Mill River Greenway Initiative

A community-based steward for the Mill River

JW Sinton

Early Summer Newsletter

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The happiest of early summertimes to you, dear Mill River friends!

We are experiencing such a surge of interest and support for Mill River work that we’re beginning to burst with pride at the seams of our all-too-small workforce garment (namely Gaby, John, and Neal). Let’s get to the news:

  1. A new park is born!! Voters at Williamsburg Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly to approve the acquisition of a new four-acre park located across the Mill River from Local Burgy, Village Green, and Family Veterinary Center in the historic “Skinnerville” village between Haydenville and Williamsburg. A THOUSAND THANKS to dear friends and supporters who contributed over $8,000 in just two weeks to secure the purchase! And thanks to our supportive partners in the Eversource Energy real estate management office for helping us put together the deal.
  2. The Williamsburg Mill River Greenway Committee has finally secured a whopping $30,000 in State Transportation Bond funds, originally appropriated through the efforts of then-Senator Ben Downing in 2014. Much gratitude is owed to Representative Steve Kulik, and State Senator Adam Hinds, along with their local staff Paul Dunphy and Jon Gould, for their dogged efforts to bring those funds home to Burgy!
  3. Smith Design Clinic does it again! Our four intrepid Smith Engineering seniors gave a brilliant public presentation and submitted a 178-page report examining the Mill River’s mischievous behavior and possible solutions at the infamous “pinch” where Route 9 is dangerously narrow heading west past the Brassworks out of Haydenville. The impressive and extremely professional report will be shared with VHB Engineers, under contract with Williamsburg for survey and design development of the Burgy-Haydenville Greenway. You can view the report here (link to Burgy committee docs page on burgy.org: https://www.burgy.org/mill-river-greenway-committee/pages/greenway-reports-maps-etc
  4. Working closely with the Williamsburg Woodland Trails Committee (WWTC) and Smith College, we have just produced the 4thin our line of self-guided tours, this one by car or bicycle. It follows the path of the 1874 Williamsburg Flood from the site of the dam on the Mill’s East Branch to the final resting place of its victims at Florence Meadows/Grow Food Northampton Community Farm. It’s available for $2 from MRGI, the Williamsburg Historical Society, Historic Northampton, or the Northampton Chamber of Commerce.
  5. …speaking of which, the WWTC has just established one of the Valley’s most outstanding historical trails, this one from a parking spot on Ashfield Road, 2.8 miles from Williamsburg Center. With a Mass Humanities grant, the WWTC has installed a kiosk and series of wayside signs that lead from the trailhead to the dam site. Eric Weber and Elizabeth Sharpe provided the text and images. Eric’s drawings and engineering analyses are eye-opening. Be sure to check it out! It’s about a mile out and a mile back. Great hiking and great history in one fell swoop.
  6. We will be celebrating the Mill River at the amazing Golden Spike gathering of cyclists and trail enthusiasts throughout Massachusetts on the 27-28 of July. Our rail trail is part of two of the longest, most historic rail trails in New England. We urge you to check it out at https://www.gs2018.org. Gaby will present a short talk on our Williamsburg project, Neal will be at the table to work the crowd, and John will be leading Hidden Mill River tours on Friday and Saturday.
  7. On June 1st, the Hospital Hill and Smith College sections of Mill River became the focus for a natural history “biothon” to raise funds for the Hitchcock Center in memory of Elizabeth J. Farnsworth, whose untimely passing last November saddened us deeply. Through the amazing efforts of Laurie Sanders, Charley Eiseman, and Julia Blyth, we now have some updated baseline information on the biota of that section of the Mill River. Chief among our discoveries were the first known occurrences of a licorice-smelling goldenrod (Solidago odora) and a wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta). Now, if we could just find someone to lead a MRGI initiative to list all the species in our Mill River watershed…if only! Any volunteers out there?
  8. And if ecological sleuthing isn’t your specialty, we would love some help sussing out the questions and process of whether your humble servants at the MRGI should undertake the creation of a 501c(3). If this is more your expertise than identifying salamanders and wildflowers, please let us know!

Attached is a photo of the Community Gardens at the Grow Food Northampton Community Farm, on the Mill River in Florence, courtesy of MRGI champion Reid Bertone-Johnson of Smith College and his kite-mounted camera!

Florence Meadows: Community Farm and Grow Food Northampton, kite-aided photo by Reid Bertone-Johnson

Wild & Scenic FilmFest April 14

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13 Dynamic Short Films from 2:30 to 5:30 at Smith College, Wright Hall, Weinstein Auditorium

MRGI is thrilled to partner with a great group of environmental organizations for an Earth Day film festival organized by the Westfield Watershed and Wild & Scenic River folks, hosted by the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability at Smith.

