Home Care In Hopedale, MA

HOPEDALE — The town is looking for a new town administrator after Diana Schindler resigned this month, accusing the Select Board in October of not fulfilling its obligations "by not setting goals and objectives for me to implement."

Schindler's last day was Nov. 18. Her resignation letter, which cited frustration working with the three-member Select Board, was read by Select Board Chair Glenda Hazard during an Oct. 24 board meeting.

“While I've appreciated the opportunity to work in Hopedale since 2020, given that the Board didn’t fulfill its obligations regarding my contract by not setting goals and objectives for me to implement, it has made it impossible for my performance review and contract renewal to be administered fairly and effectively,” Hazard said in quoting Schindler's letter.

Jeff Nutting, who retired after 18 years as Franklin's town administrator in 2019, started this week as interim town administrator in Hopedale. Since leaving Franklin, he has served as an interim municipal manager in several places, including Norfolk, Lancaster and Sterling.

Nutting told the Daily News on Monday that he expects a search process to begin early next year, possibly wrapping up in the spring. He said he was not interested in the permanent position.

“I think during the holiday season it is harder to get going with the recruitment process — not a lot of people are looking to make a move during December," Nutting said. "I’d guess that a process will get going in the new year and probably be filled before May."

Schindler couldn't be reached for comment.

But during the Oct. 24 meeting, Hazard accused fellow board member Brian Keyes, as well as other town officials, of driving Schindler from the community and making it more difficult for Hopedale to hire a replacement.

“I can’t help but want to thank Brian Keyes and the band of persistent past and present town officials who have successfully created a hostile work environment for the town administrator," Hazard said at the time. "And I also wanted to thank them for impeding our efforts to get a future town administrator, because I’m sure that any candidate that Googles 'Hopedale' is just going to run in the other direction."

Did town make 'colossal mistake'?

The third member of the Select Board, Bernard Stock, added that the political climate in Hopedale has become toxic, and that those who wanted Schindler to leave have made "a colossal mistake."

“There is a cult almost, who have made it their task, almost like how a python kills something," he said. "It just kept squeezing and squeezing, almost on a daily basis, creating an unbelievably horrible work culture in Town Hall to force her out. This is a colossal mistake, letting this person go. Let me tell all of you out there that have danced over this resignation: Be careful what you wished for, because the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.”

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Keyes declined to respond during the Oct. 24 meeting, but voted to accept Schindler’s resignation.

The Select Board is expected to address the search for a new administrator during its next meeting on Dec. 12.

Schindler was hired in April 2020 after Steve Sette resigned to become town manager in Uxbridge. Sette had been in the position since 2013, taking over from longtime Hopedale official Eugene Phillips.

Stock, a former Hopedale town administrator himself, praised Schindler’s ability as a grant writer and her ability to get much needed revenue to support the small town.

“People hire town administrators based on need," he said during the Oct. 24 meeting. "Do you know what this town is? It is cash poor, and we are about to say goodbye to an individual who knows how to write grants exceedingly well. Last week there was a check for $40,000 from the state for the study to dredge the pond. The Water and Sewer Department is looking at a $2 million grant due to her work.

"Grant people don’t fall out of trees, they are rare individuals, (and) this is a huge mistake by this town to let this talent get away.”

HOPEDALE — The town is edging closer to developing plans that will reshape the downtown of the small community in an unprecedented circumstance.

Town officials are looking to formalize plans for what will become of the former Draper mill site, a massive 80-acre vacant lot that was once home to the 1.8 million-square-foot Draper factory. The goal is to rezone the area as a new downtown district, and to encourage mixed-use development.

"There seems to be a consensus about mixed use at that site, which has been consistent with the plans that have been considered since the late 1990s," Town Administrator Diana Schindler said. "There have always been discussions about the mill space having some residential, some light commercial space and some open space."

Through a series of proposals, surveys and public hearings over the past several decades, the town has seen a consistent interest in redeveloping the property as part of a multi-faceted approach to reshape the community's village center. Planning Board Chair Stephen Chaplin said during a board meeting last month that the panel is working on developing a zoning proposal that would match those ambitions.

