BELCHERTOWN — As part of the town’s rebranding and marketing efforts, engineer consultant Stantec has identified around 80 signs to install around town for its wayfinding project designed to help residents and tourists navigate Hampshire County’s largest town in terms of landmass.
The initiative aims to direct visitors to Belchertown’s attractions through a comprehensive signage system for vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists, according to a report by the Northampton engineering firm. Another goal of the effort is to stimulate business in town.
“Using our approach of starting from scratch, if you’re a first-time visitor to Belchertown and perhaps you aren’t relying on your phone or GPS or any of those technologies, the signs can be a foolproof system to get you where you want to go,” Stantec Senior Transportation Planner Whitney Burdge said at a July 7 Select Board meeting.
Currently, there are only 58 signs across Belchertown’s 34,000 acres, from highway and town entrance signs to trail signs. Few of those signs direct people to attractions.
“There’s obviously a big range of styles and designs that speak to the purpose of this plan, which is to create cohesion, create recognizability and create intuition for people who are navigating through or into Belchertown,” Burdge said.
Belchertown used a technical assistance grant to fund a wayfinding plan created by Stantec. The plan identifies all existing signs as well as area of town lacking signage, evaluates possible designs for signs based on Belchertown’s new brand and finally lists recommended signs and their locations.
“You’re one of the only communities that we worked with that was having a parallel branding effort at the same time as the wayfinding plan,” Burdge said. “So we were very excited to be able to collaborate and help understand where Belchertown is seeking to go in terms of its identity, then really to integrate that [identity] in a meaningful and thoughtful way into the designs of the signs.”
The proposed designs includes colors like terracotta from Clapp Memorial Library, Quabbin Reservoir-tinted blue and various greens. The barn and Quabbin motifs accent some designs.
While some identified funds will pay for the first set of signs, Town Planner Doug Albertson said applying for grant funds to implement the plan, including ordering a model sign, are the next steps of the project.
There is no timeline for the project, but Albertson said he hopes to finish the wayfinding changes within the next year or two.
SOUTH HADLEY — During the school day, cars driving along Route 116 and Lincoln Avenue will need to slow to 25 mph as they pass a new school zone around South Hadley High School.
As explained in the July 7 Weekly Wrap Up newsletter, the many speeding complaints from residents and parents, along with data collected by the Police Department, spurred the creation of the school zone. Data shows that 47% of cars that travel on Lincoln Avenue exceed the 30 mph speed limit, which resulted in 28 traffic operations in just over 14 hours early this year.
As part of a critical state highway, Newton Street sees 8,400 cars daily. Increased police activity on these roads only temporarily slows down cars, since speed boards have reported high speeds when police presence is absent.
“With more students being driven to school or driving themselves, rather than using buses, vehicle volume has increased significantly making it all the more important to adapt the road environment to current usage patterns,” the newsletter says.
Signs will mark the school zone around entrances and exists to the school, parking lots and athletic fields. Typically, school zones enforce a 25 mph speed limit during school hours.
GRANBY— After a third dog bite complaint in two years, the Select Board decided during its July 7 meeting to revisit strengthening the town’s leash law.
Select Board Chair Mark Bail received a message from a 35-year resident of Granby who was recently rehabilitating a German Shepard when two other dogs rushed him, causing his dog to lash out. The other owner yelled at the resident for his reactive dog, and could not effectively call the other two dogs back. The resident kept his dog restrained.
“The owners feel entitled to let their dogs run free,” Bail read from an email during the July 7 Select Board meeting. “I get it, I really do, but some dogs need space. They are rehabilitating, recovering from surgery or in a new space or home and are uncomfortable.”
During a special Town Meeting in October 2024, residents voted down the changes to animal control laws for being “unduly restrictive” for a farming community. The residents took issue with a proposal to enforce horse owners to pick up manure on private property, noise control during evening hours and unclear definition.
“We heard some of the concerns people voiced at the Town Meeting, so we at least know what some of the concerns were,” Select Board member Glenn Sexton said. “We could look at tweaking it some and bringing it forward again.”
SOUTH HADLEY — Summer is in full swing at Buttery Brook Park as children explore municipal vehicles during Big Rig day, parents enjoy vintage cars at weekly cruise nights and frisbee fans test out the new disc golf course at its grand opening.
On Thursday at 10 a.m., fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, utility trucks, tow trucks, vans and other municipal vehicles will line the parking lot of Buttery Brook for families to see the big rigs up close and meet the people who operate them. The annual, free event is a big attraction each year for kids of all ages.
“Climb into the cabs, ride the aerial ladder, and meet the people who operate these fascinating vehicles,” the Big Rig day description says.
The following day, Buttery Brook’s nine-hole disc golf course hosts a grand opening from 5 to 7:30 p.m. public. The event encourages residents to test out the course while listening to music and indulging in refreshments such as beer, lemonade and cookies. Free raffles, course tags, a disc golf vendor, sponsor tables and T-shirts also mark the introduction of disc golf to the park. Boomer from the Springfield Thunderbirds will make a special appearance.
The disc golf course plays 2,906-feet for nine holes and uses artificial turf for the tee boxes.
This addition to Buttery Brook Park was announced last year as part of the park’s second round of renovations. Additional pickleball courts, new playground equipment and 200 new trees were also included in the park improvements.
At a different area of the park on Fridays through Sept. 5, vintage vehicles will pack the park for Cruise Nights. Cars of all shapes and sizes drive over to Buttery Brook for a night of eating, drinking, listening to music and enjoying cool cars.
Wonder Yearz, a 1960s-style band from Vernon, Vermont, will play this Friday starting at 5 p.m., with awards given out later in the evening.
