Select board member Jason Forgue was unsparing in his remarks as $7.5 million in state American Rescue Plan Act funding was disbursed to dozens of small Western and Central Massachusetts communities months after July’s severe storms.
“The mere need for this provision is a symptom of a statehouse that fails to meet even the basic needs of our Western Mass communities," he said. "What the situation and following crisis showed was that our statewide emergency services is currently organized to fail to properly respond to the needs of rural communities.”
As he explained to WAMC, the storm tested the capabilities of the community of around 1,300 in Hampden County.
“It was almost beyond words: Major road destruction, households cut off from emergency services for extended periods of time, a mad scramble to try to do what we could with the funds we had available to rectify the situation until we received additional help, which we've been waiting for until this day,” Forgue told WAMC.
Forgue says that a lagging emergency response isn’t the only reason Chester feels abandoned by state leaders in Boston.
“ I serve on the school committee out here as well," he told WAMC. "So when we’re talking about rural school funding and the formula for Chapter 70 monies in terms of how schools receive funds, it always feels as though we are left behind. We are the forgotten group of people out here. So, it's merely a combination of events that leads to that belief that we are not well represented by the legislators at the Statehouse.”
Town administrator Kathe Warden agrees.
“We pay a lot of money for our schools, as well as our transportation," she said. "We have students that go to [vocational school], which is very costly to a small community such as Chester, as well as any of the other ones. It would be nice if they could offset the [vocational school] tuition.”
The level of state support for transportation infrastructure triggers similar feelings of neglect.
“One of the key places that we could use – not only Chester, but any of the small communities, whether you're in the hill towns or over in the Berkshires – is Chapter 90 money increases," Warden told WAMC. “We get approximately $253,000 a year, which sounds like a lot of money. But if you're doing a full, what we call a full depth reclamation of a road, it- You know, the adage of a million dollars a mile isn't far off with drainage. We have to pay prevailing wages when we hire outside firms to come in and do it. So every dollar we can get would be big asset.”
Inevitable infrastructure needs like updating the town water plant and other municipal buildings also pose a challenge to smaller communities.
“It’s hard to get grants to rehab your town halls," said Warden. "Chester Town Hall was built in 1936. We do the best we can to keep it ADA compliant and energy efficient. But it's very hard with the amount of money without increasing the tax dollars to the taxpayers right here in town. So if we had more state [funding] that could help us that would be greatly appreciated.”
That said, it isn’t all gloom in Chester. Forgue is excited about another long-awaited statewide endeavor: the return of rail to the town.
“We’re going to have a stop here in Chester, Amtrak, twice a day," said the select bard member. "We're going to be re-exploring options for our former elementary school to try to build it back into our list of buildings and offices that we can utilize for town services. There's lots of things going on here. Right now, our primary focus is to kind of regroup from the damages that occurred. We spent a great deal of time trying to come up with funds and reallocate funds to be able to handle that if this emergency fund didn't come through. So thankfully, now that it has, we can kind of refocus those monies were there originally intended.”
For Warden, it’s grant season, the time when hope and dreams for improving Chester can be translated into reality after a lot of hard work.
“We've applied for three different grants for the fire department," she told WAMC. "Just started working on a grant for the highway department to further repair one of the roads that was damaged during the storm, do the next level of repair on it.”
She’s also working on a tourism grant.
“We have such a beautiful community," said Warden. "We have the Westfield River running right between us, two mountains, hiking trails. We love to see people come and we want to make it a better experience for them.”
Forgue agrees.
“I wish everyone could come out and experience the hiking trails, the footpaths, the rivers, everything we have to offer out here," he told WAMC. "It's beautiful living. Difficult to be out here. But certainly beautiful and I wish everyone could get a chance to experience it.”
