WHATELY – Keith Bardwell, Highway Department boss in Whately, didn’t mince words about the number of accidents between Castaways Bar and the fire station.

“There’s been numerous ones,” Bardwell said. “It’s certainly one of the highest crash locations in the town of Whately, and it also ranks high up there, fairly high in Franklin County.”

Two crashes in the last six weeks may have prompted Whately’s Selectboard to focus grant monies on the spot, one of three possible projects the town may put forward early next year for a Municipal Vulnerability Program (MVP) action grant. MVP action grants help municipalities adapt to the severe impacts of climate change.

“I don’t understand why the invasive species removal has to be part of the culvert replacement proposal,” Jonathan Edwards, chair of the Selectboard, said.

Hannah Davis, development officer for Whately, explained that projects are more likely to win an MVP action grant, a competitive grant, if all the goals of the state program are satisfied. Those goals include mitigation of the problem, adaptation to climate challenges, and that a project can be accomplished piecemeal over a year.

Only one project will be submitted for the MVP grant. The other two projects proposed for the grant program include solar panels and a new well.

“The project suggestions we’ve come up with recently,” Davis said, “include solar panel and battery installation for the town offices [and] new municipal well location assessment and water conservation strategies.”

According to Davis, the town hoped to have a preferred project chosen by the end of November. An expression of interest is due by early to mid-January 2022, a document that enables MVP program employees to give comments to the town. The improved application will then be submitted by mid-March 2022.

The well project struck board member Fred Baron as having a higher priority.

“If there was a problem and somehow the aquifer, the town wells were to become fouled,” Baron said, “that would be a much bigger problem for a much larger number of people.”

Town Coordinator Brian Domina agreed. “The vulnerability is that we have two wells drawing from the same aquifer, a hundred feet apart, and if something were to happen to that aquifer, we don’t have a backup source of water, other than relying on our neighbors to the south or north.”

Edwards recalled the well and aquifer were stabilized, 12 to 15 years ago, when the Mill River was moved. Baron replied the project won't be about moving the well, but rather finding alternative place to draw from the aquifer.

The third project brought to the board by Domina and Davis, solar generation, elicited the most enthusiasm.

“I really do like the battery concept because it’s both adaptation and mitigation,” Edwards said.

“That’s fine and dandy, as long as we don’t learn the system they put in is only gonna be capable of keeping you up a day, and then you run out of power and freeze up,” Bardwell said. “So we just need to make sure we’re good.”

The proposed project includes solar panels on Town Hall and possibly other offices, and a battery for storing solar-generated electricity. Domina explained that Town Hall is vulnerable if power is down for several days. He also saw a possible source for the 25 percent match required by the MVP program.

“It occurred to us that the town had appropriated $30,000 for a backup emergency generator for the town offices,” Domina said. “There’s a wet sprinkler system here and if we were to have a loss of power for days, and a freeze up, we would be in some trouble. I know Keith has moved forward with that project, in terms of exploring what generators to purchase, and getting ready to pour the concrete pad, so we wanted to have that discussion now.”

The board sought more information on battery capacity, and whether there were sensible alternatives to a back-up generator. Edwards, recalling a prior discussion with the Franklin County Sherriffs Office, repeated his preference for panels and a battery.

“Solar can keep the pumps running,” he said. “You put solar up on a building so you can keep the clocks moving.”