The Belchertown Land Trust has become heavily involved in the School Department’s efforts to place conservation restrictions on property at Foley Field and Lake Wallace, which will be used for recreation and as an outdoor learning laboratory for the school system.
James P. Fox, president of the Belchertown Land Trust, in front of the Bondsville dam.
BELCHERTOWN – The head of the Belchertown Land Trust says his group will now be focusing efforts on trail work and other aspects of their organization’s business because of a lawsuit related to the Upper Bondsville Dam.
“Once the complaint was filed, our attorney advised us that any involvement that had to be done after that point would have to be done within executive sessions,” explained James P. Fox, president of the land trust. “There could be no more public discussions about the dam and how it relates to the complaint.”
The trust has become heavily involved in the School Department’s efforts to place conservation restrictions on property at Foley Field and Lake Wallace, which will be used for recreation and as an outdoor learning laboratory for the school system.
“The town felt our organization could act as a good, watchful eye,” Fox said about the School Department property.
The Belchertown Land Trust has placed several properties into conservation restriction status, Fox said, so the organization was asked to be somewhat of a moderator for the school property.
The town’s Conservation Commission will be the enforcement agency for the set of conservation restrictions that were drawn up by the School Department and submitted to the state for approval.
These restrictions basically prohibit building construction or other uses that would violate wetlands laws or the purposes for which the land was given to the School Department by the Belchertown Economic Development Industrial Corp.
Fox said his organization is also focused this summer on trail work for properties it owns in Belchertown, and is staying away from public discussions or decisions about the Upper Bondsville Dam.
The land trust owns the dam and has been ordered by the state to either repair it or take it down because it is in poor condition.
Because demolition of the dam would drastically alter conditions where it has created a lake-like impoundment of the Swift River, many nearby residents and people who use the Swift River for recreation have objected the possibility of taking the dam down.
The Swift River Preservation Association, which was formed to work against the demolition option, has filed suit in state Land Court, seeking to prevent the land trust from demolishing the dam.
Fox said the land trust lawyer has filed a response to the association’s complaint but the land trust representatives will not be discussing the issues in public as they have the past few years.