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Date: 1/4/2023
BLANDFORD — A small group of key officials in three towns has begun meeting with Patty Gambarini, chief environmental planner, and other staff at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) to assess the dirt roads in each town and beaver-related impacts on the roads.
The town of Chester, acting as the lead, joined by Blandford and Middlefield, received the two-year Municipal Vulnerability Planning (MVP) action grant of $317,555 to study the combined 60 miles of dirt roads in the towns — 30 in Chester, 23 in Middlefield and seven in Blandford. The towns will provide a match for the study of $7,500 each.
Chester Town Administrator Donald Humason Jr. said his predecessor, Kathe Warden, initially applied for the grant.
“We have 66 miles of roadway in Chester, and 30, almost half of our road miles, are gravel or dirt,” Humason said.
He said it’s great to be able to partner with the neighboring communities of Blandford and Middlefield on the project, and share the cost: “We border each other, the roads connect to each other, and we have many similarities. This is going to cost the individual towns, but you’re paying a little bit for what hopefully will be a huge return on that investment.”
He said in exchange, the towns will be getting a lot of professional work by PVPC and the contractors associated with the program.
“The surveys that our departments don’t have the time or expertise to do will be valuable for now and for the future,” Humason said, and will help the town to determine what to do with its dirt roads.
There will be two parts to the survey process, an analysis of the dirt roads and culverts in each town, and an analysis of beaver dams. The first year, 2023, the group will study the dirt roads in Blandford and Middlefield, and the beaver dam impacts in Chester. In 2024, they will look at the beaver impacts in Blandford and Middlefield, and survey the dirt roads in Chester.
At the first meeting of the project advisory group earlier in December, Humason and Chester Selectman Andy Sutton, Blandford Town Administrator Christopher Dunne and Middlefield Select Board Chair Curt Robie, among others, discussed what they would like to see come out of the study.
Gambarini said the study will be looking at nature-based solutions: how the towns can slow down the water that leads to erosion on the dirt roads and soak it up, using swales, check dams and other methods.
Dunne said he would love to have an inventory of the municipal culverts to be able to apply for grants down the road. Also discussed were entrenched roads that are worn down, and that the towns don’t have the money to build back up.
Humason said the study will also involve community input, with initial public meetings in March or April.
“We’re really going to rely on public input, especially those who live and drive on dirt roads; they know best what the conditions are,” Humason said.
The group also discussed the need to continue to lobby the governor’s office for increased Chapter 90 state aid to municipalities for roadwork, and to commit to multiple years of funding, so that towns can better plan their future projects.
Several committee members expressed their concern that this study and all of the work that will go into it by all of the towns needs to produce action, and not just get put on a shelf.
Dunne said the responsibility is also on the towns to follow up on the recommendations that have been made. He said the engineered study will help the towns to get grants.