A good-sized group of people attended the informational session on Mount Holyoke College’s proposed Geothermal Hub/Energy Center/Power Plant, held June 5 at Gamble Auditorium, though the college did not appear to engage in widespread publicity. Citizens from the community used other methods to alert the public to this meeting. Except for one speaker, all attendees who either ventured to the microphone or spoke from their seats, praised the concept of geothermal energy, and requested that MHC relocate its Energy Center elsewhere on their vast campus. Speaker after speaker raised the following concerns: noise from this “electric power plant” with air handlers outside the building and on the roof would disturb abutters, neighbors, and patrons of nearby restaurants; air pollution from the gasoline still compacted into the soil beneath the site, which had long ago been a gasoline station, would damage the health of abutters and neighbors.
An “Urban Building” with a glass front in this Residential B, Village Residential District, is totally inappropriate at the corner of Woodbridge Street and Dunlop Place. The town’s zoning bylaws state that the purpose of this Village Residential District “is to maintain the traditional character, scale, density, design and mix of housing types that characterize the residential portions of South Hadley’s historic villages.” One speaker termed this modern industrial building an “abomination” in the town’s center. The MHC panel of administrators and engineers who sat in front of the auditorium seemed to repeat prepared, evasive responses to questions raised by attendees. This panel listened straight-faced to the many, many questions and concerns raised by abutters, neighbors, and townspeople. But did they hear the impassioned pleas to relocate this building elsewhere?
Martha Terry
South Hadley