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Date: 2/22/2022
EASTHAMPTON – What would you like your community to look like?
That’s the question the city of Easthampton recently posed to residents of the New City neighborhood. The city sought the feedback as part of its development of a plan to overhaul the infrastructure in that section of the city. The goal, according to City Planner Jeff Bagg, is to improve not only the utilities under the ground but also the resources at ground level.
With the 2021 completion of a similar infrastructure project in the Admiral Street section which included new sewer lines, pavement, sidewalks and curbs, the city began to shift its focus to New City, which was identified as in significant need of repair. One of the hurdles facing the city and its contractors is a lack of knowledge of how deep the issues are.
“New City is one of the oldest neighborhoods that we have. If you look back at the history, along Parsons Street and all of these little side streets were all built at the same time to support the housing for people who worked in the mills. That was in the 1910s and 1920s,” Bagg said. “We can see that this is some of the oldest infrastructure that we have [but] we have no information about the condition of any of it except for what we can see.”
What residents and city officials can see are crumbling streets, sidewalks that are in similar condition and also not up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards, an outdated park space at the corner of Parsons and Federal streets, and vacant property behind the apartments at the former Parson Street School. The former school property, now owned by the city, was formerly a bus loop that has remained unaltered since the school closed.
“Through this process, we are going to try to find out from people who live in that neighborhood what they would like to see happen with that area,” Bagg said.
One of the most highly publicized avenues for feedback was a “walkshop” conducted on Nov. 20, 2021 – a public workshop and walking tour of the area that gave residents the opportunity to stand side by side with planners and city officials to relay and illustrate their concerns and visions for the future.
“It was a fun, new take on our approach to getting in touch with people,” Bagg said. “One of the benefits of COVID[-19] is it’s really caused us to go outside and that became one of the key strategies – we were going to go and meet these people where they live. We got really good attendance … we were super happy with the turnout – it was more than we would ever get at a public meeting in Town Hall. We consider this a great success.”
More than 40 people attended and offered what Bagg described as “really high level feedback,” especially regarding improving park property and equipment.
“There was a lot of discussion about having more opportunities for playgrounds for different age groups, enhancing it so it looks better, adding a walking path and benches – basically creating a place for people in the neighborhood to go to and have a true neighborhood park,” he said, adding there was also discussion on community gardens.
“Walking around there were also definitely some old sidewalks that are in disrepair and sections of sidewalk that are just missing,” Bagg added, noting there was potential for a multi-use path off of Parson Street. Street trees and lighting were also addressed as issues.
In addition to community outreach as part of this fact-finding first phase, the city conducted studies and assessments of the underground utilities.
“The next level is having a team go in and identify and explore what’s underground,” he said. “We know there’s water lines and we know there’s sewer lines that are underground, but we don’t know what the condition is until we do these evaluations.”
These assessments include smoke tests and the use of cameras that travel through the pipes, suspended on rigid wires, and record the trip for assessment and mapping. To pay for the studies and assessments in this first phase, the city applied for and was awarded a sizeable Community Development Block Grant. Once completed, the data will include a map outlining the streets in the neighborhood including all of the infrastructure beneath them. Preliminary information that the city has received indicate many of the sewer lines are older clay pipe and “there are definitely areas that need to be repaired to make the neighborhood sustainable moving forward,” Bagg said.
Between public input and results of these studies, Bagg said the intent is to identify and rank the areas with the most critical needs and create a five- to seven-year plan to upgrade the infrastructure.
Another outdoor meeting in the neighborhood will take place later this year. Bagg said the purpose of that meeting would be to reveal the preliminary findings on areas of greatest need and also rough designs of other project aspects such as the park. Residents would have the opportunity to provide feedback on what they view as priorities based on the information presented.
From there, the process of budgeting and identifying funding sources would begin.
For perspective on the potential length of the project from planning to completion, Bagg pointed to the prior infrastructure improvement effort in the Admiral Street section of the city. Planning for that, he said, began in 2014 and the last street was completed last year.
“We would be applying for Community Development Block Grant funds over the next five to 10 years to kind of take a street at a time to complete the upgrades,” he said.