The Town Hall (1895)
The Town Hall (1895)
Some of these documents are in Adobe's Acrobat Reader format (.pdf). You will need this program to read, print and save the worksheets. You can get Acrobat Reader at no charge for all platforms here. Macintosh users will probably find the Preview program, included with systems 9 and later, to be faster.
Reva Reck, Les Goodman, Miryam Williamson
Berkshire Wireless installing our equipment on the cell tower - photo by Ray Lemek
Warwick Broadband subscribers may now pay their bill online at this website: https://unipaygold.unibank.com/default.aspx?customerid=706
Reva Reck, Chairman Warwick Broadband Committee and WiredWest delegate
There has been a lot of publicity lately about Mass. Broadband 123, an initiative by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) to bring fiber optic internet (the fastest kind) to many western Mass. towns. This is a state and federally funded effort and it will help a lot to get us connected, but it will not bring the fiber to your home. In Warwick, the MBI will be connecting to the Mount Grace Tower, Warwick Community School, Town Hall, the police and fire departments, and the Library. WiredWest can connect to the MBI network and from one of these points and then bring service to you.
WiredWest now has 28 member towns, including Warwick. There are another 14 in the process of becoming WiredWest members. By pooling our volunteer resources and aggregating demand, we can create a solid business plan and seek bond funding and other financing. WiredWest just applied for a $500,000 state Community Innovation Challenge grant. This would cover our costs for preparing the bond offering.
We'll find out if we've been awarded the grant in February. In the meantime, volunteers are busy mapping all the poles and all the structures in all of our participating towns. This is necessary for engineering cost estimates for the business plan.
Why do we need fiber? Why isn't Warwick Broadband enough? Warwick Broadband has been great for those who can get the signal, but as time passes, people want to do more and more on the internet. Wireless simply cannot meet all of those needs, especially the kind of wireless which will penetrate foliage. Fiber can deliver not only internet, but also phone and TV services. Want to download a movie? It's yours in a few minutes with a fiber connection. Convert your landline phone to the same phone number on a fiber network and you won't have to worry about buzzing and other interference when it rains. And WiredWest is a community owned cooperative, which means that customer service will be a priority.
Want to help make this amazing resource a reality? We really need someone with grant writing experience. We also welcome donations. Just visit our website and click on the donate button. http://wired-west.net
Warwick is one of the towns participating in the WiredWest fiber optic broadband initiative. This link gives an excellent description of the project, and mentions Warwick's wireless broadband system. It is a 1 MB pdf file.
Barbara Walker, Jack Cadwell, Les Goodman, Dan Dibble, Jim Toth, Janice Kurkoski, Steve Kurkoski
Allen Berman, Karro Frost, Cheryl Matthews, Kasey Rolih, Mary Thomas, Donald Walter, Mary Williamson, Grigori Brodski, Ann Kendall
Go to their page for information on regulations and meetings.
Tracey Weed, Dan Dibble, Jeannette Fellows, Elaine Reardon, Kerry Stone
For more information on Warwick's Cultural Council please click here.
Barbara Walker, Martha Morse, Arline Lincoln, Ed Lemon, Jim Toth
The Warwick Historical Commission meets quarterly in March, June, September and December at 6:45 p.m. in the Town Hall basement.
Rick Abbott, Charlie Brown, Robert Day, Arline Lincoln, Barbara Walker
Matt and Kathy Connelly, Dave and Bev Shepardson, Jim McCrae, Fran Prohaska, Clare Green, Mario Tringali, Gloria Varno
Moores Pond Beach
Happy New Year! The Beach Committee had its first winter meeting last month. It's never too early to start thinking of spring and opening of the beach. There are a lot of activities planned and you are sure to enjoy each one.
FEB. 11th 10 AM (storm date Feb.12th at 1 PM) there will be an ICE CUTTING PARTY. APR. 14th, in conjunction with the Wooden Fender program, we will be serving a Lasagna Dinner. MAY 19th ( rain date May 20th) will be the Spring Beach Clean-up. Mark your calendar and watch for details of each event in future newsletters.
