EASTHAMPTON - November 9, 2011

Mayor Michael A. Tautznik has been elected to an eighth term, beating out a challenge mounted by retired police captain Donald C. Emerson.

Tautznik, 58, secured 63.5 percent of the vote with 3,056 ballots cast in his favor. Emerson, 64, got 1,758 votes to finish a distant second.

The two faced off in the election's only contest,Tautznik promised an eighth term would be his last and the city has been hiring financial personnel to take on some of his duties, hoping for a smooth transition to a new mayor.

Emerson promised throughout the campaign to be more accessible to the average citizen than Tautznik. He won support from half the city's employees unions and many in the business community.

Tautznik repeatedly thumped his opponent for alleged financial illiteracy. Emerson had proposed using Community Preservation Act money for business development, which Tautznik said is "probably not legal" and demonstrated Emerson's poor grip on the issues.

Emerson contended that Tautznik's time was up and the people wanted change. He said he had more experience in government and with finance than Tautznik did when he first took office in 1996, a claim Tautznik has disputed.

On the City Council side, President Joseph P. McCoy and Donald L. Cykowski retained their seats while Planning Board member Chester A. Ogulewicz, Jr., and newcomer Nathaniel P. Ziegler are set to bring two new faces to the nine-member body. At-large councilors Andrea H. Burns and Ronald D. Chateauneuf bowed out of the race early on.

All precinct councilors won re-election without challenge: Precinct 1 Councilor Daniel C. Hagan, Precinct 2 Councilor Justin P. Cobb, Precinct 3 Councilor Joy E. Winnie, Precinct 4 Councilor Salem Derby and Precinct 5 Councilor Daniel D. Rist.

Five incumbent School Committee members will remain: Chairman Peter T. Gunn, LaDonna E. Crow, Nancy L. Sykes, Lori J. Ingraham and Bonnie L. Katusich. Debora R. Lusnia, a member of the Easthampton High School Building Committee, will assume the seat vacated by Eric Yates.

HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE ENDORSES MAYOR MIKE

In the Easthampton mayoral race this year, voters are faced with a choice between incumbent Mayor Michael Tautznik, seeking re-election to an eighth term in office, and a former longtime member of the police force, Donald Emerson, who wants to unseat him. Both men are impressive in their devotion to the community where they were born and raised. And both candidates have the best interests of their city in mind in their quests to be CEO of Easthampton.

But we think Tautznik is the clear stand-out and deserves to win re-election Tuesday. He has a broad array of skills and knowledge honed over the past 15 years which continue to serve the city well.

Emerson pledges if elected to be an ambassador for the city. He has promised to be a better listener and provide stronger leadership than Tautznik. He believes Tautznik has allowed city employee morale to sink, and as he campaigned, he says he's heard from residents who say Tautznik has been in office too long.  Beyond that general critique of the Tautznik administration, Emerson has been woefully short on specifics, except to say he would reopen the municipal building on Fridays and keep Mountain Road open more during the winter. Those may be ideas worth considering, but they do not articulate a vision for a city in 2012.

Tautznik over the past decade and a half has overseen Easthampton's transformation from a struggling mill town into a city that has become a hub of arts and culture for a new generation. Under his guidance, the city opened a new municipal building, built a public safety complex and the water treatment plant and created the Manhan Rail Trail. Still in the works are a new high school and a solar project at a former landfill. Tautznik says he wants to see these projects through to completion and we believe he has earned the right to do so.

In addition, he is championing the creation of a boardwalk for the banks of Nashawannuck Pond and the development of affordable housing in the former Easthampton Dye Works building on Cottage Street.

A city leader today must be a good manager of managers, prepare and execute a balanced budget, inspire creativity and command respect. In Easthampton, where the mayor's post is still in its infancy in many ways, the leader of the city must be both a visionary and a pragmatist.

The mayor needs to listen to the ideas of others, yet be decisive. After all is said and done, the mayor must make decisions that not everyone will applaud. We believe Tauztnik scores high on all these counts.

Tautznik has been criticized in some quarters for not being supportive enough of the businesses in town. This is a common criticism leveled at city leaders who stay in office for multiple terms, particularly if they coincide with business downturns. A mayor can and should work in partnership with businesses. But a mayor's main job is to make sure a city functions well. We believe some of the criticisms leveled at Tautznik are misdirected frustrations whose source is the ongoing economic misery many small businesses are enduring. The success of its business community does not - and must not - rest with the chief elected officer of the city. In other words, no matter how ardent a cheerleader a mayor is for the business community, that person cannot guarantee the success of private businesses. Any time a mayor has been in office for 15 years, people become weary of seeing that person at the helm.

But in this case, that is not a good enough reason to vote out of office a mayor who has improved the city in immeasurable ways, who has the best interests of the city at heart and who remains in the best position to make a great city even better.

SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN ENDORSES MIKE TAUTZNIK

From the Springfield Republican/MassLive:

Mayor Michael A. Tautznik, who is seeking his eighth term as Easthampton’s first and only mayor, faces a challenge from retired former police captain Donald C. Emerson in next Tuesday’s election. The mayor is running on his record, touting his success in luring a burgeoning arts community to the Eastworks complex in the former Stanley Homes Products facility. Emerson is arguing that it’s a time for a change.

