The owner of the property at 13 Berkshire Ave., Southwick, has offered it to the town as a donation. The parcel runs between the Southwick Rail Trail and Middle Pond on both sides of Great Brook.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SOUTHWICK — When the town was conducting a survey on a small parcel of land on Middle Pond that its owner wanted to donate to the town, it found the property’s deed was “convoluted” and has now stopped the process of trying to accept it.
“Right now, it’s looking like the deed is very convoluted and it will cost a lot of money to straighten out,” said Conservation Commission Chair Christopher Pratt about the 1.88-acre parcel at 13 Berkshire Ave. the Phillip Bruno Family Trust approached the town about donating in September of 2023.
“It’s looking like we shouldn’t be expecting anything to happen [going forward],” Pratt said a meeting of the Conservation Commission earlier this week.
The town’s Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker explained what the survey, which costs $6,000 of Conservation Commission funds, found.
She said in an email that there were some discrepancies on how “the parcel was conveyed.”
“The boundary lines are very ambiguous the way it is written on the north and south sides of the Bruno lot. Therefore, the town cannot guarantee fully that we could have a deed description accurately established to have conveyed,” Parker wrote in an email.
“This leaves the Bruno lot and adjacent parcels with the responsibility of determining how the deeds should read,” Parker wrote in the email, adding that it was a civil matter the town wasn’t willing to take on.
Pratt said during the meeting that the commission had put $6,000 toward the survey to “iron things out,” but the issues were too great to overcome.
The parcel is located where Great Brook meets Middle Pond and crosses Berkshire Avenue at the bridge that has a weir installed that regulates the flow of water between the pond the brook.
Most of the property is northwest, or inland, from Berkshire Avenue, but there is a small a small strip on the other side of the road, running along the lakeshore. That portion is southeast of Berkshire Avenue, 46 feet in depth, has 99 feet of road frontage, and 117 feet of shoreline, according to the town’s GIS.
It is directly across the road from the state boat ramp managed by the town’s Lake Management Committee. The LMC has been working for over two years to find grant funding to dredge that area of the pond because of its shallowness, which causes issues with boats being launched.
It also has a small pond on it and abuts the former railroad corridor that is now used as the Southwick Rail Trail, which members of the Conservation Commission and Select Board said at the time was a plus because a boardwalk could be installed to connect the trail to Berkshire Avenue.
When the commission discussed the donation in September 2023, Commissioner Dennis Clark suggested keeping it in its natural state, mentioning that it is a turtle habitat. There are signs along that section of the road warning motorists of turtles crossing.
At the commission meeting this week, Pratt said there was no point in pursuing the donation for now.
“If the owner irons out the [deed issues] and wants to re-donate it, we can look at this again,” Pratt said.
