Russell Town Hall
Reminder Publishing file photo
RUSSELL — The town was notified last week that it had been awarded a $1 million grant to replace a culvert on Blandford Stage Road and $150,000 to develop a master plan.
“We’ve been dealing with it for a couple of years,” said the town’s Highway Department foreman, John Hoppe, about the culvert a couple of hundred yards off Route 20.
The grant was announced as part of a large tranche of grant money awarded last week by the MassWorks Infrastructure Program.
MassWorks awarded the town $180,000 in 2024 for design, engineering and permitting of the project.
Hoppe said that nearly all of that preliminary work has been completed by Westfield-based civil engineering firm Tighe & Bond.
“It’s just a few things from being shovel-ready,” Hoppe said.
According to the town’s grant application to MassWork for financial assistance, the project would dig up the existing 1,200-foot-long cracked and damaged culvert running along and under Blandford Stage Road.
“In its current state, the cracks in the culvert are creating sinkholes in the residence property abutting the culvert on the southerly side and sinkholes under the guard rail on the northerly side of Blandford Stage Road. Debris continues to fall into the culvert from the widening cracks in the old pipe used to construct the culvert,” according to MassWorks.
“We’re basically ready to start,” Hoppe said, adding that the project will be put out to bid soon.
He expects the project to start in the spring and recognized Selectman Thomas Kulig for his efforts to secure the grants.
It’s been 50 years since Russell Town Meeting approved the town’s last master plan, and Town Accountant Nancy Boersig said the town decided it was time to update the plan.
She said the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission applied for a grant from the state’s Community Planning Grant Program, and the planning agency will lead the town through the process.
“I’m sure we’ll have surveys, and listening and talking groups, and hearings as we put the plan together,” Boersig said.
Developing a master plan can take as long as two years, and the town will be looking for volunteers to provide guidance and advice on planning for future decades.
Russell was one of two area towns recently awarded state grants.
Southwick was notified last week that it had been awarded $1 million to replace culverts on Tannery and Vining Hill roads.