We believe that Tautznik’s experience and successes make him the better candidate to attract new businesses while championing Easthampton’s unsung quality of life. While Tautznik acknowledges that Easthampton won’t ever outshine neighboring Northampton, he touts his efforts to put this second city on the tourist destination map.  Tautznik plans to build a boardwalk around Nashawannuck Pond to bring people to downtown. And the city is already planning a 2012 Bear Fest, a citywide art installation.

William Burgart transforms tragedy into a mission to clean up Easthampton

By REBECCA EVERETT
Hampshire Gazette Staff Writer

William Burgart of Easthampton began collecting bottles and cans years ago in an effort to clean up the environment and to raise money for land preservation efforts. He is shown here with portraits of his late wife, Patricia Bond Burgart. He says he has undertaken the project in her memory.

On a sunny Friday afternoon, a gray-haired man rides a green bicycle down East Street in Easthampton. The road is busy with commuting cars and tractor trailer trucks headed for the city's industrial park, and the shoulder is periodically pitted with potholes and the accompanying chunks of asphalt.

William Burgart, with the casual calm of a man accustomed to sharing a narrow road on his bicycle, signals that he plans to stop.

He drops his bicycle on the side of the road, steps a few feet off into tall grass and retrieves an empty Schaefer beer can. He holds it upside down to let the rainwater drip out and then drops it into a bag attached to his bike.

He starts off down the road again, his helmeted head bowed as his eyes scour the ground for other bottles and cans.

"When he's on his bike, he doesn't know you," says John Bator, who has known Burgart for 25 years. "You can wave all you want but he's always looking down, keeping his eyes peeled for cans."

Burgart, 69, is well known around Easthampton. He has lived on East Street for 32 years, is a founding member of the Manhan Rail Trail Committee and the only remaining founding member on the Pascommuck Conservation Trust's Board of Directors.

Many also know him just by sight. He rides his bike around Easthampton every day, even in rain, sleet and snow.

"Everyone knows him as the guy riding his bike around town, but not a lot of people know about what he does. ... He's quiet and modest. To him it isn't a big deal, it's just second nature for him to do it," says Bator of Burgart's largely uncredited hobby.

Over the last quarter-century, Burgart has been pausing during his daily bike rides to pick up any can or bottle he sees. He redeems the returnables and donates every nickel and dime to land conservation causes in the area in memory of his late wife, Patricia Bond Burgart, who died 10 months after they were married in 1986.

"We used to pick up bottles and cans together while we were biking or walking, but we just kept it for spending money then," Burgart says. "Then, when she died, I decided to do it for her because she cared a lot about land conservation. It's just my little memorial to her."

Since her death in 1987, Burgart has collected just over 92,000 bottles and cans, adding up to over $4,600, which he has donated to protect land in Easthampton and around the Pioneer Valley. And he had to bike plenty of miles to collect the returnables. In August, he pedaled his 150,000th mile during a bike trip from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh.

He has recorded every mile for the last 28 years in a dog-eared spiral notebook, and keeps detailed records of his receipts from returning the bottles and cans.

Burgart, A FEW months shy of 70, still looks the part of an athlete. On a rainy afternoon at his home, he is ready to ride in a pair of athletic shorts and a worn T-shirt bearing the name of a trail he biked in Michigan.

His plans for the afternoon, despite the steady downpour, include biking to the gym and later to Hadley for a rainy hike along the Connecticut River. "There's nothing wrong with riding in the rain," he says, waving his hand dismissively. "You wear a raincoat."

The reason even some of his longtime friends don't know about his mission to collect returnables is pretty clear: Burgart would rather talk about the stories behind each of his five bicycles than himself or his can collecting mission. In his eyes, there's nothing special about his hobby. It's just about a promise he made to himself, days after his wife died: If you see a can, pick it up.

The Pittsburgh native moved to Easthampton in 1978 after becoming a partner in the Broadview Restaurant in Holyoke. After he sold his part of the restaurant in 1985, he worked maintaining a number of rental properties around the city.

It was at the Broadview Restaurant that he met a pretty customer in 1979 who would later become his wife. They had a lot in common, he says, including their mutual love of hiking, camping and land conservation.

"Everyone loved her," Burgart says. "She was very outgoing and cheerful and happy - on the surface."

They were married in their home eight years later, but 10 months after that, she took her own life.

Patricia Burgart made her mark in Easthampton. She was a member of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Easthampton Democratic Committee and served on the Board of Directors of the Easthampton Community Center.

In 1983, the couple's love of the outdoors led them to join forces with nine other activists, including Mayor Michael Tautznik, in an effort to preserve undeveloped land in Easthampton. They founded the city's first land preservation group, the Pascommuck Conservation Trust.

"Our first meeting was in Room 2 in the Old Town Hall. It was just Mike and I. No one else showed up," Burgart says, smiling at the memory.

At the time, land conservation wasn't a widely-supported cause, says Bator, who is now president of the trust. "People didn't know a lot about land conservation back then. It was just a typical mill town and Bill and the rest got some resistance. People called them tree huggers.

"We just thought we'd try to protect land as best we could, but we didn't have the expertise or the skills and we definitely didn't have any money," he recalls. "Our first purchase was made available a year later. It was a parcel on East Street, 4.8 acres for $2,000, and we didn't even have that much."

Burgart says the trust was only able to purchase the land, now called the Old Pascommuck Conservation Area, because another land conservation group loaned the money.

Then his life took a turn on May 26, 1987. His wife, after struggling with alcoholism for years, killed herself.