A very important special event is planned for this month. It is a "practice" program for an event planned for the Warwick 250th Anniversary Celebration. The Warwick Beach Committee and the Warwick Historical Society are sponsoring an ICE CUTTING PARTY on FEB. 11th at 10 AM (storm date Feb.12th at 1 PM ). The Party will be held at the beach end on Moore's Pond. Twenty-seven blocks of ice measuring 24" x 18" will be cut and transferred to a mini ice house (7' x 8' x 4'). The ice will have a foot of old sawdust around the sides with 2' on top. The ice will be removed for Old Home Days in August where it will be used to make hand-churned ice cream.. If the project is a success, it will be repeated in 2013 for the Town's 250th Anniversary Celebration.
All town residents are invited to bring their ice cutting equipment to use as part of the project. Already on hand is an ice marker, two ice saws and some ice tongs. You do not have to have equipment. Just come, help and be prepared for a new experience and lots of fun. Hot chocolate and coffee will be provided by the Beach Committee. The Historical Society will photo-document the event.
Thanks to Dave Shepardson for spearheading this project and all the hard work he has already done. He has sought out and acquired 6-year-old sawdust donated by John Tomilla of Tomilla Brothers Lumber Company of Fitzwilliams, NH, which closed six years ago. Thank you for Dave and his work crew ( Dustin Shepardson, Richard Shepardson, Clara Shepardson and Joe Farley) for bringing the sawdust to the ice house.
For further information regarding this event call Dave Shepardson (978-544-1806) or Kathy Connelly (978- 544-2009). We are excited about this event and look forward to seeing you there.
George Day Jr., Keith Ross, Mary Williamson, Christine Duerring, Scott Maslansky, Clare Green, Maria Whitney, Mark Maynard
Mission Statement
The mission of the Open Space Committee is to provide guidance to the Warwick Board of Selectmen, Town Boards, residents and others on how to maintain the rural character and sense of community of Warwick through protecting and encouraging wise use of the land and natural resources, enhancing recreational oportunities and encouraging appropriate economic and residential development.
Brad Compton, Chuck Lisowski, Christine Duerring, Clare Green, Dave Shepardson, George Day, George Roaf, Jack Cadwell, Kasey Rolih, Karro Frost, Mary Thomas, Matt Hickler, Pat Lemon, Ted Cady
The Open Space Plan Subcommittee's Public Forum Presentation on October 14, 2009 is available here. NB: This is a large (4.8 MB) .pdf file.
The final draft of the Open Space Plan is now available as a 2 MB download in .pdf format here.
The 2009 Open Space Plan is in progress.
Warwick was awarded a grant in February enabling the Town to receive nine months of professional planning assistance from Kimberly Noake-MacPhee, FRCOG's Natural Resources Program Manager, at no cost to the Town.
The Personnel Committee will hold meetings at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month in Town Hall.
Ted Cady, Chair; Elan Sicroff, Brad Compton, Nick Arguimbau, John Williamson
At the February 7, 2011 Special Town Meeting there will be a Flood Plain Overlay District Zoning Bylaw for approval by the voters. At the public hearing several questions came up which might be of interest to all voters so they will be addressed in this update.
If I am one of the 6 or 8 houses in the flood plain what would flood insurance cost?
1. If you do not go to a bank to use your house as collateral, you do not have to get flood insurance. In that case your cost would be zero.
2. If the house is sold, mortgaged, reverse mortgaged or a home equity line of credit or home loan is taken out and the house is in the flood plain you will probably be required to get flood insurance. If the flood plain zone is established you would get insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program. Since Warwick is not now part of that program no insurance company can give you a "Program" quote for what insurance would cost. Based on experience with other towns that have passed a Flood Plain Overlay District Zoning Bylaw, $200,000 worth of flood insurance on a house might cost about $1,500/year.
3. Most banks now have the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps and most, except perhaps a local bank that would keep the mortgage, would require flood insurance as part of any financing arrangement. If the article is voted down, flood insurance from a private sector company might cost $5,000/year or more for $200,000 of coverage. The reason for this high cost is that if there is a disaster there will be no FEMA disaster assistance for houses damaged in the floodplain unless we pass the Flood Plain Zoning Overlay District.
