Residents participate in unusual Special Town Meeting

March 31, 2020 | Dennis Hackett

Residents raise their blue cards for an affirmative vote for the third warrant article at Southwick’s Special Town Meeting.
Reminder Publishing photo by Dennis Hackett

SOUTHWICK – After postponing the Special Town Meeting due to impending snow and rain, residents gathered in the Southwick Regional School’s East parking lot to vote on three different warrant articles on March 24.

Town officials were forced to conduct the meeting outdoors due to state and federal guidance regarding social distancing and against meeting in large groups. Due to what had been described as time-sensitive matters, instead of canceling the meeting outright, officials took this special step to ensure the votes could take place.

The first article up for a vote at the meeting was to ratify the acceptance of a grant of Easement from Congamond Heights Association, Inc. to the Town of Southwick relative to maintaining Berkshire Avenue as currently constructed. With a resounding majority vote, residents approved to accept the grant of easement with no discussion about the issue.

The second article at the meeting was a request to appropriate and transfer $12,000 from the Fiscal Year 2020 Community Preservation Open Space fund for the installation of lighting and electrical outlets at Whalley Park Pavilion. Again, voters approved the request with a majority vote and little discussion.
The final article of the night was a request to appropriate $800,000 to pay for the costs of alum treatments in the Congamond lakes and was the most contested topic of the evening, with residents asking several questions about the proposal.

Eric Muller, a member of Southwick’s Lake Management Committee, explained exactly how the alum treatments would affect the lake. “The purpose of this is to stabilize the phosphorus that’s accumulated at the bottom of the lake. What the alum does is it binds up the phosphorus and prevents the algae from being able to form,” he said, “When done properly the alum treatment will lock up the lake for 20 years.”

One resident, Cindy Marshall, asked if the town knew about this issue when it acquired the King Beach property last year. Select Board Chair Russ Fox explained that the town did know, and tried to get grant funding previously. He said, “We’re taking $200,000 that we already have and attempting to get additional money but if we don’t this money will come out of Community Preservation money. It won’t affect the tax rate, it’s money that we’ve already raised.”

Another resident, Russ Pike, asked if the lake would be shut down as a result of the treatments. Muller said that the treatments would not have any negative effect on the lakes but residents would need to stay away from the treatment areas.

“It won’t adversely affect the use of the lakes during the time of the treatment, we just don’t want other boats around our boat. It does not reduce our ability to use the lake, it’s usable even during the application, which takes three to four weeks,” he said.

Ultimately, voters approved the request to appropriate $800,000 to pay for the treatment of the lakes with a 135 to 3 vote.

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