After the tragedy, Burgart did what he could to memorialize his wife in the way he thought she would have wanted. He made his first major donation to a land preservation cause, giving $5,000 to secure a conservation restriction for 5 acres in Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in honor of his late wife and his mother, Anne Burgart, who had also died around that time.

"Well, I didn't have gravestones for them, so I thought I'd have their names put on a plaque in the sanctuary," he says. "I think they'd like it better, too."

At that same time, Burgart promised himself that he would continue picking up the bottles and cans, as he and Patricia had done, and donate the proceeds to land conservation, all in her memory.

"I think she'd be proud of what I'm doing," he says. "It's not a lot, but we both cared a lot about the environment and she would like this."

He refers to his hobby as a "game of persistence."

"I know I could go get a job pumping gas and make more money to donate, but this is my game. It's my way to clean up and do something to protect land," he says.

Burgart puts on his reading glasses and opens the aged leather pouch where he keeps records of the money he has raised in his 24 years of collecting bottles and cans. They are scribbled on recycled paper, mostly old newsletter pages printed on colored paper. Many pages are turning brown around the edges after years of use.

"It's slow, but it adds up. My nickels just don't go as far as they used to," he says, pointing out his tallies for August and July, which are about $7 each.

Burgart says there are far less returnables scattered about than when he first started collecting. He used to find one can for every mile, he says. Now he only finds a can once in five miles.

"It's very slow now, which I guess is good," he says. "I like to think people are more conscious about littering now, but the economy probably has something to do with it, too. People are probably saving their cans more to return."

Pascommuck Trust Board Member Martin Klein says although he and Burgart have been on the board together for over a decade, he only heard about Burgart's "game of persistence" earlier this year, and was very impressed.

Klein says Burgart has a distinctive style that shapes his work for the trust and other land preservation causes.

"I find him to be passionate about land protection in a quiet way," Klein says. "He's very sincere, somewhat unorthodox and humble."

Bator says when he learned about Burgart's hobby, he was struck by his perseverance, practicality and "old-fashioned frugality."

"He's quite a character," Bator says of his friend, who served as president of the trust before him from 1992 to 1996. "He has an unassuming demeanor and a dry sense of New England humor."

After BIKING THE Manhan Rail Trail almost daily for eight years, Bill Burgart knows every inch of it. On an afternoon ride to the Old Pascommuck Conservation Area off of East Street, he looks for bottles and cans, but the trail is free of returnables. He finds a plastic water bottle, which he picks up to recycle at home.

Away from the loud traffic of East Street, his tires hum audibly against the pavement and the red panniers on his bike that hold cans flap in the breeze as he coasts through the wooded area.

He rides his bicycle an average of 15 miles a day, between "just for fun" rides and trips to the grocery store, the gym and appointments with his doctor in Hatfield. Some of his just-for-fun rides have taken him through "30-something" U.S. states and around Europe.

Burgart says when he started logging his miles in 1983, he did not have a big goal in mind, such as biking 150,000 miles; he just knew he wanted to keep riding "indefinitely."

"You don't think about those things when you're young," he says. "Now I know you can't bike forever."

Burgart says his age is slowly starting to take a toll on his biking. His lungs, damaged from smoking when he was younger, are starting to protest biking up Mountain Road, and the weather is more limiting now.

"I used to bike up the mountain to work in the snow and ice when the cars couldn't make it up. I just needed a little bit of sand and a mountain bike," he says. "Now it depends more on how the roads are. I can't afford to fall now. I'm older and too breakable."

He found out just how breakable he was in 2007, when he was biking down Route 66 in Arizona after going on a white-water rafting trip in the Grand Canyon.

"At where Route 66 meets Interstate 40, I was crossing the interstate ramp and that's my last memory. I woke up looking at a hospital ceiling," he says. A car had struck him, fracturing his hip.

In 2010, he tore his rotator cuff and had to stay off his bicycles for five months while it healed.

Despite those setbacks, Burgart continues to work toward the next milestone. For his 60th birthday almost 10 years ago, Burgart biked across the country. He will be 70 in January, and is still deciding how to celebrate the occasion. Options he is considering include going to the Northwest Territory for the summer solstice or completing the 500-mile Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage across France and Spain.

He still hikes with the three hiking clubs and rides with his bike club, the Cyclonauts Racers, as he has for over 20 years. His work with the Pascommuck Conservation Trust involves more than just sitting in Board of Directors meetings. A few months ago, he and other trust members rebuilt walkways, bridges and stairs on the trails in the Brickyard Brook Conservation Area, which happens to be right next to his home.

Burgart KNOWS THE Brickyard Brook trail well. On a sunny September morning, he briskly traipses through the woods in his black biking shoes and bright purple socks, stepping with the surefootedness of someone who knows which roots will trip and where the slippery spots are. The Brickyard Brook Conservation Area, located adjacent to his home on East Street, is a long, narrow strip of wooded land surrounding the brook and includes a beaten path the connects East Street and Mount Tom Avenue. The woods are not too dense, and sunlight streams through the breaks in the canopy, dotting the surface of the stream and the forest floor with bright, fluid patches of light.

Burgart, his neighbors and the trust are not only responsible for preserving the 9-acre conservation area for recreation, but also raised $82,000 in 1998 to ensure that 88 acres of adjacent agricultural land, now Mountain View Farm, stayed as farmland.

"This would have been 30 houses, but look at it now," Burgart says, gesturing to the fields of vegetables in front of him, edged with forest on three sides, with the profile of Mount Tom as a backdrop.