“We are currently trying to create zoning to encourage and permit mixed-use development in this area,” he said during the Aug. 24 meeting. “We are taking industrial land and we are creating a vehicle for it to become a mixed-use neighborhood.”

Plans, proposals … and a lawsuit

The mill ceased operation in the mid-1970s, then sat idle for decades as different plans and proposals were considered.

In November 2018, Worcester businessman Philip Shwachman, owner of the companies that owned the majority of the former Draper buildings, filed a lawsuit against local businesses, town boards and individuals over a downtown redevelopment plan that involved the Draper property. The lawsuit claimed the defendants conspired to take Shwachman’s land by eminent domain, and that he was not adequately consulted in the redevelopment plan.

Chronicling Draper: New book offers photographic history of iconic factory

That suit was settled a year later, with the town scrapping the redevelopment plan and agreeing to keep Shwachman in the loop on any new plan going forward.

A call to Shwachman's business, First American Realty Inc., seeking comment for this story wasn't returned. But he told the Daily News in March 2021 that there's "a vision" for open space that can "daylight the river, open it up from Freedom Street all the way to Route 16.”

Later that year, the mill was demolished, leaving a massive vacancy in the downtown area of Hopedale, which encompasses just 5 square miles.

The Planning Board is expected to draft a bylaw by the end of the year that will propose a change to the zoning map to create a mixed-use district of some kind on the former Draper site. The board will also hold a public hearing on the proposal, take public comment into consideration and then make a recommendation to Town Meeting on whether to adopt the bylaw.

Town Meeting next spring would then decide whether to make the zoning changes.

'Rebuild a village center'

The large size of the Draper site, within such a small community, creates a unique opportunity for a Massachusetts town to reshape its entire downtown. The Draper property itself comprises about 2.5% of the entire land area in town.

"To have the opportunity to rebuild a village center, I don't know of any town around here that has had that opportunity," Schindler said. "What does Hopedale want to be now? Does it want to become a residential community? I think that with the density that will be proposed with some of the housing, people will have to ask themselves about that."

Unwanted boost: Portion of Draper building collapses while in process of demolition

Jane Wyrick, a planner with the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission, which is working with the town to consult on future uses of the property, said during the Aug. 24 Planning Board meeting that the Draper property could be a spot to increase the town’s housing stock — something that is challenging given the limited amount of space available in the town.

“One of the things that came out of the survey and master plan was a need for housing for people who are aging," Wyrick said. "It could be that one of the parcels in this area has senior housing, another may have it for families. With most of the town built out and other land having restrictions on it for conservation, it really limits the area that this town has had for development if we are trying to meet the housing needs. Bringing in mixed-use districts and allowing for housing downtown, hopefully that can meet some of the needs.”

'Symbol of Progress': Book depicts link between the Draper Corp. and Hopedale

Schindler described Hopedale as a "unique place," and that careful thought needs to be put into plans that will redevelop the village center. She cited the town's small size in saying that it could lead to it being culturally absorbed by larger neighboring towns.

"Hopedale is right in between Milford, Mendon, Upton, that little valley," she said. "It could just meld into a suburb of Milford, depending on what gets built here. It is critical to be really thoughtful about what this development looks like, to keep kind of that unique character of Hopedale and maintain that identity."

HOPEDALE — The town is in the process of deciding whether to grant a special permit to a Boston commercial real estate developer that wants to build a giant distribution center on Plain Street.

The Zoning Board of Appeals is reviewing a proposal from GFI Partners that calls for construction of a 616,875-square-foot warehouse and distribution center at 75 Plain St. The building would be constructed on property that is currently home to Rosenfeld Concrete Corp. and across from Hopedale Airport, with the back side of the property abutting the Hopedale Country Club.

The application was first submitted to the Planning Board in September, which led to a lengthy site plan review process as the town evaluated the proposal. GFI is constructing a similar, but smaller, project at 300 Financial Park Drive in Franklin.

If the Hopedale project is approved, Rosenfeld Concrete's operations would be relocated — the company, a unit of Boston Sand & Gravel Company, has an existing plant in Walpole.