The flood plain map shows my house in a flood zone, but it is well above the flood zone. The flood plain map is wrong. What can I do?
You can hire a surveyor or professional engineer who will determine the base flood elevation and the elevation of your house and you submit the data to FEMA which will amend the flood zone boundary map to exclude it from the flood plain. The cost can vary but it would probably start at about $2,000, but could be higher.
If you have questions, you may call any Planning Board member for information: Ted Cady, chair, at 978-544- 6410; Elan Sicroff, Secretary; Brad Compton, Nick Arguimbau, John Williamson.
At the Special Town Meeting schedule for February 7, 2011 a Flood Plain Zoning Bylaw will be on the warrant. The Planning Board recommends a vote in favor of it. Warwick is one of l5 towns in Massachusetts that has not passed such a bylaw. Originally the Board of Selectmen wanted to pass one so that the town would be eligible to receive Hazard Mitigation Grants. These grants are awarded by FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to reduce the risk of damage in case of a natural disaster. An example of a typical problem in Warwick is undersized culverts. If there were a hurricane or other major rain event these undersized culverts would back up and often the result is that the road washes out. FEMA has found that it is much cheaper to install a properly sized culvert before the event than wait until the road washes out in a major storm and then install the proper sized culvert and rebuild the washed out road after the event.
As the Planning Board worked on developing the proposed Flood Plain Zoning Bylaw (with technical assistance from Franklin Regional Council of Governments Planning Department) we learned that any home in a flood plain that was damaged by flood waters would not be eligible for disaster assistance unless the town had passed a Flood Plain Zoning Bylaw and the that the bylaw is approved by FEMA or a state agency approved by FEMA. The FRCOG Planning Department developed a map of Warwick showing the Flood Plains and the houses that might be within the Flood Plain. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, the maps are only approximate, but they are still very helpful. It appears that 8 homes may be in the flood plains. There is a map in the Warwick Free Library showing the flood plains overlain on air photos which show the approximate location of homes and the approximate location of property lines.
Technically this proposed zoning bylaw is called a Flood Plain Overlay District. This means that while our zoning bylaws cover all of the town, if passed, the Flood Plain Overlay District Zoning Bylaw will only cover the areas within flood plains, so in a flood plain there would be the regular provisions of our zoning bylaws and the additional provisions of the Flood Plain Overlay District Zoning.
Copies of the proposed zoning bylaw will be available outside of the Town Clerk's office, at the Warwick Free Public Library and on the Warwick website.
The Rec Committee meets the third Tuesday of each month at the school cafeteria at 6:30pm. If you have ideas for activities the Committee could support, please come to the meeting and share your ideas. We are especially looking for ideas for activities for older residents. Contact Dave (544-3543), Erica (544-3418) or Kerry (544- 3001) if you can't make the meeting or if you have any questions.
The Warwick Recreation Committee is committed to the welfare, health and fitness of children who live in Warwick. We invite anyone's opinions and ideas. We all have great assets in town, and encourage people to use them.
Ted Cady, Dave Shepardson, Jack Cadwell, Mary Williamson, Beth Anderson, Brad Compton
About a year ago there were complaints that too many trees were being cut by the Highway Department along the edge of town roads. A citizens committee was formed and met about every 3 weeks for almost a year. The result is a document that provides guidelines to town boards regarding the cutting of trees alongside town roads. While the committee was open to anyone, most of the people on the committee are opposed to heavy cutting on our dead end and secondary roads.
For example, dead end roads have only one exit, so if a tree falls across the road the resident is blocked in. Public safety considerations suggest the trees should be cut heavily back from the edge of the road so when there are high winds there is less chance of the resident being blocked in. After talking with some residents on dead end roads the committee took the opposite view. Most people living on dead end roads do not worry about being blocked in by a blow down and prefer to have heavy tree cover along "their" road. This example is similar to the way it went with most of the discussions where the decisions tended to be to cut more lightly.