Land conservation is getting easier as more people realize the need to save open space, Burgart says. "But it's always a fight," he says. "If we don't buy it, the developer will."

"I think the land trust has brought some integrity to this town," he says, squinting as he looks around the sun-drenched acres of open space. "I just did what I could."

Easthampton Mayoral Candidates Face Off on abc40


Local TV station abc40 held another round of local mayor debates tonight during our 5:30PM newscast. Easthampton's incumbent, Mayor Michael Tautznik, was matched up with challenger, retired police captain, Donald Emerson. Please click

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Tim Murray tours Easthampton's Oliver Street landfill solar array, now under construction

Brian Steele, Springfield Republican

Mayor Michael A. Tautznik led state officials, including Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, on a walking tour of the Oliver Street landfill solar array on Thursday and garnered praise for having the first such project under construction in the state.

The 2.3-megawatt installation is also the largest of those planned and is expected to save residents $1.5 million on power over 10 years.

“This is a great example of Easthampton leading the way for the whole commonwealth,” Murray said. “We really believe we can create a new sector of our economy around clean energy."

Borrego Solar Systems Inc. of Lowell began construction of the 9,620-panel system, which is about 25 percent complete, late last month, project officials said. It is expected to be done by the end of the year and should be connected to the grid in February.

That connection requires the installation of utility poles, which the City Council recently approved after bargaining between residents and Western Massachusetts Electric Co. over the type.

Project manager Joseph Harrison said Easthampton will save about $80,000 on power in the first year. The power can be supplied to up to 500 homes.

Murray praised Tautznik as “a creative, innovative mayor willing to embrace new technology in a way that will benefit taxpayers” and the environment.

“We did this to set the example for the municipal sector,” said Tautznik. “The city’s proud to be the host.”

Easthampton City Council reduces property tax collection for new high school project

Brian Steele, Springfield Republican

The City Council reduced the amount of property tax the city will collect for work on the new high school after Mayor Michael A. Tautznik said costs are lower than expected.

The council last week unanimously approved a reduction of $159,201.73 from the anticipated cost of the debt exclusion override voters approved last year to pay for the school. It is still unclear how much of a tax impact the project will have.

"I've hardly ever had the ability to vote on something like that and it's wonderful," said Precinct 5 Councilor Daniel D. Rist.

Tautznik has announced two other major price reductions since May. Bids for the $43.7 million project came in low, dropping the cost by $3 million, and last month the city sold a $14 million bond at a lower interest rate than expected.

The lower rate shaved $750,000 from the price, he said.

More bonding, slightly over $1 million, will be needed to cover the city’s end, Tautznik said. The original bond was expected to be about $18 million. The Massachusetts School Building Authority is covering the rest.

Under the original cost estimate, the maximum quarterly property tax impact on an average single-family home was expected to be $69.32 in fiscal year 2013, according to project documents.

Property taxes have risen every year for more than a decade and the fiscal year 2012 budget includes a 2.5 percent hike, the highest increase allowed by law. The tax rate, however, is still well below the state average, according to Department of Revenue figures.

City Council President Joseph P. McCoy complimented Tautznik and finance director Melissa Zawadzki for "a combination of their skill and due diligence" in overseeing continuous cost reductions.

"This high school project has a great success story," said Tautznik. "We've been successful and some might say a little bit lucky."

Paul Street subdivision advances in Easthampton

Rebecca Everett Gazette

A nine-home subdivision off Paul Street is one step closer to being built.

The city's Planning Board awarded Easthampton-based developer David Garstka Builders LLC a special permit for the project, which seeks to develop 2.8 acres of a 27-acre property. The remainder of the land will be purchased by an Easthampton land conservation group.

City Planner Stuart Beckley said the Planning Board unanimously approved Garstka's application Tuesday. "It's a very good project that fits the scale of the neighborhood and preserves 24 acres of open space," he said.

President John Bator of the Pascommuck Conservation Trust said he is pleased the project is moving forward so the land conservation group can purchase the land they agreed upon with Garstka and the current land owner.

"This is a classic example of a city, a land trust and a developer working together to create a multi-use complex, where everyone wins," Bator said.

Garstka hopes to build nine single-family homes, ranging in price from $200,000 and $350,000, off a cul-de-sac that would extend from the end of Paul Street at its intersection with Beechwood Avenue off South Street. Beckley said the new homes would generate approximately $30,000 in property taxes for the city.

The Pascommuck Conservation Trust plans to purchase the 24 remaining acres, which are mostly not suitable for development, from Alice LaFond, a Florida resident who is the trustee for an estate that includes the property. Doug Wheat, a member of the trust's board of directors, said the land would cost the trust somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000. The City Council approved $45,000 in CPA funds for the trust's acquisition.

Bator said the trust already owns an abutting 15-acre property behind the Big Y in Southampton, but it is not currently available for public use because it can only be reached by crossing private property. With the acquistion, the trust hopes to combine the two properties to create one large conservation area including the Manhan River where it could build a trail system that would be accessible from the cul-de-sac.

The parcels will preserve land on both sides of the Manhan River, Bator said, which is a major goal of the trust.

"This opens the area up for passive recreation via a new trail system and easements, enabling visitors from the neighborhood and beyond to access the bottomland leading to the river without trespassing or encountering difficult terrain devoid of embankment steps and footbridges," he said.

Garstka and Bator agreed that the trail system would be attractive to people considering purchasing a house on the subdivision.

