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Date: 5/17/2023
CHESTER — A couple of dozen residents who live on dirt roads in town attended listening sessions at Town Hall on May 10 to talk about their roads for a resilient dirt road study being conducted by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. The study is part of a municipal vulnerability shared grant of $317,550 to Chester, Blandford and Middlefield to assess dirt roads and beaver populations.
PVPC planners Lyle Finnell, Mimi Kaplan and Patty Gambarini ran the two sessions in Chester, along with Don Humason, town administrator, and Chester’s municipal vulnerability liaison, Meredyth Babcock. The town’s new Highway Superintendent, Charles Dazelle, attended the noon session, and Selectman Andy Sutton was at the evening session.
Finnell and Kaplan said the project aims to identify a list of issues with the dirt roads and with beaver populations, and options on how best to address them. The project is for two years, and is wrapping up its first year in June. A beaver activity analysis is currently underway in Chester, and next year’s analysis will focus on the town’s dirt roads; while at the same time, the dirt road study is wrapping up in Blandford and Middlefield, and the focus next year in those towns will be on beavers.
At the end of the two years, PVPC will present five nature-based designs for roads. Rather than immediately calling for a bigger culvert, Finnell said, the planners will look at how swales, diversion, water gardens and other natural features can keep roads from flooding.
Residents will also identify two priority culverts on the roads that need to be replaced in each town, and prepare a report on them for future funding. Humason commented that the state likes shovel-ready projects, when a design has been done.
The last phase will be to review the regulations in the towns, and make recommendations on how to better manage their dirt roads and beaver populations.
Humason said the point of the study, which he said was an initiative of previous Town Administrator Kathe Warden, is to get input from residents, do the analysis, and put together best practices depending on the type of dirt road.
He said other states, including Vermont, have best practices for dirt roads already, which are being gathered in Massachusetts. According to the Vermont state website, 75% of town roads in Vermont are unpaved or gravel surfaces. Chester has 33 miles of dirt roads, he said.
Finnell and Kaplan said the three-town study will build on previous municipal vulnerability projects in Sheffield and Huntington, and a beaver assessment in Belchertown.
Finnell also talked about the impact on dirt roads of climate change projections for the Westfield River watershed. Trends include increases in average temperatures and decreases in days below freezing, causing more freezing and thawing. Also projected are increases in precipitation, with less snowfall, more rain, higher volumes in storm flows, and a longer mud season.
Babcock said the report will have an educational component, and next year she will involve Gateway Middle School students in the project with the help of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment.
Residents who spoke at the meeting brought up issues they were experiencing on their dirt roads in town, and named roads they would like to see addressed.
One resident asked whether the analysis would include private dirt roads, and possible recommendations to make them public roads. Finnell said they will be listed and discussed.
Another resident asked whether recommended repairs and construction of the roads would be contracted out, adding that he thought the town would save money doing the roads themselves.
Kaplan said it would depend on the size of the project, and said that Dazelle is an active member of the study.
“Do the experts agree that dirt roads maintain the character of an area and environment, or are the experts going to say that all roads should be paved?” asked former Selectman Richard Holzman, adding, “Personally, I hope they don’t.”
Babcock said there was no consensus on how to repair roads, and that dirt roads do have benefits. She said in the earlier session, there was a discussion about paving some portions of the roads that have steeper grades.
“No one is coming in to tell anyone anything; we’re collecting opinions,” she said.
Another resident asked how many times the has town rebuilt Abbott Hill Road, which gets washed out every year.
“When we had heavy rains in 2021, we were stranded for two days,” she said, adding that there is no other exit to that road.
Another resident said because the adjoining Taft Road is private and not maintained by the town, it gets washed out, and washes out Abbott Hill.
Babcock said the Westfield River Wild & Scenic Committee, which she serves as outreach coordinator, has filed a grant application for a culvert replacement on Abbott Hill. She said the culvert there is almost in the brook. She also acknowledged “the extraordinary efforts residents take on their own to keep culverts clear.”
Another resident who lives on Ingell Road said that road is flat, and he does not want to see it paved.
A different resident pointed out that Ingell has huge potholes, is very narrow in narrow spots, and very wide in other spots. Another said the UPS and FedEx trucks go down Ingell at 50 miles per hour, and “beat up the road in the winter.”
Holzman said a lot of roads are getting wider, needing more salt and encroaching on private property.
Another resident mentioned Lyman Road, which has a beaver pond next to the road that floods it. Kaplan said Lyman Road had been discussed in the earlier session, as had Maynard Hill Road and Lions HIll Road, among others.
Someone else recommended involving the Fire Department and ambulance service in the study, to find out what roads they have difficulty accessing at different times a year.
Humason said the town hopes to get more information from other residents about the dirt roads.
“Tell your friends, everyone who uses the dirt roads to send comments,” Humason said. Comments may be sent to Meredyth Babcock at mvp@chester.net.