The Hopedale property eyed for development sits on 141 acres within the town's Groundwater Protection District, due to its proximity to the community’s well fields. That has led residents to express concern that it will have a negative environmental impact. Other resident concerns include increased noise and traffic, as well as the sheer size of the proposed building, which would be about three times the size of an average Walmart.

“There is nothing like this project on Plain Street. If we were building something like what is on the property already, my wife and I wouldn’t come (to speak out),” said Plain Street resident Mike Hyland during a public hearing on June 15. “I don’t believe that when this street was built, that people would envision that they would have to share that space with a 600,000-square-foot distribution space, with I don’t know how many 18-wheelers running around the clock.”

The building site would contain 139 loading spaces, 206 trailer parking spaces, 300 passenger car spaces and an expansion area for 100 trailer spaces, according to the proposal. A traffic study performed on behalf of the town suggested that the average number of weekday vehicle trips to and from the property would total 1,074.

The Planning Board has approved GFI's application, 3-1, and recommended the ZBA to approve a special permit. Planning Board Chair Stephen Chaplin, Jimmy Khokhar and Michael Costanza voted in favor of the project, with Kaplan Hasanoglu opposed. The fifth Planning Board member, Christopher Cody Chase, did not vote, although it is unclear why.

According to Town Administrator Diana Schindler, because the public hearing process could not be very informative until the site plan review was approved, the town and GFI agreed to extend the public hearing process to the next ZBA meeting on July 20.

In its decision on site plan, the Planning Board stated it was confident that any negative impact from the building would be mitigated, and would not be any more damaging than any other development built at the former concrete batch site.

“The advantages of the proposed use, as conditioned, outweigh any detrimental effects, and such detrimental effects on the neighborhood and the environment will not be greater than could be expected from development which would occur if the site plan were denied,” the decision states.

GFI projects that the building would be assessed at more than $34 million, which would lead to more than $1 million per year in additional property tax revenue to the town. The distribution center is also expected to create about 300 jobs in the community.

In addition to Franklin, GFI has also redeveloped a 735,000-square-foot industrial facility in Devens.

HOPEDALE — The Select Board is requesting a judge to provide it with more time to decide its next step in regards to a disputed land deal it made with Grafton and Upton Railroad — a deal the judge ruled is invalid.

In addition, the board is seeking further clarification from the judge in terms of what its options are going forward.

“Quite frankly, attorney (Brian) Riley and myself saw too many difficulties for the town and Board of Selectmen to go forward on one of those three options without further clarification from the court, particularly given the litigious nature of this matter and the competing interests of the parties that have already brought actions against the Board of Selectman on this issue,” said attorney Peter Durning during Monday's Select Board meeting.

On Nov. 10, Judge Karen Goodwin ruled that a deal made between the Select Board and Grafton and Upton Railroad to split 155 acres of protected forestland on West Street was invalid because the proposal didn't first go to Town Meeting.

At the same time, she ruled that only the board has the authority to exercise the right of first refusal to buy land that has been deemed forest, and therefore taxed at a lower rate.

Goodwin then gave the board three choices:

The judge gave the Select Board 60 days to make a decision, and also initiated a preliminary injunction preventing the railroad from carrying out further work on the forestland until Jan. 9.

Riley, who serves as the town's ligation counsel, filed a motion Monday in Worcester Superior Court seeking additional clarification on the ruling before making a decision on the matter, according to Durning.

Riley was also submitting an emergency motion to extend the 60-day period allowed by the judge in making that decision, said Durning.

After that motion is filed, Durning said the matter will return before Goodwin to give her an opportunity to clarify her ruling, to which the board can then proceed "in greater confidence" about which steps to take moving forward.

“We’re in a little bit of a holding pattern,” said Durning about holding further discussion on the matter until the town gets additional guidance from Goodwin.

'We wanna get it right'

The lawsuit centers on a dispute over 155 acres of forest and wetlands off West Street, through which Grafton and Upton Railroad tracks run. The railroad has been trying to expand its operations over the past year or so, and leadership says developing the tracks and the area around them is key to the strategy.

