Petersham Common Local News Page

The Petersham Friday Market returned to the town common from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on June 7 featuring local produce, meat and eggs, craft items and healthcare information.

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Northampton band Lunar Carnival provided the first performance of the market's 20-week live music series.

More than a dozen local vendors offer organic and other produce from local farms and within the Pioneer Valley. Offerings include started plants of many kinds, locally raised meat, chickens, local eggs, baked goods, home-baked dog cookies, local honey, handmade soaps and other craft items. Friday Market vendors vary weekly and include Petersham's Chimney Hill Farm and Sweetwater Farm (organic produce, meat), The Little Chicken Factory (mobile chicken coops), Bob Hayward's local garlic, Pick and Shovel Farm (plants and produce), Kiwi Meadows Farm (organic produce), Rick Wilkey (Valley produce) and other local growers. Dry Brook

Garden offers tubers and cut flowers. Starfire Bakery and Sweet Cottage Farm bring baked goods. Elzire’s Acre goat milk soap. Other vendors offer greeting cards and wood carvings. Mindful Garden farm also provides organic vegetables.

The market is open without charge to both regular and occasional vendors and to information booths staffed by health care agencies and social services who share information about their programs. The market relies on donations and grants to cover expenses.

Petersham Friday Market music is offered with support from town meeting voters, Heywood Healthcare, the Wild Geese Foundation, Petersham Cultural Council, Petersham Grange 95 and from local donors. The town common is handicap accessible.

In appreciation for their organization's support, up to 50 employees of Heywood Healthcare will receive a "Fabulous Five Dollar Coupon" on June 7 to spend at the market when they present their employee IDs at the Market Coordinator's booth.

For information, contact Roy Nilson (978-724-6662) or by e-mail:
fridaymarket@petershamcommon.com or visit www.petershamcommon.com.

Boards Get Ready for June 3 Town Meeting

Selectmen and Finance Committee members met May 22 to answer questions about the coming fiscal 2020 budget and about spending items in a proposed $4.4 million town budget. Two members of the public attended the session.

Fin Comm Chair Ross France said the 2020 local tax appropriation will rise by about $77,000 and will amount to a 9.5 percent increase over this year's tax rate or about $18.11 per one thousand of original tire

assessed value. A property assessed for $450,000 will pay about $8,100 in property tax. The actual tax rate will be set by the Board of Assessors.

France said the Fincom's primary goal is to craft a budget within Proposition 2 1/2 that provides for essential services, to treat employees fairly, to avoid using free cash to pay general operating expenses and to plan for future expenses.

Selectboard Chair Nancy Allen said going over final spending plans "... has benefits even if there are no residents in the room. The tax rate is the big issue this year." Contributors to the local tax burden this year include flat state reimbursement for education costs, payments due on various borrowing for schools, the Nichewaug and broadband expenses and proposed new vehicles for police and fire.

Fire Chief Dana Robinson is seeking a replacement fire truck for $280,000. The police department is seeking $48,205 for a pickup truck equipped to serve as a cruiser/emergency vehicle. Some

$103,195 is due for principal and interest on center school construction; $22,253 is due on Ralph C. Mahar construction; $47,065 will pay principal and interest on Nichewaug asbestos removal; and $60,000 is due for payment on two loans for the broadband project.

In all, voters will consider 42 articles on the town meeting warrant.

Selectboard Turns Down State Handicapped Grant

The Selectboard voted May 15 to turn down a $70,000 grant from the Massachusetts Office on Disability to install a handicap lift system intended to connect the upper and lower town halls.

The grant was approved in January, but the town is not able to complete the project on time or within budget, Chair Nancy Allen said. In a letter to the state office, the board said the town will solar installations

forfeit its grant. "... in the project, we are not able to successfully bridge an unforseen construction budget gap. ... we have determined that there is a funding shortfall." The work was required to be completed by June 30.

Both the upper and lower halls are handicap accessible but there is no connection between them for the disabled. The main hall is served by a temporary exterior ramp at the front of the building. The proposed lift project would provide access from outside of the building and allowed entry to both the upper and lower halls without intruding on the historic presence of the building. A five-member volunteer access committee helped produce the original grant application and solicited architectural drawings and a bid from a local contractor. Allen did not say when an opportunity to apply for the money again might materialize.