Here is the poster with all the details: Wild & Scenic River Fest

Winter Newsletter

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Dear Mill River Rats,

The happiest of New Years to you and to our amazing river! Once again, Williamsburg and the upper watershed leads the way in accomplishments and will continue to be our chief focus over the next year. But first, some quick updates:

  • We’re thrilled to co-sponsor with Grow Food Northampton an eco-riverwalk with Hitchcock Center’s fabulous naturalist Ted Watt. The event is January 28th, 1pm-3pm. Register here! Meet up at the GFN Community Garden, 140 Meadow Street, Florence. Further details can be found on the GFN website here.
  • Heidi Stevens and the Leeds Mill River Greenway Committee now have a great set of historic signs in the center of Leeds that follow the MRGI brochure’s riverwalk. Pick up a brochure at Historic Northampton or the Northampton Chamber of Commerce (or contact us at info@millrivergreenway.org).
  • We’re still looking at an April date for publication of John Sinton’s book on the Mill River to be published by Steve Strimer’s Levellers Press. Working title? How about Devil’s Den to Licking Water: The Mill River in Landscape and History. If you’ve a better title, let us know! The book will have lots of cool maps and images for your delectation.
  • And now on to Williamsburg! Preparations for the 1874 Williamsburg Dam Disaster signage and brochure are on track for a springtime kickoff. Paul Jahnige and his Burgy Woodlands Trail Committee are leading the way on interpretive signs along the trail. John is coordinating contributions from Burgy Historical Society’s Eric Weber and Ralmon Black, Historic Northampton historian Betty Sharpe, and Smith student Amaya Ramsay-Malone to assemble a brochure to tell the story of the flood from Williamsburg to Florence. Heidi Stevens of the Leeds MRGC will provide graphic design.
  • The Williamsburg Mill River Greenway Committee is thrilled to be working for the second time with Smith College’s formidable Design Clinic. Four Engineering majors (shout out to Marcia Rojas, Laura Rosenbauer, Maya Sleiman, and Fereshta Noori!) are studying the hydrology of the Mill River at the “pinch” in Route 9 just west of the Brassworks and will contribute to the ultimate design of a retaining wall to widen the roadbed and make room for the Greenway as it follows Route 9 from Haydenville to Williamsburg. The students work is ably supported by a crack team of experts – Brett Towler of US Fish & Wildlife; Carl Gustafson of USDA NRCS (retd); Jim Hyslip of HyGround Engineering; and our champion Susannah Howe, Smith College Engineering Prof and director of the Design Clinic.
  • With elegant timing, the Design Clinic students are able to coordinate with and learn from the professional engineers of VHB, Inc., who were selected by the Town of Williamsburg to execute the Master Route 9 Corridor Survey for which funds were approved at Williamsburg’s 2017 Town Meeting. Surveyors can already be seen on and around Route 9 determining right of ways, flagging wetlands, establishing parcel boundaries, and laying down the baseline upon which the Williamsburg Mill River Greenway will be designed in the years ahead. Mark your calendars for a 2025 groundbreaking!
  • The Burgy Greenway received a big boost from Healthy Hampshire to the tune of a $9,999 grant awarded in November. Williamsburg will use the grant to design the future Mill River Greenway to maximize its safety and walkability, design the rest areas, viewpoints, river access points, safe crosswalks at road intersections and driveways, safety and accessibility accommodations, and to work with local partners to ensure that the final design is fully responsive to the needs of all users, with particular emphasis on the elderly, school children, and the disabled.  Healthy Hampshire is focused on improving people’s health in Hampshire County and the Hilltowns by collaborating with municipal leaders, elected officials, public health departments, planners, businesses, community organizations, and residents. It is part of the Mass in Motionstatewide initiative through the Department of Public Health, and administered by the City of Northampton. Thank you, friends!
  • More good Burgy news – the Greenway Committee received its second grant from the Recreational Trails Grant program of the Dept of Conservation and Recreation last October. Almost $50,000 will go directly to improvements to the South Main Connector, which someday will bring users of the Mass Central Rail Trail from the Haydenville dismount at the foot of South Main Street, to the beginning of the Burgy Greenway at the Haydenville Library. Grant funds will support:
    • The completion of trail surfacing between Leeds and Haydenville;
    • Conservation plantings along the trail dismount;
    • Establishment of a parklet at the dismount switchback;
    • Restoration of a retaining wall on South Main Street that will allow for further extension of the South Main sidewalk.