"Having an open space with good trails in one's virtual backyard is a big plus," Bator said. Garstka said he has already had a lot of interest in the building lots. "They're pretty private and they're a little bigger," he said. "And it will be nice to be able to take your dog out and go for walks back there."

The project is still being reviewed by the Conservation Commission, which will have to approve tree cutting and storm water management plans, Garstka said. Beckley said the commission will visit the site Saturday at 9 a.m. and continue the public hearing on Nov. 14.

Beckley said that residents of Paul Street and the abutting Hampton East Condominiums that attended the Planning Board's hearing mostly expressed concerns about storm water runoff reaching their property and tree cutting on the properties' boundary.

Beckley said the Planning Board was satisfied by assurances that the grading of the property and any paved areas would carry water away from the condominiums, not toward it, and Garstka also promised to transplant additional evergreen trees to create a better screen between the cul-de-sac and the condominiums.

Mayor Mike is happy to announce that he has been officially endorsed again by Hampshire County District Attorney David Sullivan in his re-election campaign. We welcome Dave's support in this crucial election year. Here are the District Attorney's exact words below:

"Mike Tautznik's strong leadership, experience and innovative vision makes him our best choice for Mayor"

- David Sullivan, DA, Hampshire County

From the GazetteNet.com site:

The deadline for Easthampton residents to register to vote in the Nov. 8 election is Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. City Clerk Barbara LaBombard said her office at 50 Payson Avenue will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day to accommodate voter registrations.

Residents registering through the mail must postmark their registrations by Oct. 19.

Absentee ballots, which must be returned before the close of polls on Nov. 8, will be available at the City Clerk's office starting Monday, LaBombard said.

For questions or to check your voter status, contact Barbara LaBombard at 529-1460.

Mayor Mike talks about the downtown Arts and Business revival in Easthampton that has occurred during his time as Mayor. He has worked to simplify and streamline the process to make the downtown more attractive to new businesses. He helped to transform the city's unused mill buildings into attractive space for artists and other small businesses when the downtown was struggling to re-invent itself. He continues to seek ways to make the downtown a better experience for businesses and residents through ideas like the Nashawannuck Pond restoration and the proposed Boardwalk project. Please click HERE to watch a video of Mayor Mike talking about downtown Easthampton.

Paving Roads and other projects

by Michael Tautznik on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 8:45am

In the last three years (fiscal '09 to '11) we have spent nearly $1.9 million to fix the roads here in Easthampton. In addition to local money budgeted directly to the Highway Department for routine patching and paving ($157,000), the Board of Public Works expended grant money from the state ($1,715,000) under a formula based on the number of road miles in Easthampton. The Board makes the decision on where to spend these limited dollars based on safety, roadbed conditions and traffic volume. Under their direction, the Department of Public Works (DPW) has completed major repair or reconstruction projects on Adams Street, Everett Street, Loudville Road, Mountain Road, Pomeroy Street and Phelps Street and undertaken patching and shimming projects on several others including Holyoke Street. Right now the DPW is working on a complete rebuilding of South Street that will also include the paving of Glendale Road from the vicinity of South Street to the Manhan River bridge.

In addition, state grant funds are being expended for design work on a $2.9 million state project that will include paving the rest of Glendale from the bridge to West Street and a complete reconstruction of the intersection of West Street with Pomeroy Meadow Road. Finally, the city was recently awarded more than $500,000 in Block Grant funds to begin rebuilding portions of the Everett Street neighborhood between Franklin and Hudson Streets.

Please click HERE to watch more.

As part of Mayor Mike's efforts to keep Easthampton residents abreast of the latest news in town, we filmed a short conversation with the mayor and got an update on how the new high school project is developing. Please click HERE to watch video on YouTube. Stay tuned for regular updates from the mayor on subjects of interest during the campaign. Please send us any questions or ideas and we will feature them in future conversations with Mayor Mike. Thank you for your interest.

Easthampton Community Access TV has started a new video series from the new Government Access Studio called "Ask Mayor Mike". The show will allow the mayor to discuss a wide range of topics of interest to local citizens. Easthampton residents can submit questions and concerns to the mayor and allow him to explain what the city can do about it.  The pilot for this new TV show has been uploaded to YouTube for all to view. Please click HERE to do so.

Easthampton election ballot set; candidates schedule events to meet the public

Published: Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 8:00 PM     Updated: Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 8:05 PM

 It’s official: voters will decide the outcomes of two races in the Nov. 8 election and the candidates have set up plenty of opportunities to meet with the public. On Tuesday, candidates were certified for the ballot after returning nomination packets with at least 100 residents’ signatures. Mayor Michael A. Tautznik will square off against former police captain Donald C. Emerson and five candidates are running in the ever-evolving City Councilor At-Large race.

Tautznik and Emerson are scheduled to participate in a debate Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Williston Northampton School chapel. They will field questions from the local media, including The Republican, and residents.

Tautznik has scheduled four “Meet the Mayor” events. On Oct. 4 and 18, he will be at East Village Cafe at 39 Union St. from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. He will appear at White Square Books, 86 Cottage St., on Oct. 13 and 27, also from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Emerson is expected to detail his goals and ideas for the city’s future on Friday, Sept. 23, at the Pulaski Club, 79 Maple St., from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Published: Sunday, August 28, 2011, 10:33 PM     Updated: Monday, August 29, 2011, 1:32 AM

Residents’ tax burden for construction of the new high school continues to drop.