The latest version of the Draft Scenic Roads Cutting Policy is available for viewing at the Warwick Library and on the Warwick website. We welcome your comments, especially if you feel heavier cutting is more desirable along our roads. We do not plan on explaining the policy, so if you have questions about it call Ted Cady, co-chair, at 978-544- 6410 or any member of the committee.
The l984 Town Meeting designated all roads, except Route 78, as Scenic Roads. This means that when the Highway Department cuts brush along our roads they need to consider such things as maintaining the rural qualities that we cherish, scenic quality of the trees, wildlife crossing, the value of roads as forest fire breaks and maybe other values, as well as the traditional concerns of a highway department of clear ditches, getting sun on the road to reduce Winter maintenance costs, and making it easier to work on the roads. The Highway Department has done a good job cutting brush back on our major roads, but as brush cutting moves onto our dead end or dirt roads maybe other standards should be used to determine what is cut. If you have ideas about this, you are invited to join the committee, call Ted Cady, 978-544-6410.
The Committee has published its Draft Scenic Roads Policy, available here. Warning, this is a large, 2.3 MB .pdf file!
About our scholarships:
The Warwick Scholarship Committee was organized in 1962 when the Firemen's Association, the Women's Auxiliary to the Firemen, the PTO, the Women's Guild, the Congregational Church, and the Unitarian Church pooled donations and awarded the first scholarship that year to Barbara (Johnson) Walker in the amount of $200.00.
This year (2011) will be the 50th year of this scholarship program.
The scholarship continued this way until the middle 70's when Alice Anderson bequeath an amount of money to the town for scholarships. The Alice, Eric, Oscar Anderson Scholarship Fund was established and the funds are in the hands of the town treasurer. The town voted to allow the existing Warwick Scholarship Committee to administer and award the scholarships from these funds.
In 1982, upon the death of Anita L. Pike, a memorial scholarship was established in her memory through donations from her many friends and associates. This scholarship is awarded to the PVRS student graduating with the highest scholastic average.
Application forms for these scholarships are available at the library or the Guidance Dept. at PVRS.
Current members of the Scholarship Committee:
Arline Lincoln - Unitarian Church
Marie Whitney - Warwick Women's Guild
Beverly Farley - Trinitarian Congregational Church
Linda Gale - Warwick Firemen's Auxiliary
A. George Day, Jr. - Warwick Firemen's Association
Heidi Gale - PTO
Martha Morse - Warwick Historical Society
The Warwick scholarships have been made available because of the generosity of persons who have made donations, or have left money to this committee in their will, as well as donations from the town organizations that raise money throughout the years. Please consider donations to these funds so as to provide for the continuing of this scholarship program. (Please indicate which fund.)
Warwick Community Scholarship
Alice, Eric, Oscar Anderson Scholarship
Anita L. Pike Memorial Scholarship
Please send to:
A. George Day, Jr.
313 Orange Road
Warwick, MA 01378
or: to any member of the committee
Pioneer Valley Regional School - Class of 2011
Alice, Eric, Oscar Anderson Scholarship
Joseph Larson $600.00
Warwick Community Scholarship
Mary Pietrzak $600.00
Cody Ross $600.00
Anita L. Pike Memorial Scholarship
Mary Pietrzak $600.00
Other Schools
Warwick Community Scholarship
Sophia Stone (Westtown School, PA) $600.00
Alice, Eric, Oscar Anderson Scholarship (students in college)
Amy Killay $500.00
Warwick Community Scholarship (students in college)
Charles Abbott $500.00
April Celiz $500.00
Santina King $500.00
Jill Perkins $500.00
Forrest Stone $500.00
Jared Woods $500.00
Donations may be made to any of the 3 scholarships at any time. The committee will be very grateful for any assistance in keeping our scholarship funds a continuing program for our college students. (Please see: About our Scholarships)
Rod Whipple, Christine Duerring, Keith Ross, Todd Weed, Mary Williamson
For information on managing forests and woodlands, see the links below. They will open in a separate window. To return to this page, dismiss the window.
The Zoning Board of Appeals meets as needed. Please contact Jaylin Dibble, Chair (978 544-2663) if you need information or need to meet with the ZBA.
