Residents, officials discuss future of Bear Hole Reservoir

Feb. 19, 2020 | Danielle Eaton
DanielleE@thereminder.com

WEST SPRINGFIELD – The Town of West Springfield informed residents of some improvements that they hope will take place in the area of the Bear Hole Reservoir.

West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt began the meeting on Feb. 10 by explaining that before he became mayor “there were some plans that were done that talked about improving the roadway, improving the parking and access at the back of Bear Hole along Bear Hole Road.”

Reichelt said the town has “revitalized those plans” and “want[s] to make improvements,” but before moving forward with any project they wanted to hear from residents about their “vested interest in Bear Hole” and what they would like to see in the future.

“Now the road is kind of a short term project, what we’d also like to see is what else you all seek for using Bear Hole in the long term,” he said. Reichelt went on, “We still want to see whether trail investments or access, whatever improvements we can make that makes the parks and recreation back there better for all of you. We don’t want to put money where you don’t want to see it.”

Next, Town Engineer James Czach took to the podium to explain the improvements the town is hoping to make in the near future. Czach said currently the roads are an inconsistent width, there’s no stormwater drainage, there are no sidewalks along Bear Hole Road and there is a lack of lighting in the parking lot area.

He explained the planned improvements to the area would fix these issues by adding sidewalks “so people can walk to that area safely,” add lighting to the parking lot area and provide a uniform pavement width by resurfacing the road. Additionally, Czach said the town is hoping to add to the existing plans by expanding sidewalks on Bear Hole Road between Cedar Woods and Edgewood Road, connect Edgewood Road with a “high visibility crossing,” and extend the sidewalk on Edgewood Road.

Czach said they are also looking to expand the parking lot, but “don’t have a final design of that yet.” The final projected cost of the project, “depending on how elaborate the improvements are,” would be between $750,000 and $1 million, according to Czach.

Following Czach’s presentation and information about the improvements, the meeting was opened up to public comments and questions regarding the project or Bear Hole in general. The first of many concerns brought forth by the public included the use of all terrain vehicles (ATVs) in Bear Hole.

West Springfield Police Officer Tom Price said ATV use within the reservoir has been a longstanding problem and topic of conversation in the community, but they’re taking all the steps they can to prevent it from happening. However, he said, “there is no easy answer for it.”

 He said whenever officers patrolling in the area see rental trucks, or trailers used to haul ATVs, the officers are “towing those and ticketing all those people that are there, and confiscating the ATVs.”

However, Price said the problem is those who come from Holyoke and Westfield on ATVs. “We have no control over that, unfortunately. We’d like to build a wall, sure, but we have no way of curbing that unless we get cooperation from Westfield and Holyoke,” Price explained. “And Westfield and Holyoke have been there at times, but just like us they can only deliver so much manpower and time.”

Price said catching people on ATVs is essentially luck at this point due to how busy the department is. “It’s a matter of getting lucky, being there at the right time, and it’s also a matter of calling and actually reporting it because we don’t know unless people report it,” he explained.

However, one resident said those who try to report it end up leaving because the police take too long to show up. Price emphasized that the department was incredibly busy, and if the police were taking too long to respond and the situation wasn’t an emergency, people should go online to report the issue. Price said without people reporting issues, the problems will continue to take place. “Unless we get the call volume to show our chief that we need to devote more manpower in there, it’s hard for us to justify putting more manpower in there,” he said.

In addition to online resources, he said people could also call the Massachusetts Environmental Police for any wildlife-related issues they may come across while using Bear Hole.

 “We refer all those animal complaints to environmental, environmental specializes in that. They have special CMR classification laws they can enforce and ways of following up on stuff like that, much broader than we can,” he explained. “They have the expertise when it comes down to all the animal wood laws. Feel free to call them anytime, and if you call us we usually put a call into them and they do respond very quickly, they’re very good at what they do.”

Czach also emphasized that the town is not looking to add a sanctioned ATV trail a resident asked about. “At this point we’re looking for passive recreation, not all-terrain vehicles. We’re looking for walking, biking, hiking, cross-country. We’re not looking to introduce motor vehicles throughout Bear Hole,” he said.

Reichelt commented on this and said, “That’s what we have Mittineague Park for.” He then explained a long-term goal for the town, which includes “Mittineague Park on the South side of town, Bear Hole as passive recreation on the North side, and then in the future to have what we’ll eventually call Central Park.”

Reichelt explained that Central Park would be located at “the high school, middle school field complexes that are at the center part of town.” He said he hopes that recreation will become “less active” as people “go North.” He emphasized the town has no plans to build any fields or complexes at Bear Hole.

The last topic of the night included a question about hunting, fishing and kayaking within Bear Hole. Reichelt said, “Right now hunting is not allowed by ordinance.” However, while he’s not opposed to the idea of fishing, it would depend on who would end up with the conservation restriction for the land. This restriction, he explained, “is essentially a written document that says you can’t develop the land, you can only use it for these certain things.”

For this to happen Reichelt said, “an organization, whether it be a land trust or DCR or whoever, would hold that and oversee it.”

Right now, he said the conservation restriction is “in the infancy of what it is” and any further progression of the restriction would include another public hearing, as the town would be able to control what types of activities would and would not be allowed in Bear Hole.

Share this: