SOUTHWICK — After the town’s Finance Committee shot down a request from the Select Board, the Police Department, and the Conservation Commission to transfer $6,000 from a reserve account to remove three trees at the North Pond Conservation area, the Select Board on July 1 approved a request from its new chief administrator to submit a grant request for the money.
“My board asked me to figure it out,” said Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker in late June, after she learned of the decision by the Finance Committee.
Parker found that the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Agency, which provides property and casualty coverage for the town, offers grants of up to $6,200 for small projects, including tree trimming and removal. She filled out the paperwork and on July 1 the Select Board approved her request to ask for the grant.
Parker said before the meeting that it will take a few weeks before she knows if the request is successful, but she was reasonably confident it would be approved.
If the grant is approved, that will put to rest the attempt to have three trees removed that are located along the shoreline of North Pond in an area known as King’s Beach, part of a town-owned conservation area.
“This proves there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Select Board member Doug Moglin said during the July 1 meeting.
It was Moglin who last July first brought up the idea of removing two trees where visitors hang illegal rope swings, and another tree that was being used as a platform to jump into the shallow water. Along the same shoreline, Charles Russell Belcher, who was 16, died after falling from a swing in 1971.
Within weeks, the lake advocacy group Citizens Restoring Congamond announced that it would provide $4,000 for the trees’ removal. However, after pushback from its members, the funding proposal was withdrawn.
With the expectation of the grant from the town’s insurance carrier, the plan is to have the three trees dropped where they are to help the stabilize the shoreline which is bare of vegetation because of the foot traffic.
Prohibited behavior has been a perennial problem at the North Pond Conservation Area, which was purchased for $5 million in town, state and private land trust funds in 2019. The property is intended to be used for “passive recreation,” such as hiking, fishing and birdwatching, but has attracted crowds that host beach parties, engaging in illegal activities such as hanging rope swings or operating ATVs, as well as littering, leaving human waste, and contributing to the erosion of the shoreline.
In other business, the board appointed two new sergeants for the Police Department. When Rhett Bannish was appointed as police chief in April, it opened up a lieutenant position on the force. Sgt. Michael Taggart was appointed to lieutenant, which opened up one sergeant position. With the retirement of Sgt. Paul Miles, another sergeant was also needed.
The Select Board chose current officers Michael Bridges and Garett Parker from a group of three finalists, which also included Officer Kyle Sanders.