Once again, best wishes to all of you for the New Year, and three extra cheers for the good folks from Williamsburg!!

John, Gaby, and Neal

 

 

 

2017 Winter News

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Mill River at the Oxbow — Photo: Janine Norton www.janinenorton.com

It’s been three months since we last corresponded with you, dear MRGI supporters, and, after a Dam Walk and wonderful winter celebration to cap off a productive 2016, we’ve caught our breath and are ready to head into springtime.

  1. The Leeds-Haydenville Connection: Our happiest news is the completion of the trail dismount (aka the “Goat Path”) in Haydenville, which included grading, guard rails, and native restoration plantings.   Thanks again to the Williamsburg Highway Department for their time and skill in completing the project just before the snow fell! Gaby is now leading the charge to complete the surfacing of the last half-mile of rail trail between Leeds and Haydenville; City of Northampton and Town of Williamsburg have applied for grants together, so keep your fingers crossed! If the grants are awarded the project will occur in Spring 2018.
  2. Dam Disaster Brochure: We are planning our next brochure to tell the story of the Williamsburg Dam Disaster. Unlike our first three, this one will cover several miles of river, from the site of the old Williamsburg Dam to the floodplain at Florence Fields. Elizabeth Sharpe (In the Shadow of the Dam author) and Paul Jahnige (Williamsburg Woodland Trails Committee Chair) will be working with local historians Ralmon Black and Eric Weber to develop the text and images. Gaby will have a Smith intern ready to expedite the work, which John will shepherd through the process of design and printing with Rob and Damia at their Transit Authority Figures design shop. The Woodlands Trails Committee is also planning for interpretive signage along the trail itself. The trail itself was completed last fall and is accessible off Ashfield Road near the intersection of Judd Lane in Williamsburg.
  3. Interpretive Signs for the Hidden Mill: A lot is happening at Smith this term. Reid Bertone-Johnson’s studio will be working on signage for the Hidden Mill River reach of the river. Once we have text and designs for the signs, we will seek grants to work with Wayne Feiden, Northampton’s planner, to establish interpretive signs along the self-guided riverwalk route.
  4. Designs for Florence Fields: Reid’s class will also be scoping out a path from the parking lot at the downstream (southern) end of the recreation fields to the banks of the Mill River, a trail along the rivers edge, and, we hope, a crossing into Look Park. Smith senior Meg Kirsch is creating plans for an outdoor classroom at the river’s edge.
  5. Riverwalks? We look forward to planning at least two walks and a paddle this spring and summer. We will plan a paddle in April from Arcadia up to the South St. barrier if we have sufficient high water. We hope to work with Laurie Sanders and Betty Sharpe to find a date for a combined Historic Northampton/MRGI riverwalk at Florence Fields this summer and with John Clapp on a Roberts Meadow Brook walk this year, as well. Please, dear Mill River lovers, let us know if there are any riverwalks you would like to do again or new riverwalks on your bucket list.

As always, we wish you a joyous time on the river that runs through us!

Gaby, John, and Neal

 

December 3 Autumn Bash and Riverwalk

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Williamsburg Dam Trail Map

Your celebration-minded co-moderators – Gaby, John, and Neal – will throw a pizza and beer fundraising party at the home of Neal and Susannah Bastek on Saturday, December 3rd on Village Hill in Williamsburg. From 2:00-4:00, Eric Weber, chairman of the Williamsburg Historical Commission will lead us on a guided hike along the new trail that the Williamsburg Woodland Trails Committee created this summer from Ashfield Rd. to the site of the dam that failed in 1874.  It’s a two-mile round trip.  Eric is a  tremendously knowledgeable guide who has amazing photos to show and stories to tell.  We’re lucky to have him aboard.  Then at 5:00, we’ll gather at the Basteks for an Autumn Bash. We’re asking our hikers and party goers to contribute a small donation of $5 to $10 for the design and printing of the upcoming self-guided tour brochure for this walk that we’ll create in conjunction with the Williamsburg Woodland Trails Committee and Williamsburg Historical Commission. Please RSVP, and we’ll send you details.  We already have a dozen or so of you coming and look forward to welcoming many more.

At the bash, we’ll give you a short update on what MRGI has been doing and what’s ahead, but mostly we just want you to enjoy each other’s company and drink in the holiday spirit!  We can’t do any of this without you, and we’re grateful that you’ve been our stout support for so many years.

THANKS from Gaby, Neal, and John!