NORTHAMPTON — Concerns about the recent surge in the mosquito population have prompted Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra to address Northampton residents regarding the issue.
The mayor’s office put out a release last Friday, following several mosquitoes in Hadley and South Hadley testing positive for West Nile virus. The mosquito population has also grown in size over the past month, thanks to heavy rains and flooding that has affected the area.
In the release, Sciarra said the city’s health commissioner, Merridith O’Leary, was actively monitoring the situation, together with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, but that it was not at a level to declare a public health emergency.
“This is not an unusual number of positive cases and doesn’t represent a major threat to human health,” Sciarra said. “In 2017 Hampshire County had two positive mosquitos by this time of year and did not have a single human case of WNV that year. Hampshire County has had only two reported human cases of West Nile virus in the last 10 years, neither of which were in Northampton.”
Sciarra also said that the city has amended the contract to receive additional services with the mosquito control company that does its regular seasonal larvicide to reduce breeding activity. According to the mayor’s chief of staff Alan Wolf, the city amended the contract for the control company to begin now, rather than later in the year.
In 2019, the Northampton City Council passed an ordinance banning the use of pesticides on city-owned parks, fields, and playgrounds unless there is an emergency that poses an immediate threat. Sciarra said that should risk for disease necessitate the state to use pesticide spraying, then property owners could opt out individually, and the city would inform residents on how to opt-out.
The Taste of Northampton is set to return again next month, with several downtown streets to close to showcase local restaurants and food and beverage vendors across the city.
According to the northampton.live website, there are 26 vendors currently set to be a part of this year’s event. Vendors include longtime downtown bar Fitzwilly’s, La Veracruzana Mexican restaurant, and Firetype Chocolate, located inside Thornes Marketplace.
After being dormant for more than a decade, Taste of Northampton returned last year as a one-day event, drawing thousands to the city’s downtown. A $50,000 grant from the Regional Economic Development Organization allowed the city, working in tandem with the Downtown Northampton Association, to bring back the event.
Originally a weekendlong event, its revival has been changed to one day in order to accommodate for high costs and staffing shortages for many area businesses still recovering from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
The event will take place on Saturday, Sept. 9, from 12 to 7 p.m. The section of Main Street from where it meets Old South Street down to King and Pleasant Street will be closed for the event.
Along with the Taste of Northampton, the city continues to hold its Summer on Strong festivities, expected to last through September, with live music and outdoor dining on Strong Avenue, located off of Main Street.
The Massachusetts Clean Water Trust has given a $17.9 million low-interest loan to the city for upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant.
The City Council first authorized to receive the loan back in 2022. Donna LaScaleia, the director of Northampton Department of Public Works, said in an email that the funds will go toward sludge and dewatering processes, clarifier mechanisms, plant water and installation of supervisory control and data acquisition. She also said that several processing systems and equipment at the plant were at the end of their life.
The wastewater plant in Northampton has had to discharge some of its wastewater into the Connecticut River. Last month, amidst heavy rainfall, around 500 gallons of untreated waste were discharged into Barrett Street Brook, leading to the river. In 2018, the wastewater plant experienced a power failure, causing significant discharge of wastewater.
LaScaleia said the new loan is unrelated to the issues that caused the 2018 power failure.
“We recently completed more than $10,000,000 in upgrades to electrical distribution and emergency standby systems related to the 2018 Connecticut River discharge,” she said. “This project is unrelated to that incident.”
Work is expected to begin before the end of the year, according to LaScaleia, and the process is expected to take an estimated 18 months to complete.
The city’s new Division of Community Care and the Center for Program Evaluation at UMass Amherst have teamed up for a community survey to better understand the public’s views on the utilization of 911 or other emergency response services.
Formally established last year, the DCC, part of the city’s Department of Health and Human Services, will provide multiple types of civilian responders to community needs as an alternative to a traditional public safety response. According to the city’s website, the division’s mission is to address “racial and social inequities by building equitable, non-police, non-clinical responses for all while centering its most vulnerable community members in their struggles.”
The survey is meant for people who live, work, or receive services in Northampton. It gauges how much awareness people have of the DCC, as well as how often they have had to call 911 over the past year and how safe they feel doing so.
“The more individuals who participate, the richer our understanding of the community’s perspectives will be,” the Center for Program Evaluation said in an email sent out to community members. “The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete, and all responses will be anonymous and confidential.”
Once fully formed, the DCC is expected to be headquartered at the planned Community Resiliency Hub, a multipurpose community center at the former First Baptist Church. The city tapped Kristen Rhodes to be the director of the DCC last March.
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.
