Editor’s Note: As part of the Athol Daily News’ end-of-the-year features, we are publishing in three parts our choices for the top dozen news stories of 2024. They are listed in no particular order.

Athol Royalston school makes MSBA list

Just before the close of 2024, Athol Royalston Regional School District officials received word from the Massachusetts School Building Authority [MSBA] that the district had been deemed eligible for the agency’s Core Program. Notification of the acceptance is the first step on the road to possible construction of a new Athol High School.

The district has from May 1, 2025, to Jan. 26, 2026, to meet the preliminary requirements set by the MSBA, including working with the towns of Athol and Royalston to come up with the funds needed to enter the feasibility study portion of the program. In March of 2024, an architectural consultant estimated the cost of a feasibility study at between $1.5 and $1.7 million. The MSBA will reimburse up to 80% of the cost.

Superintendent Matt Ehrenworth has said since joining the district in 2022 that a new high school is sorely needed. He said that, among other things, the AHS “science and academic facilities do not meet the needs of the students.” He added that the entire school building, constructed in 1960, has out-lived its usefulness. Ehrenworth said he envisions a new high school being built on the property occupied by the existing school and the old AHS eventually being razed.

– Greg Vine

 

Climate/clean energy bill approved, while local solar bylaws denied

In November, Gov. Maura Healey signed into law “An act promoting a clean energy grid, advancing equity and protecting ratepayers,” which advocates say will accelerate the development of clean energy projects, streamline siting for energy infrastructure and improve energy affordability, among other initiatives.

One of the most important changes for Franklin County municipalities lies in the solar siting process. Under the new law, the process to build solar and battery storage facilities will put small-scale projects under a single permit to be overseen by cities and towns, while large-scale projects will have to go through an application to the Energy Facilities Siting Board for approval.

Opponents of the bill, though, say the streamlining of the permitting process, which establishes a 12-month deadline for municipal permits and requires municipalities to issue a single permit at the end of the process, takes away control from small communities, particularly those who cannot afford lengthy and expensive legal challenges to permits.

In a similar vein, several communities in the Pioneer Valley had bylaws regarding the siting and permitting process for solar and battery energy storage projects denied, despite their overwhelming approval at their respective Town Meetings. In Northfield, for example, the Attorney General’s Office stated two bylaws that voters had approved failed to cite an “articulated public health, safety or welfare justification sufficient to justify the prohibitions.”

Several other bylaws throughout the valley and the state faced a similar fate, as the AG’s office rejected them on the basis of Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 40A, Section 3, which states “no zoning ordinance or bylaw shall prohibit or unreasonably regulate the installation of solar energy systems or the building of structures that facilitate the collection of solar energy, except where necessary to protect the public health, safety or welfare.”

— Chris Larabee

 

Athol housing project to begin construction

Athol’s Selectboard got good news in early December when representatives of NewVue Communities reported that work to transform the former Riverbend and Bigelow schools into mixed-income and senior housing will get underway in 2025.

NewVue took on the project in 2019 and has seen the estimated cost jump from about $25 million to more than $30 million in that time. Plans call for the schools to be converted into 33 units of mixed-income family housing, with 20 one-bedroom units of senior housing being created by the construction of an addition which will connect the two existing school buildings.

Family housing will include 24 two-bedroom units to nine three-bedroom units.

Funding for the project comes mainly in the form of tax credits. Other funds include loans, as well as $1 million in federal funding secured by Rep. Jim McGovern and $400,000 in ARPA funds from Athol.

– Greg Vine

 

Athol veteran dies at 100

The region lost one of its most well-known and respected residents on October 26, 2024, when Athol native Vincent “Bill” Purple died at the age of 100.

In 1941, at age 17, Purple’s mother signed a permission slip allowing him to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps, the forerunner of today’s U.S. Air Force. Purple quickly advanced through the ranks, attaining the rank of captain at age 20. He was assigned to the 8th Air Force, 379th Bomb Group, based in Kimbolton, England.

In the cockpit of his B-17, Purple flew 35 bombing missions over Germany, often serving as lead pilot of the squadron. He served through the end of WWII and stayed in the Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard until 1951. Purple was awarded the Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Purple served for 19 years as a member of Petersham’s Advisory Finance Committee and was active in many other civic and veterans’ organizations. Purple leaves behind his son Phil Purple and wife Anne Roy of Phillipston, and his daughter Cindy Hartwell and husband Chuck of New Salem, along with many grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

– Greg Vine