Most North Pond task force recommendations have now been implemented

SOUTHWICK — It's been 14 months since the town began paying serious attention to the overuse of the North Pond Conservation Area and it's only now, as the summer season draws to a close, that many of the recommendations to protect the property have been implemented.

And it's the "process" to have the recommendations implemented that has most frustrated Select Board member Diane Gale.

"The process and the part-time staffing related to it were extremely disappointing; that is that it didn't get a higher priority from everyone," said Gale who has been leading the effort to establish clear guidelines for the property's visitors about what activities are and aren't allowed.

Interestingly, nearly every recommendation acted upon was proposed by a task force set up last August after a brawl that started in the property's parking lot that spilled onto South Longyard Road and presented to the Select Board last September.

There were five major recommendations by the task force; decreasing the size of the property's parking lot, installing no parking signs along South Longyard Road, installing signage throughout the property to explicitly describe the prohibited activities, cutting down the trees where ropes hung to swing into North Pond, and installing surveillance cameras.

And each was eventually done, but it took a year.

"It was the process because it has to go through so many people and so many meetings and so many reviews [by different committees and commissions]," Gale said why it took so long.

The last of the recommendations — installing the signage — will be finished in the next week or so.

"We hope that once we have these signs up and people are fully aware [of the prohibited activities] it will help," Gale said.

There will be six signs installed with "No motorized vehicles allowed," and three that will let visitors know they might be electronically surveilled.

There will also be two that will make it clear that no chairs, loungers, tents, canopies, grills, fires, or coolers will be allowed on the property, and two more that will list the prohibited activities on the property, like no alcoholic beverages or drugs, or picnicking, destruction of property, cutting or removing vegetation, or tampering with the signs.

The signs will also include the penalties for breaking the rules, which would include being issued a notice of trespassing on the property or civil or criminally cited, which is vitally important for Gale and Conservation Commission Chair Norm Cheever.

"The police can take notice now because once we have these posted, they can then enforce the rules of that area with citations," she said.

Cheever said at a commission meeting several weeks ago that the police have told him that with the signs in place, "they will be more diligent in enforcing the rules."

Gale said citations will also be written for those recorded on the cameras not following the rules.

She said the installation of the motion-activated cameras, which was done by the Conservation Commission, was a significant positive step.

"These are cameras there now and [Cheever] has indicated it has helped," she said, adding that the purpose of the camera is to act as a deterrent.

The boundary between the Wildlife Management Area and the conservation area will also have signs installed to alert visitors to each area.

The town acted on another task force recommendation to install no parking signs along South Longyard Road. The signs are located approximately a half mile in both directions from the property's parking lot, which was reduced from eight to four parking spots at the task force's suggestion.

As for the three trees used for rope swings, they were cut down last August, but paying for their removal became an issue. Initially, Citizens Restoring Congamond, a nonprofit advocacy group, pledged $4,000. After pushbacks from the group's members, it was withdrawn.

The Select Board then requested the Finance Committee allocate $6,000 for the project. When a motion was made at the committee's meeting, it didn't get a second and failed.

Then newly appointed Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker successfully requested a grant in that amount from the town's insurance carrier.

Since May, Cheever has been walking the 61-acre property several times a week a and documenting the violations, which he mentioned during the commission's meeting Monday.

As of Sept. 8, he had documented 174 violations, with the beaching of boats along the shore of the property topping the list at 55.

There were 33 documented destruction of property violations including the removal of a T-post at an entrance to the property that was placed there to stop ATVs from accessing it.

Most of the destruction of property violations were the fences installed along the one of the three state approved trails being taken down and or damaged.

Cheever also documented 45 littering violations.

Another of the task force's recommendations was to install a permanent barrier to discourage the continuing violation of the property's conservation restriction by a resident who lives close to the property.

The person has been raking the Kings Beach area since the property was purchased in 2019 by the state when it provided part of the funding needed to purchase the 61-acre property for $4 million, with financial assistance of the Franklin Land Trust and $1.5 million from the town's Community Preservation Act funds.

Cheever said the resident continued the activity but appears to have stopped once the surveillance cameras were installed.

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