In this Issue
September 2005

SEEDS FOR THOUGHT
Create a 'people access corridor' across Brookfield
By Ron Couture

A few years ago, I wrote Citizen columns called "Seeds for Thought;" as a matter of fact it was back in 1996—almost 10 years ago. The columns were about the treasures we have here in the Quaboag Valley, especially in Brookfield, the watershed for the Quaboag River. There can't be anything more inspiring than seeing the crystallized mist of the winter fog along its banks or the hot summer sunsets from the old river bridge.

The stories were conceptual ideas of what our small New England town could have just by emphasizing its historical treasures, recreation and natural beauty. The seeds that were planted seem to be having some fruit. Trees that A.P.P.L.E. Seed planted along the George Washington Memorial Highway (Rt. 9) have grown two fold, even though some need to be replaced. I think all have to agree that without them, the town wouldn't be the same. It seems that we will now be having, if luck holds out, new granite curbing and new wider sidewalks to walk along our Memorial Highway "mall" that connects two of our historic districts: the Common and the new historic district of the cemetery.

I still have to do an in-depth search of the state archives to find the actual legislation that dedicated the highway, but according to a poster that hangs in the Warren Town Hall, back in 1932 when the state was looking for something to mark the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birthday, it came up with a plan to dedicate a highway in his name, the very route he took to take command of the troops in Boston that initiated the Revolutionary War. The state widened the road, put in granite curbs and sidewalks almost the entire length of the state. It even dedicated it a "Scenic Highway." So, some of you that still remember back in the ‘40s, ‘50s and a bit of the ‘60s aren't wrong if you remember taking a bike ride to Spencer or Warren on a concrete sidewalk along Route 9; it was really there. (The scenic road designation was dropped during one of the state's financial crises, and has yet to be returned!)

The Memorial Highway has dedication markers in the towns that were towns during the time of the Revolution and so you will find them as you travel from Agawam to Boston. Except for a few changes that were made back in 1932 taken into consideration, most of the route is that of the Oldest Boston Post Road.

Another "Seed for Thought" was the concept of connecting Foster Hill with Cooley Hill and making a historic walking trail with points of historic, natural and archaeological interest. It would take lots of planning and hard work to cut the trails and set it up, but as you know it has gotten to a point where, hopefully, this fall we will have the walk well-marked and just the need for signs to be done next spring. (We do need help, so call me.) And our grateful thanks to Wayne Yaskoski who has cut most of the trails on the Audubon trail.

This walking trail is only the shell of the seed that was planted, the real inner part of the seed has to do with a bolder step, and that is the concept of having a bike path that would pick up from where this path ends at Elm Hill and run along East Main Street down Lower River Street, over the bridges and along the causeway and on to South Pond or Tantasqua.

This would develop a much needed "people access corridor" connector between the north and south side of the river. It would give us an improved walkway along the causeway so we could walk or bike without the fear of being run down or amputated between a car and guardrails that run along Route 148. Surely, a gruesome thought, but only a matter of time, or someone on a cell phone could make it happen.

If you think about it, we are perhaps the only town in the Commonwealth that is actually cut in two by mostly state land. Don't you think the state should help us out and at the least work with us to have a safe walking/biking path joining our pieces of town together? I do, and since the causeway can be defined as a historic byway, I think we could do something to make all this happen, even if it only gets a safe walkway over the causeway or a partial bike trail.

Maybe, just maybe, we could get someone to make a safer and more enjoyable walk/bikeway along the Quaboag—just planting a "Seed for Thought"!