Whiting Reservoir Study Committee 12-17-20
6:00 pm Remote by Zoom
,
Holyoke Massachusetts
Notice of Subcommittee Meeting
There will be a regular meeting of
The Whiting Street Reservoir Committee
Meeting to take place remotely on Zoom Meetings on Thursday 12/17/20 at 6:00PM
Agenda:
Item 1: Vote on Chair
Item 2: Develop action steps of the committee.
Item 3: Schedule next meeting.
The listing of matters are those reasonable anticipated by the chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.
Whiting Street Reservoir Study Committee
First meeting, Thursday, 6:00 p.m., December 17, 2020
The Whiting Street Reservoir Study Committee met for the first time on the above
date. The meeting was to receive the charge from the City Ordinance brought by
Michael Sullivan and David Bartley, to elect officers, to set up a schedule of meetings
and to plan on how to proceed.
Attending were Marlene Connor, Harry Craven, Kip Foley, Marcos Marrero, Dave
Moore, Sue Ellen Panitch, Michael Sullivan and Jeffrey Anderson-Burgos. Theresa
Sheppard was absent.
Mr. Horan was charged with the duties of acting president in opening this first
meeting of the committee. He asked Mr. Sullivan to discuss the reasons for the
committee and its scope of work. Mr. Sullivan stated that the need for Holyoke to
spend two million dollars in upgrades to the reservoir forced him to think that
actual usage of the area needed to be explored. The present evaluation of the
Whiting Street Reservoir states that its earthenware dam is dangerous; and it is
more than 20 years since the reservoir was used as a water source. His interest lay
in learning what uses could be made of the Reservoir without damaging its future
use as a water resource. Some of the ways he mentioned included further passive
recreation, zip-lining, a museum on the property to attract eco-tourism, bottling
company use of the water, cooperation in use in conjunction with abutters, etc.
Additionally he noted the purchase of the Boys’ Club adjacent property.
Mr. Marrero noted that there were two critical items to be considered. The first is
stewardship which will require possible personnel and funding and the second is
use of the Law (or was that Water Dept. – couldn’t hear it well)department for data .
Base line information will be needed for the onset of this work. Mr. Horan
suggested setting up a Google Docs. File for the Committee and Mr. Anderson-
Burgos said that he would do that.
Officers for the Committee were then elected. Mrs. Panitch was elected Chairman;
Mrs. Connor was elected V-Chairman. It was decided to have all members of the
Committee take turns as secretary with Mr. Foley to do the January 5, 2021 meeting.
It was decided to hold meetings every first and third Tuesday at 5:p.m. during Jan.
and Feb. with a decision as to how often to meet in the future to be made at these
meetings.
Mr. Horan was asked to bring any information the Conservation Commission has on
the Reservoir and it’s dam to the next meeting while Mr. Moore was asked to contact
the Water Department and ask Mr. Conti to attend to give the committee
background information on the Reservoir as well as his and his Commission’s
desires for the property.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sue Ellen Panitch, Secretary pro tem