The project is already $3 million under budget and on Tuesday the city sold a $14 million bond at 3.5 percent interest, which Mayor Michael A. Tautznik said was “better than we expected. We had projected about 4.2 (percent).” The original price of the project was $43.69 million, now down to $40.7 million, $30 million of which is actual construction costs.The city’s end would have been covered by a 20-year conventional bond of $18.15 million with the state picking up the $25.54 million balance. Those figures are now lower, as well, but the new numbers were not available Wednesday. The lower interest rate was made possible last week when Standard & Poor’s upgraded the city’s general obligation state qualified bond rating, which was in question after it downgraded the country’s credit. Bonding for the school was done at a higher long-term rating, AA-minus, than anticipated, allaying fears that the nation’s fiscal problems would lead to a higher interest rate on repayment. A rating of AA means the city has a “very strong capacity to meet its financial commitments,” according to S&P guidelines. The “minus” indicates a relative position in the broader rating category.

Tautznik said the upgrade was a “very positive outcome.”

The $14 million bond will fund the major portion of construction, but more bonding, about $1 million to $2 million, will be needed to cover the remaining costs for the city, Tautznik said. Voters approved a debt exclusion override last year by a margin of 3,023-1,167 to repay the bonds. In fiscal 2013, the maximum quarterly property tax impact on an average single-family home was expected to be $69.32, according to project documents. The new price and the upgraded bond rating have dropped that figure, but it was unclear Wednesday by how much.The city has asked the Massachusetts School Building Authority to draw up a new budget to reflect the lower numbers, but it has not been solidified yet, Tautznik said. 

Published : Monday, 19 Sep 2011, 4:22 PM EDT

• Jackie Bruno

Easthampton's fish ladder project in the Manhan River is on hold until the city can receive more federal funding to complete it.

The project is about 2/3 complete. The city is just waiting for additional federal funds to continue working on it.

The project has already cost over $700,000. It's being paid for with federal funds.

Still, some residents say they don't think the city should waste anymore time on the fish ladder.

They'd like to see the city fix their potholes first. 22News asked Michael Tauznik, Easthampton's mayor, if this is a fair argument.

"Pothole money and fish ladder money come from two different places. One can't be spent on the other," he explained.

"Money that would be spent on fish ladder can only be spent on the fish ladder, and no money for potholes will ever be spent on this fish ladder."

He said the city is trying to fix as many potholes as they can given their economic situation.

SOLAR ENERGY PROJECT NEWS

Mayor Mike Tautznik signed separate deals with Lowell-based Borrego Solar Systems - which will bring one of the largest municipal solar arrays in the state (about 2.7 megawatts) to Easthampton - and a 35-month contract with TransCanada Corp that will lower the city's electricity rates to its buildings by 23.5 percent. There are still agreements to be struck with Western Massachusetts Electric Co., which is under state mandate to introduce more green electricity to its grid, but Tautznik said that he hopes Borrego can begin to install the solar arrays this summer. The panels, which will also require local permits, will be located on the closed Oliver Street landfill and on a piece of land adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant off Ferry Street. The contract with the solar energy company will save the city an estimated $100,000 per year, Tautznik said. "It's green energy; it's the right thing to do," Tautznik said. The agreement is also financially beneficial to the city, which will not have to spend any taxpayer money on the project. Borrego will build the $20 million array with its own money on leased city property, in exchange for an agreement that Easthampton will purchase the electricity that the panels produce at a discounted rate. The city will earn credits on its power bills by selling excess electricity back into the power grid through an arrangement with WMECO, called "net metering." "It's a good deal," Tautznik said.

The city sidewalks will once again be overrun with bears in summer 2012, but right now, organizers of the second Easthampton Bear Fest are looking for a little human help. Easthampton City Arts Plus is hoping to recruit volunteers at a kickoff meeting Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Flywheel space in the Old Town Hall on Main Street. Briana Taylor, coordinator for Easthampton City Arts Plus, said that after the success of the first Easthampton Bear Fest in 2009, the arts group is ready to do it again, with a little more experience this time. "It's been three years since the last one, we really enjoyed putting it on, and it was such a great success," she said. "We're hoping again to highlight the amazing community we have here. ... I see it as only being win-win for the city, the artists and the community."

She said the committee is getting new sponsors on board and hearing mostly good feedback from the community about having another Bear Fest. "For the most part, we've been getting very positive feedback," she said.

"Some people worry about doing bears again, or think it's too soon, but we'll work it out and overcome any obstacles ... that's what we did last time;

in 2009, the economy was so bad and people said we couldn't do it, and we made it happen."

Taylor said ECA+ members are excited to get volunteers signed up as soon as possible because there is a lot to do before the bears hit the pavement next year. The next step will be organizing volunteers onto various committees, for merchandise, events, marketing and planning. For more information about Bear Fest or volunteering, contact ECA+ at 527-8278 or visit www.easthamptoncityarts.com.

Time to celebrate Easthampton's 225th

GORDON DANIELS

Volunteers Gordon Hall, left and Arinna Weisman, paint the face of Samuel Williston. There will be another puppet featuring Samuel's wife, Emily, in the parade.

GORDON DANIELS

Right: In the puppet workshop at Eastworks, puppeteer Beth Nixon of Ramshackle Enterprises, right, assists Patty Gambarini with the cupola and the pump house "puppet' she'll be wearing in next week's parade. there will be replicas of the old mill buildings that were active in the 1800's.

