LONGMEADOW – A dozen people gathered in the dining room of the Longmeadow Adult Center on June 27 to discuss the progress made in blocking the installation of a gas metering station. The initial stages of the plan involved a vote at the Town Election in May to purchase the land that Tennessee Gas had wanted for that purpose.

In the run-up to the town election volunteers distributed 800 flyers, put out signs and posters, wrote letters-to-the-editor, testified at a Select Board meeting, and conducted standouts on street corners urging voters to vote for Article 2, which allowed the town to exercise its right of first refusal under M.G.L. c. 61B, § 9.

Sixty-eight percent of voters chose to allow the town to buy the land, which is owned by the Longmeadow Country Club, while 32 percent voted against the measure.

“It made an amazing point,” said Selectman Mark Gold, who attended the meeting. “You’ve done an amazing job of energizing this entire community.”

“It is highly unusual for a community to issue that kind of statement,” said Michelle Marantz of the vote. “Usually, communities are usually dazzled by the money dangled in front of them.”

Gold said that there was a meeting scheduled on July 1 with a lawyer to discuss a timeline for the next steps in acquiring the land and possible uses for it. The lawyer works for a law firm in Boston that specializes in utilities. Gold asked the people in the room for questions that he could pose to the attorney.

One of the things the Select Board will have to discuss is a timeline. The town's 61B rights have to be exercised within approximately the next three weeks, Gold said. The attorney will help the Select Board figure out what they have to do and by when.

Gold said that legally, the town’s proposed purchase of the land has nothing to do with the pipeline.

“The reason chapter of the law has been triggered is because [the land] has been taxed at a lower rate,” Gold said. Through the sale, the land would cease being “open space,” which is taxed at a lower rate.

Gold said there were five or six different parcels within the easement. The town must have a stated purpose for buying each parcel. He said a town meeting and then a referendum vote will be needed to secure funding to purchase the parcels.

Bruce Colton of the Planning Board suggested amending the town’s Article IV, Section B (6.6) bylaw to exclude “the installation and use of meter stations, take stations, city gates and connected facilities,” in residential areas.

The next steps for the group are to collect at least 200 petition signatures calling for a special town meeting to amend the zoning bylaw. The town would have 45 days to call the meeting.

“This meter station would permit Columbia Gas to connect a 200 PSI pipeline that will run through a residential neighborhood into Springfield,” Marantz told Reminder Publishing. Colombia Gas uses Tennessee Gas’ infrastructure. She said that the plan for the pipeline was explained during a meeting with the president of Colombia Gas.

“The truth of the matter is they’re building out their infrastructure for a [new] market,” not for Longmeadow, who, she said, already has gas. Jim Tourtelotte agreed and said Tennessee Gas and Colombia Gas are trying to increase their base of customers for an oversupply of fracked gas.

“We don't want to expand, especially if it's not for us," said Marantz. “The biggest issue with talking about the harmfulness of gas – it's colorless, it’s odorless, so people think it's harmless,” she said.