About ten years ago, a biomass company wanted to move into Russell, MA. They wanted to use river water and wood chips to make electricity. They promised townspeople over $1 million in annual taxes, good-paying jobs, and college scholarships for our youth. Many of us (80%) were in favor of this new industry because Westfield River Paper Company and Strathmore Paper Company had closed their doors and our last paper mill, Texon Paper Company, was in financial trouble.
The mills in the past had been very good to us; the $500,000 yearly in taxes they paid had made Russell’s tax rate the envy of other towns in the Berkshire Hills! Other perks were free electricity in December and June, a beautiful town swimming pool on Main Street, and a brand new elementary school!
The problem was that Westfield River Paper Company had closed its doors in 1994. The 125 mill workers no longer drove to work down Main Street, along with the huge trailer trucks carrying wood pulp and rolls of glassine paper! In other words, in ten years, Russell went from being a busy little mill town to a sleepy little village. Therefore, the prospect of over 100 trucks of wood chips traveling down Main Street each day alarmed local residents. They asked the state for a ruling about high truck traffic on a residential street. The state ruled that this kind of truck traffic would not be safe on a residential street! This struck a fatal blow to the proposed biomass company. Victorious anti-biomass residents proclaimed that Russell was now clean, green, and pristine! However, they did not mention that Russell was also going broke!
Austerity measures were enacted to stop a huge residential tax increase, the town swimming pool was closed and filled in, and our elementary school soon followed! The lives of Russell children got poorer as they no longer had a pool in their backyard to swim in on a hot summer day and take swimming lessons! Instead of attending school in their town, they are now bused to Huntington, as Westfield’s children pay to attend their school! Recently, they have again been punished by a huge increase in the cost of beach tags to use the town beach on Russell Pond that their parents cannot afford!
The town of Russell must welcome industry as it has since the 1850s! If you care about your tax rate and the future of your children and grandchildren, please find time to attend the select board, the planning board, and zoning board meetings! In order for bad things to happen in our town, good people only have to stay home and watch TV.
Bill Hardie
Russell, MA
