ATHOL – Now in his ninth year as town manager, Shaun Suhoski hopes that by year 12 there will be some big changes in town.

The town manager recently had his contract extended for three years by the Selectboard. He expressed his gratitude, both to the current board and others he has worked with.

“I’m certainly appreciative, and I’m still very motivated and I’m looking forward to the next three years,” Suhoski told the Athol Daily News.

The town manager said a number of projects that have been in the planning stages will finally get underway. Among these are the Ellen Bigelow and Riverbend schools, which are slated to become affordable housing. Recently, Congressman Jim McGovern (D-Worcester) announced he had secured $1 million to help fund the transformation of the former schools. Suhoski said this and other projects could increase the town’s affordable housing stock by a full percent.

“These projects don’t come along often, and I’m not saying we want one on every street corner, but imagine that we’re able to take two buildings that are a century old and functioned until 2016 as elementary schools, and now they’ll be repurposed. We have one step to go in the financing and I’m confident in the team we have to get it done,” he said. “Ellen Bigelow and Riverbend – that block right now, which is a blight on the neighborhood, will be active, providing a service to the community and the region for generations to come.”

He added that there is a private sector plan to turn the site of the now-closed downtown parking garage into 45 units of housing. He said this is on a scale that has not been seen in the downtown for 100 years. Once the projects are complete, those properties will be placed on the tax rolls.

Lord Pond Plaza and municipal parking

The work at Lord Pond Plaza is an effort to add large areas of greenspace to the asphalt parking lot, while also daylighting Mill Brook, which runs beneath it. Suhoski credited Planning and Development Director Eric Smith, Public Works Director Dick Kilhart and the North Quabbin Community Coalition for moving this forward. He said the work would help eliminate what is referred to as an “urban heat island,” which occurs when cities or townsreplace natural land cover with dense concentrations of pavement, buildings and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat.

“We can fix all of that with a transformational look at Lord Pond Plaza,” he said. “On the horizon beyond that, something I’ve worked on, and Eric Smith has worked on with me, we want to see if we can take the greening of Lord Pond Plaza to work with the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) money – if we receive the grant – to work on Lumber Street and Canal Street and the old toy factory site, where in partnership with the EPA we’ve done some asbestos remediation.”

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The project, were it to come to fruition, would create a pathway from downtown Athol directly to the Millers River.

Suhoski also envisions changes to the municipal parking lot, accessible from Exchange Street and situated between Main and South streets. Suhoski said that Smith has filed a grant to look at redesigning the lot.

“We know we’ve got some vacant buildings there,” Suhoski said. “We’re trying to encourage and find ways to leverage the South Street housing project into other investors to do something with those other buildings, or if some need to be demolished, we’re going to look at that.”

Suhoski said another goal is to work with either MassDevelopment or a professional consultant to seek a Request For Proposals and investigate the possibility of developing a hotel or conference center at Exit 77 near Route 2. He said there are similar developments in Gardner, Greenfield, Leominster or Northampton, but none are convenient to the Athol area.

“The North Quabbin region can support an activity center, whether it’s conference or meeting space that can serve a few hundred people,” Suhoski said. “And a hotel would be good for the many events we have throughout the region and Western Mass. We have a preliminary market study. It’s feasible, and we’re going to keep pursuing this and we’re going to get it done.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

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