Adams Town Meeting Members OK Rail Trail, Power Articles
 Town Moderator Edward Driscoll leads the special town meeting with town staff on one side and Selectmen on the other. |
ADAMS, Mass. — Town meeting approved all three articles at Thursday's special town meeting, including an amendment to the second article to change language deemed legally inappropriate.
The passage of Article 2 paves the way for the construction of the Lime Street extension of the Ashuwilticook Rail Trail. The $3.3 million project, which will include a rail line for the Berkshire Scenic Railway, is now awaiting final environmental permitting.
First, the 97 members of town meeting who attended the special town meeting in the C.T. Plunkett School auditorium quickly accepted the first article, which allows National Grid to oversee Memorial park because of possible contamination from the nearby substation.
But prior to passing Article 2, which allows the town to acquire or take by eminent domain several easements necessary for the construction of the trail extension, Selectman Arthur "Skip" Harrington asked for an amendment.
He wanted to take out the language "at no cost to the town" from the article by request of the Department of Transportation and federal regulation.
Harrington said this is language the town usually uses in similar cases but when the article was sent to the state for review, state officials asked that the wording be changed so property owners clearly understand they are entitled to compensation.
Out of the 10 properties expected to be affected, two may require be compensation, but because of their small size he does not anticipate them costing more than a few hundred dollars.
"All of these easements are very small pieces; I can image an assessment coming in for any huge disastrous amount of money," Harrington said. "We aren't taking a person's whole property, we are taking a couple of feet off the back of the property."
Harrington said the town could utilize Chapter 90 money for compensation if needed.
Some town meeting members felt uncomfortable with having to spend any money on these easements and entering an eminent domain situation.
Town counsel said the town would have to appropriate the money and there will be chances for the public to speak against compensation if they disagree with the amount.
Town meeting member Myra Wilk said she did not think it was right for the town to announce this at the town meeting.
"Why are we waiting until the 11th hour to find out when we thought it was going to be at no cost?" Wilk said. "I think it was really a disservice to the town meeting members to put it to us at this point."
 Not quite 100 town meeting members attended the special town meeting to vote. |
Harrington said the town learned about this only a few days ago
"We would have brought this forward a lot sooner if we knew a lot sooner. This is really new," he said. "We sent the article to the state and it was reviewed and it came back a day or two ago."
A two-thirds vote was needed and the article passed with 72 in favor and 12 opposed.
Article 3, which will see if the town will initiate the process of entering a municipal electrical aggregation agreement, also passed.
Town meeting members were concerned about a penalty in the article placed on those who want to opt out and don't within 180 days.
Mark Cappadona of Colonial Power Group said the wording is a statuary requirement and will be taken out in the aggregation contract.
Selectman Jeffrey Snoonian said there will be plenty of chances for the public to speak out against any aggregation. The vote just starts the process by authorizing the ability to enter into an aggregation contract.
"The only thing that we are passing tonight is to give the contractor the right to go out and acquire a price for power for the town of Adams separate from National Grid," he said. "Sometime in the future they will bring it to this board in a public hearing with the town."
Tags: Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, easements, electrical aggregation, pollution, special town meeting,
