Another challenge for the town's FEMA-mandated timetable: the national strike of by employees of Verizon, which needs to remove its poles and wires.

Turnbull said Verizon has assured the town that if the 90-day deadline is imminent, it will hire outside contractors to do the line work, and officials at FEMA and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency are aware that the labor situation is outside the town's control.

But the deadline still looms.

"Verizon's position, is obviously they want to see if the strike gets resolved," Turnbull said. "But I made it clear to them that they only have so much time and then we have a deadline we need to meet.

"It's nerve-wracking, but it's not insurmountable."

Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership

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