From left, Blandford Select Board Chair Cara Letendre and Library Trustees Chair Mary Kronholm chat with new Blandford Town Administrator Cristina Ferrera.
Reminder Publishing photo by Amy Porter
BLANDFORD — Town officials and neighbors gathered at the new patio outside the Porter Memorial Library on Sept. 10 to get acquainted with Cristina Ferrera, the new town administrator who started in the position on July 8.
Ferrera, who has lived in Southwick for the past seven years, is originally from Springfield, where she most recently served as a project director with the DPW for the past eight years. Prior to that, she worked for seven years in Springfield City Hall, and for six years in the Hampden County Registry of Deeds.
Reminder Publishing photo by Amy Porter
Asked for her first impressions of Blandford, Ferrera said, “It’s a lot different. I was expecting it to be different,” but added that it is different in ways she hadn’t imagined.
“It’s the people. It feels like you’re actually making a difference,” Ferrera said. Blandford has 1,230 residents, compared to approximately 155,000 in Springfield.
“One of the challenges of a small town is you don’t have the same support,” Ferrera said, although she said people in Springfield felt the same lack of representation for Western Massachusetts in state government.
One of the people Ferrera spoke to before taking the job was former town administrator and current Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, who she said has been helpful to her.
Ferrera was speaking at the gathering to Matt Perry and Raymond Craig Hultay, who said they are both on the highway crew and firefighters. The three talked about the ongoing need for a new fire department garage. The current three-bay garage, built in the 1920s, is not large enough to house the town’s newest fire truck, which is stored at the highway garage.
Ferrera said there is a Special Town Meeting being planned in October to choose two potential sites for a new firehouse.
Other ongoing town projects include the Porter Memorial Library, which applied for an expansion grant from the Massachusetts Public Library Construction program after the town voted in favor last March of using matching funds from the library stabilization fund the town has invested in for the last five years.
Reminder Publishing photo by Amy Porter
The first part of the grant, which will formally be announced in October, will be for planning, feasibility and design. Library Director Nicole Daviau said she is hopeful the town will receive the grant.
At the time of the Town Meeting, Daviau said the state will pay $125,000 for the planning portion of the grant. Porter Memorial Library is currently not in compliance with the fire code, having only one egress, nor the Americans with Disabilities Act, having no handicap entry or bathroom facilities. While the 130-year-old building is grandfathered in, Daviau said these and other needs, including more space, must be addressed.
The long-term goal is to develop the plans for an expansion and submit them to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners for a construction grant.
Pliny Norcross, chair of the Blandford Historical Society, said the historical White Church just received a grant of $70,000 in July from the National Park Service Restoration Program to replace the old metal roof on top of cedar shingles, with a “top-notch metal roof with shingles removed,” Norcross said. Grant recipients had to be listed on the National Registry.
The White Church will end its performance season with a woodwind quartet playing on Sept. 21.
“We’re delighted with all that’s going on there,” Norcross said.
Reminder Publishing photo by Amy Porter
A smaller project is being organized by long-time Blandford resident George Reichert, who is organizing a community work day on Sept. 28 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the gray building at 102 Main St. across from Town Hall which houses the post office and a fire training center.
Reichert said volunteers will clean the bricks, make small repairs, and paint the building. They will also work on the Bicentennial Park, a small park located in the front of the building which was donated by Winifred Arms.
The Home Depot Foundation has made a sizable contribution for the project and will send volunteers for the work day, as will the Fire Department, Reichert said. Other sponsors include Whip City Fiber and Hull Forestlands.
“It concerns me when things in town aren’t maintained,” Reichert said. He said he hopes people will sign up in advance so they will know how much food to get. People my sign up by calling him at 413-848-2074.
“The important thing is we want to bring people together,” he said.
