SOUTHWICK – The Select Board, CPC (Community Preservation Committee), and Franklin Land Trust gathered on July 17 to discuss recent updates with the North Pond land acquisition.
Rich Hubbard, the Executive Director of the Franklin Land Trust, and Alain Peteroy, the Director of Land Conservation, represented the non-profit organization and talked about the process they went through in order to buy the remaining pieces of the North Pond land.
After learning that the state reported there are two separate parts included in acquiring the rest of the property, the Franklin Land Trust split those entities into two different phases.
The first phase was that Franklin Land Trust would spend the $1 million from the state’s budget allocated for this project, which had to be spent by June 2017.
Members of the Franklin Land Trust, Select Board, and Community Preservation Committee discussed the status of the North Pond land acquisition on July 17. (Photo courtesy of Greg Fitzpatrick)
The $1 million was used by Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife as they were already planning on owning the Eastern portion of the North Pond land, which is roughly 80 acres.
For the second phase, the Town of Southwick is planning on using a $400,000 land grant in addition to $1 million in CPC funds that will be closed and secured by June 2018.
Hubbard explained at the meeting with the Select Board about why they chose to go this route in the process of acquiring those portions of the property.
“The only way we could figure out to do it was to split the project into two phases,” said Hubbard.
Moving forward, the land owner has given Franklin Land Trust until May 2018 to raise the remaining $1.8 million that is approximately left.
The land preservation organization wants the public to realize that the latest acquisition of the project doesn’t mean that it’s complete; the $1.8 million left is the biggest chunk that needs to be finalized.
“We’re a little nervous because we didn’t want people to think with that closing, that we’re done,” said Hubbard. “We’ve got the biggest chunk that is still left to be done.”
Since this project started in 2016, the Franklin Land Trust and North Pond supporters have conducted numerous fundraisers to increase the communities awareness of the project and raise money. It is quite the crucial piece to the project that is needed for the duration.
“That’s what’s going to get us to the finish line ultimately,” said Peteroy.
In order to discover more information about the North Pond project, go onto the Save North Pond page on the Franklin Land Trust website.