PHOTOS BY GORDON DANIELS
In picture at left is the clock tower that will sit on top of one of the puppets. Below, Nixon, of Ramshackle Enterprises, right, assists Patty Gambarini with the cupola and the pump house "puppet' she'll wear in Saturday's parade.

Gardening program expands for Riverside clients in Easthampton

By Rebecca Everett
Created 08/20/201

A project to construct a greenhouse at Riverside Industries Inc. broke ground Friday after nearly a decade of planning and fundraising. The 1,440-square-foot greenhouse will enable the program’s clients, who have developmental and physical disabilities, to tend plants year-round. “It’s going to be great,” said Nicholas Isherwood, who heads the gardening program. “The program started very humbly, and with this, we can really become a full-scale operation.” White lines painted on pavement in the corner of the Liberty Street parking lot mark where the greenhouse will be built over the next few months. Project manager Kevin Perrier, of Five Star Building Corp. of Easthampton, said he hopes to begin the $125,000 construction in early September and finish in early November.

“It cost more than we hoped, but we raised it,” said Char Gentes, director of community relations at Riverside Industries. The organization is paying for the project with proceeds from auctions held over the last seven years and with a matching grant from the state Department of Developmental Services. “I’m very happy the greenhouse is going in,” said Kara Voilland, a Riverside client who dug in with a shovel during the groundbreaking ceremony. Voilland said she enjoys taking care of her plants at home and visiting her brother’s vegetable farm, Red Fire Farm in Granby and Montague.

The Riverside gardening program began five years ago with a small plot at Tripple Brook Farm in Southampton. Isherwood, along with Betsy Krough, a gardener and mother of a Riverside client, began teaching the new gardeners about planting, caring for and harvesting a few kinds of vegetables and some annual flowers. “I loved to garden and I just thought Riverside needed more variety of programs, so they can learn skills that are valued in society,” Krough said after the ceremony. “Growing food is definitely a valued skill.” “It’s win-win,” said Isherwood, 33, of Belchertown. “They get the training, the experience and they get paid to do the work. And they can supply the community with locally grown, organic vegetables and flowers.” Produce and flowers now grown in Southampton are sold at a self-serve farmstand in the One Cottage Street building in Easthampton. The gardeners also sell seedlings in the spring at a plant sale at the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton.

Construction of the greenhouse means the program can expand. Riverside gardeners will be able to grow more volume and variety of plants, and do so all year. Isherwood said his goal is to be the main supplier of produce for the restaurant at One Cottage Street, which is staffed by Riverside clients.
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2011 All rights reserved

Easthampton community gardens fill need

GORDON DANIELS

Nancy Young created this "garden guardian" to keep birds and animals away from her plot.

Kendra Colburn only moved to Easthampton in May, but she seemed completely at home when she was elbow-deep in dirt and compost on a sunny Wednesday afternoon in the new Easthampton community garden. The rural Vermont transplant said that before she discovered the Ted Sparko Memorial Community Garden at Park Hill, the prospect of moving to an apartment in downtown Easthampton was a little daunting."There's no yard, so I said the only way this is going to work is if there's a garden," Colburn said of moving to her apartment on Cottage Street. "It's huge. It's a deal-breaker. If we hadn't found this plot, we wouldn't have moved here."Soon after typing "Easthampton Community Garden" into the Google search engine, Colburn became one of 37 Easthampton residents to procure a 20-by-20-foot plot in the brand-new organic garden on the western 24 acres of Echodale Farm on Park Hill Road. The city purchased the land in 2007 with Community Preservation Funds. The project, spearheaded by Conservation Commission member Laura Fisher, has come together in a little over six months.Fisher said the Conservation Commission visited the parcel at the end of 2009 and decided it would be a good site for a community garden, but did not set a timeline for creating it. When her grandfather Edward Sparko died in January, Fisher said she decided that helping to create the garden would be her tribute to him."He owned a farm, and his whole family was farmers. I used to garden with him a lot so I decided the garden would be a good way to remember him," Fisher said. Donations in memory of Sparko allowed the Conservation Commission about $2,000 in start-up cash.The donations, in addition to some funding from the original $25,000 grant from the Trust for Public Land that the Conservation Commission received to maintain the whole parcel, have allowed the Garden Committee to create the garden, purchase a shed and gardening tools and install a water pump on the property. The committee was also able to offer each gardener a $20 gift certificate to purchase starter plants or other materials at Ravenwold Greenhouses on Florence Road or Easthampton Feed and Supplies on Mechanic Street.Neighboring farms Echodale Farm and Park Hill Orchard volunteered to plough and harrow the soil, and donations of gardening tools are still coming in, Fisher said.Fisher said that even though there was not much publicity for the new garden, the plots were quickly snapped up and a waiting list started because many Easthampton residents are in need of garden space."When you think of Easthampton, you don't think it's that urban, but there are a lot of retired people living in condominiums and young people living in apartments, so they can't garden. They seem to be the majority of people here," Fisher said.For Raymond and Donna Cushing, both 61, the community garden means they can grow their own vegetables for the first time since they moved to Harvest Valley Condominiums for retirees on East Street four years ago."We had a garden of our own for over 30 years," Donna Cushing said. "We especially missed the tomatoes terribly." Donna Cushing said that although they were able to get fresh vegetables from a farm share at Mountain View Farm, growing their own organic food from seeds they started in their living room is especially rewarding. "There's a great satisfaction in it, and it's great to be able to give it away," she said. "There's also the bragging rights," Raymond Cushing added. "We'll keep gardening here for as long as we can. "For first-time gardener Aric Russom, 35, securing a plot at the garden was both exciting and intimidating. "I came up after they had just turned the soil over, and just stared at it... It was a little scary," Russom said. "People are really very nice, though, and people who have experience seem very willing to share, which is wonderful."

