Category Archives: Hawley News

AS THESE THINGS TEND TO GO, Saturday’s Internet Outage was resolved relatively quickly. Project Manager Lark Thwing comments:

Many of you know that we had a network outage from mid morning until around 5 pm on Saturday. Project Lead Brian Foucher tells me that the fiber to Chapel Road in Savoy was repaired by 5 pm and the fiber connection to the Florida Town Hall was repaired shortly after.

Brian told me that the outage was due to a fiber break in North Adams.

I am waiting to learn what caused the fiber outages and is there anything we could do so we can prevent this type of occurrence in the future.

We have redundancy and both main links failed at once it seems.

Please spread this info within your communities.

Thanks.

Kirby (Lark) Thwing

Orange trash bags have arrived, but we don’t have a lot. We’re asking people to purchase only two packages (20 bags) at a time so that everyone who needs them can get them. Please give Tinky a call at 339-5518 to let me know when you’d like to pick some up. As of August 3 Greg Cox will have some as well.

FRCOG Public-health nurse Lisa White has dropped off face masks for use by Hawleyites. We have lots of tri-ply blue paper masks and quite a few N95s. Please stop by during Tinky’s office hours on Tuesday (noon until 3:30) or call to make an appointment to pick up a few.

Please examine Hawley’s Draft Hazard Mitigation Plan/Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plan, which is POSTED HERE for your review.

Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning is intended to provide the Town of Hawley with a risk-based approach to making planning decisions. Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Planning is intended to support the Town’s climate change resiliency planning and implementation of priority projects.

This plan focuses on both hazard mitigation planning and climate adaptation and satisfies the regulatory requirements for hazard mitigation planning through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and climate adaptation planning through the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant program.

We welcome your thoughts – please email your comments to Will Cosby at wilvis413@gmail.com by July 15.

Hawleyites have been doing well in terms of COVID-19 lately, with no reported cases in some time. Nevertheless, FRCOG and the Commonwealth want to remind people that if someone tests positive, there are options. Here is a relevant website to explore: Treatments for COVID-19 | Mass.gov.

It’s almost time for THIS YEAR’s town report to come out—and we still have quite a few reports on hand from last year. If you didn’t get one, please call the Town Office (339-5518) and arrange to pick one up.

Please ask your snowplow service to not leave piles of snow in the town road, after he/she has plowed your driveway.

It’s only common courtesy, and it can be so problematic that this is addressed by by-laws in some communities.  Please help out!

Be kind and do the good thing.

2022-2023 APPLICATION

This trust fund was established under the Will of Fred W. Wells. Mr. Wells, a former resident of Greenfield, directed that a portion of income from the fund be used for awarding scholarships in agricultural, mechanical or professional fields. Only residents of Ashfield, Bernardston, Buckland, Charlemont, Conway, Deerfield, Gill, Greenfield, Hawley, Heath, Leyden, Monroe, Montague, Northfield, Rowe or Shelburne who have resided or whose parents have resided in any of these towns for not less than two years immediately prior to the date of application are eligible.

Awards, made by a Scholarship Committee, take into consideration, among other factors, academic record, need, character, leadership ability, extra-curricular activities and employment. Scholarship awards are contingent upon the applicant’s matriculation into an academic program. One thousand dollars will be the maximum award for any one year. Awards vary each year depending on available funds and number of applicants, and are not to exceed a maximum total of four thousand dollars over the course of an academic career.

Applicants are responsible for completing their HAND-WRITTEN application and submitting it by the March 20^th, 2022 deadline.  All questions must be answered.  Incomplete applications will be disqualified.

For your application to be complete, you must submit the following:

• Handwritten application form
• Your stamped, official, school transcript from the most current academic year
• A current recommendation

The completed hand-written application form must be postmarked on or before March 20, 2021, to:

Prudence Blond
Greenfield Savings Bank
400 Main Street
P.O. Box 1537
Greenfield, MA 01302  

Call the Hawley Town Office at 413-339-5518 to request an application.

We are in the midst of another COVID surge, which prompted discussion at the January 18 Selectboard/Board of Health meeting on ways to keep as many people as safe as possible when on Town business.

The Board voted on a face-covering mandate for all who enter the Town Office (to exclude those with a health condition which precludes the wearing of a mask). The Board plans to revisit this decision every other regularly scheduled meeting.

WOW.  It’s finally winter, here in Hawley paradise. 

The Highway Department guys are working hard helping to get you where you need to go, or at least ABLE to get out, if need be.  If you have a question or issue regarding Hawley roads and wintertime, feel free to call the Highway Department at 339-5509.  If no one is there to answer, please leave a message and Gary, the boss, will get back to you as soon as he can.  Also don’t forget sand is available for residents to take as well – call the Highway Department for the lowdown.