Williamstown Set to Help Residents of the Spruces
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To the Editor:
For over two years, since Tropical Storm Irene hit the Spruces Mobile Home Park in Williamstown in August 2011, the town has been roiling in controversy and confusion about how to deal with the loss of some of the Spruces homes.
This became the crucial question facing the town, especially because of the $6.1 million funding granted to the town by the federal disaster mitigation agency, FEMA, stipulating that the park must be cleared of housing in two years and the present residents relocated. Some of the relocation solutions promoted by various town officials and private citizens ran down some rocky roads, demonstrating little acquaintance with state and local political and legal procedures, with what the actual need for new housing was, and with available funding for building new residences on town land.
But persistence in educating ourselves with reliable information and reasonableness has finally paid off. The Selectmen voted unanimously on Monday, Nov. 25, to recommend three special town meeting warrants to be voted on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m., Williamstown Elementary School. The first warrant would enable the Selectmen to accept the Spruces land toward the end of the 36-month grant performance period. The second would allow the town, in the interim, to lease the park from its present owner, Morgan Management, and operate it by charging residents the current rent. The third article would set up a revolving fund that would separate this rental income from other town accounts, to be used solely for operating the park.
And how to relocate the Spruces residents? Our voting for the first warrant article allows the town, as eventual owner of the Spruces, to spend the remaining FEMA grant money, estimated at $2.6 million, to help house the Spruces residents in the Higher Ground project being proposed on Williams College-donated land on Southworth Street. This funding boost from the town is most likely to make possible a completion of this housing project in the two years time allowed before the Spruces park would be closed. In addition, to get funding from the state housing agency, the town needs to demonstrate real local support for such a project, which Williamstown has shown, in the support from a local group, Higher Ground, from Williams College, from the select board, from various town committees, and, finally, a big "Yes" vote for all three warrant articles from the whole town at the Dec. 10 special town meeting.
Incidentally, the completion of the Higher Ground project, estimated to be building 40 units, will fill the need of Spruces residents who would want to rent there in two years. The April 2013 Ryan Report predicts that this would amount to some 30 residents in 2015 and reduce down by about half by 2017. So the developers for the Southworth Street site, who judge that 40 would be the number of units investors would be willing to fund, would serve both the Spruces residents who may want to move there in two or three years, and seniors in town who need affordable housing.
When Alice came to a fork in the road, she asked the Cheshire Cat, 'Which road do I take?'
'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat.
'I don't know,' Alice answered.
'Then,' said the Cat, 'it doesn't matter.'"
We're not there anymore. It matters mightily to the whole town to finally get this right. Vote Yes on all three warrant articles at the Dec. 10 special town meeting, 7 p.m., Williamstown Elementary School.
Tela Zasloff
Williamstown
