The Recorder – Deerfield rail yard good site for solar farm

Here are brief thoughts on some of the events taking place around Franklin County and the North Quabbin area:

Pan Am Railways is looking into building a 20-acre solar farm at the East Deerfield rail yard. It would be in an area that was contaminated by railroad waste decades ago and that has been undergoing state-supervised cleanup in recent years.

The 2.7-megawatt solar array proposal is before the Deerfield Conservation Commission at the moment.

“There’s some contamination out there,” consultant Katie Wolf for Environmental Resource Management told the commission. “We feel this is some very good land use.”

We concur. Other solar farms have been built in the region on marginally useful land like former landfills, which seems to be working out well. So this location also seems like a good site for solar panels. It’s a cinch no one will be building homes with private wells on the site any time soon.

Orange Fire Department upgrades

Thanks to $561,906 in federal emergency assistance, upgrades for the Orange Fire Department may be in the near future.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded the money for the purchase of a pumper truck and an air compressor refill system.

It’s always good news when our cash-strapped but hard-working local firefighters can snag a federal grant, especially such a large one. Modern fire trucks are outrageously expensive, so it’s nice to see some of our federal tax dollars come back home in such a concrete way.

Warwick school

A grant awarded to Warwick to fund improvements to its elementary school will still be available even if the use of the building changes, which seems increasingly likely.

Earlier this month Warwick was awarded a grant from the state Department of Energy Resources that are to be used on renovations at the Warwick Community School.

But Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s fiscal woes threaten to close the school as a cost-saving measure. If that happens, the town is likely to re-purpose the property. So it was a relief to hear town officials have been reassured the money can still be used despite the possible change in the use of the school house.

Pitt change

If all goes well, the town-owned Pitt House will soon belong to the Colrain Historical Society for use as a museum.

But the society will have to raise money for an ADA-compliant wheelchair ramp and other improvements needed to re-open the 1840s home.

The Selectboard offered the Pitt House to the non-profit society last week, breaking a long impasse over what to do with the building that has been eyed to serve as a town museum. Last year, a structural evaluation of the home indicated that between $84,000 to $120,000 of repairs would be needed for the building to be fully used as a museum.

Good news for the town and local history buffs.

As a nonprofit group, the Historical Society wouldn’t have all the restrictions that are placed on town-owned property — such as paying prevailing wage for building work, Selectwoman Eileen Sauvageau pointed out.

In recent years, the Pitt House has not been open to the public, and the Historical Society has been holding history lectures and programs in the Stacy Barn, which was built in the 1990s.

Pitt, a theater buff, willed the property to the town for use as the headquarters of the Colrain Historical Society and as an historical museum. In 1976, town meeting voters unanimously accepted the property.

From the heart of babes

You have to hand it to 10-year-olds.

When Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School fifth-graders heard that Somali immigrants in Garden City, Kansas, were afraid to leave their homes following a plotted bombing, they reached out.

The 24 students felt badly about the inherent meanness and unfairness and sent letters of sympathy and support.

Those letters in turn inspired a Garden City video that has been viewed at least 21,000 times and shared at least 400 times from the city’s Facebook page.

The letters were written in reaction to news that three members of a Kansas militia group were convicted of plotting to bomb a mosque and a Garden City apartment complex where 130 people live, including the Somalis.

“This is not our country,” wrote one student. “Our country is supposed to be a welcoming country.”

We’re with them.