HADLEY — Funding for a study to determine how to remediate the phosphorous levels at Lake Warner, with the chemical Phoslock likely to be applied sometime in 2027, is being supported by the Community Preservation Act Committee.
The committee Monday endorsed a $9,450 request from the Friends of Lake Warner to undertake the project that would determine the amount of Phoslock to use at the North Hadley site.
Phoslock is not yet approved by the state’s Department of Agriculture for use, though is expected to be by spring 2027. It is designed to bind the free phosphorus in the water and sediment, improving the fish habitat and lake system.
The spending will be decided by voters at annual Town Meeting in May, and is the only money being sought from the $1.93 million in CPA funds available for affordable housing, open space, recreation and historic projects. The committee typically takes applications in two cycles each year.
CPA Committee Chairwoman Mary Thayer said the panel could also do bonding for up to $2 million for a larger project, if one was submitted.
While many communities are set up so that they solicit and receive proposals, committee member Andy Morris-Friedman said Hadley doesn’t have to operate that way. He suggested that the committee, with representatives from the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Historical Commission, Hadley Housing Authority and Park Commission, could craft ideas on its own.
This, he said, also could mean going beyond the customary projects, such as providing money to support farmers placing farmland in the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program.
“I’d like to have more proposals generated by the committee,” Morris-Friedman said. “Not just APRs and that kind of stuff.”
Morris-Friedman suggested that affordable housing is one area that could be prioritized, though he acknowledged there can be pushback from both proponents and opponents.
“The ways we’ve tried to use it in the past, it hasn’t been used,” Morris-Friedman said, noting that $100,000 that was appropriated for the housing trust has remained unspent.
Committee member Sharon Parsons suggested the town pursue having monuments in visible places honoring the servicemembers from Hadley from the Revolutionary War to current times, similar to those that exist in Easthampton. Currently, the town has a plaque recognizing soldiers, but that hangs on the wall of the second floor of the former Goodwin Memorial Library.
Parsons said another project that could be funded is the renovation and relocation of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union fountain in front of Town Hall. Damaged in the past by erratic vehicles, Parsons said this concrete structure could be moved again and set up on a better base.
The fountain dates to the early 1900s and had been functional for thirsty individuals at least until the 1950s, and possibly more recently. In Amherst, a similar fountain in front of Town Hall was restored and has become operational as part of the North Common project.
The Goodwin building itself needs a lot of work, Thayer said, and money could be spent on that and for stabilizing the former Russell School.
Both projects would need Select Board buy-in. In 2023, a $1.2 million project to stabilize the Russell School, which had initially been recommended by the CPA Committee, was pulled from the warrant at annual Town Meeting.
“Both are wonderful buildings,” Thayer said.
Land Use Coordinator Kayla Loubriel said money could go to update the open space and recreation plan, last done in 2013. This could open the town up to grant funding opportunities.
Finally, windows at Town Hall could be restored and repaired, Morris-Friedman said.