As an artist, Russom said he especially enjoyed the creative process of gardening in a brand new plot. "I'm very interested in building and the art of putting something together; creating a little order in a big plot of dirt and rocks," Russom said. "If anything grows, that would just be a big plus." Russom, who lives on Main Street in Easthampton, said that being able to escape the city is another benefit of the garden. "It's beautiful and close. It's only about 2 miles from my apartment, but it's the total opposite of the downtown," he said.

"Every time I come out it's very gratifying to see all that work come to fruition and see people working in their gardens," Fisher said. "I think in a few years, it will only get better."

Rebecca Everett can be reached at reverett@gazettenet.com.

Watery 'jewel' gets its cleaning

After years of delays, Nashawannuck Pond dredging about to start

ANNA MILLER

Theresa O'Connor, right, of Easthampton and Sue Gilbertson from Durham, N.C., kayak and birdwatch on Nashawannuck Pond.

Money has been secured and lost. The project scope changed and the price increased. Contracts bid - and bid again. Permits approved and re-approved.But after delays and changes, the draining and dredging of 152-year-old Nashawannuck Pond is about to begin, a long-awaited project that will make the "jewel" of downtown, with its view of Mount Tom, more attractive to swimmers and kayakers alike. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager Robert Russo said the project is expected to get started this month. The Corps awarded the $1.5 million project in late June to Lawrence-based Palmer Federal Constructors and is reviewing the company's final plans before giving it the go-ahead. "We expect to give notice to proceed shortly," Russo said. The total project will cost $2.3 million, including engineering and design costs and is expected to take approximately eight months, depending on rainfall.

During much of that time period, the pond will be empty - a muddy sight to behold. Federal and state dollars as well as $600,000 in city-generated Community Preservation Act funds are paying for the work. "It's been a long time," said Mayor Michael A. Tautznik, who has been a member of the Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee for more than 20 years. "We understand that good things take time to happen."

After staging vehicles and equipment on the shore near Brookside Cemetery, the contractor will install a temporary dam between Nashawannuck Pond and Rubber Thread Pond to keep the latter's water levels steady during the project, Russo said. "That's the very first on-site project," he said. Workers will then draw down the water levels using spillway and sluice gates located at the dam on Cottage Street that will allow the water to flow under the road, through the mill across the street and ultimately into the Manhan River, which feeds into the Connecticut River. The draining of the pond is expected to take just under one month, Russo said.

The draining must happen at a controlled pace to protect fish, which will make their way downstream with the water to Lower Mill Pond and beyond, and to avoid flooding downstream bodies of water, Russo said. The pond will sit empty for approximately two months to allow the pond bottom to dry out so that the contractor can drive heavy equipment on it. Machinery will assist workers in digging up the sediment that has accumulated from the feeder brooks over the past 25 years, facilitating the growth of aquatic plant life and adversely affecting fish populations through reduced oxygen levels.

The sediment will be trucked one mile to a city-owned parcel off of Button Road that abuts the Treehouse at Easthampton Meadow foster community. The sediment will be treated with lime to control odor, officials have said.  The sediment will remain at that site, but officials have said some of it may be sold off for agricultural purposes as it is rich in nutrients. Palmer Federal Constructors will divert the flow from the feeder brooks using piping or trenches so the pond will not begin to refill prematurely. The contractor had a survey boat in the water recently mapping the floor of the pond using sonar equipment to ensure that no major changes have taken place at the bottom of the pond. The Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee began fundraising in 1988 for the project, but it was not until the turn of the century that the pursuit of state and federal dollars began to take off. But the project's earliest major earmark was redeployed for emergency purposes.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 diverted a $717,000 Army Corps federal grant approved two years before for the dredging project toward rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast. U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, helped to re-secure that funding and more in late 2007 after successfully pursuing $1.3 million in federal dollars.

It was around that same time that the Army Corps reduced the scope of the dredging, from 70,000 cubic yards to 55,000 cubic yards.

Officials said that avoiding areas closest to the shoreline would give the project a better chance of receiving the necessary environmental permits.

Steering Committee member and environmental scientist Gary Golas said at the time that he was concerned removing less plant life from the pond floor could result in a faster plant repopulation of other parts of the pond.

Last year, the Corps notified city officials that the dredging method would have to change. The Corps said the pond must be dredged mechanically - by draining it and digging out the sediment - rather than by using a barge-mounted hydraulic method.

The notification came as a surprise to officials and set back the project months as the city filed a project change notice with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and was forced to re-apply for its various environmental permits.

Those permits were in place by November, but rather than bidding the project competitively, the Corps negotiated with a number of contractors through a joint program with the Small Business Administration. The lowest bid came in approximately $500,000 too high at $2.6 million.

The Corps bid the project several months later and Palmer Federal Constructors bid more than $100,000 under the estimated cost and were awarded the work.

The picture below shows the old pond depths on the left, and the new pond depths after dredging in center, on right is the depth increase chart.

Matt Pilon can be reached at mpilon@gazettenet.com.