In the motion filed Monday in Superior Court, Riley wrote that it was always the town’s — and the railroad’s — position that the settlement agreement was valid, and it’s not clear why the town retains the legal right to enforce the right of first refusal because the agreement waives the town's ability to exercise that right.

The town and railroad’s view is that the agreement is the only viable option to obtain any of the property at 364 Main St., Riley said.

“We wanna get it right,” said Select Board Chair Brian Keyes during Monday’s board meeting about seeking clarification from the court. Based on the nature of the litigation, he said they’re hoping for a quick turnaround on the matter.

An executive session held last Friday about a lawsuit brought against the town by 11 residents who oppose the land split resulted in "a robust discussion,” Keyes added, but he said there’s still too much "inconsistency" that needs to be defined.

In a statement sent Tuesday to the Daily News, attorney David Lurie, who is representing the 11 Hopedale residents who filed the suit against the town back in March, questioned why the board needed further clarification.

“It’s quite sad that the board feels that it needs further guidance from the court," he said. "In fact, there is nothing in the court’s decision that needs clarification. It’s there in black and white: Because the settlement agreement was not authorized by Town Meeting, the board now has the option to continue the steps it initially took to acquire all of the forestland."

Since the court’s decision was issued two weeks ago, more than 520 residents have signed a petition requesting that the town proceed to acquire all of the forestland, as previously voted at Town Meeting, according to Lurie.

“Yet, at last night’s board meeting, attended via Zoom by over 70 residents, the board declined to allow any public discussion of this issue," said Lurie in his statement. "The board appears to be paralyzed at a time when it should be leading the charge to preserve this unique undeveloped property that the town, by statute and the court’s decision, has the right to acquire.”

Lauren Young writes about business and pop culture. Reach her at 774-804-1499 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @laurenwhy__.

Railroad facility serves as base in effort to revive recycling industry

HOPEDALE — At the downtown Hopedale railyard Monday morning, two hills of what looked like glittering sand were piled against cement blocks in a warehouse.

Up close, the piles were revealed to be small pellets of glass.

“This product is able to go into the railcar,” Grafton and Upton Railroad President Michael Milanoski said, brushing a pile with his foot, so glass cascaded over his shoe.

Three years after the last glass recycling facility in the state closed, in nearby Franklin, the railroad is working with 2M Resources, a Quebec-based company, to revive the industry.

“We’re working on creating new recycling streams to get this product out of here,” Milanoski said.

The Franklin shutdown was preceded by the closure of the Ardagh glass bottle factory, just over the line in Milford. That, coupled with a significantly cooled overseas recycling market and its weight, made glass an expensive product to recycle.

“When that closed down,” Milanoski said, of the bottle factory in Milford, “there was no demand in Massachusetts.”

At the municipal level, recycling used to bring in a modest income, in addition to the environmental benefit. Now, towns must pay to recycle. The state’s Department of Environmental Protection tried to help solve the issue, awarding more than $250,000 to help Dennis and Groton build glass processing facilities in 2018. Those places crush glass and turn it into aggregate, which can be used in things like road construction.

“Glass is heavy,” Milanoski said, referring to transportation costs. “You pay by the ton.”

In fact, Milanoski said, the most efficient way to move heavy glass is by rail, rather than trucks.

In Hopedale, trucks bring used glass bottles to the railyard, where 2M machines send them up a high conveyor belt toward a big drop. The smashed results go through another machine to take out paper labels, bottle caps, and any other impurities, transforming them into small, clear pellets.

That product is then sent out of state to be recycled, Milanoski said, to about a half-dozen companies in the country. Milanoski said he is looking to move about 500 tons per week, which is 500 tons less in trucks on the road.

The glass is part of the railroad’s wider foray into moving various materials for recycling. Compacted cubes of cans and cardboard, respectively, are stacked against a wall at the railyard warehouse. Machines from 2M separate, crush and refine the materials, and Grafton and Upton Railroad trains move the resulting product out.

The partnership between 2M and the railroad is in its first phase, where it's been for about a year. An eventual possibility, Milanoski said, could include working with local municipalities to take and crush their glass, helping bring down town recycling costs.

That could require towns tweaking how they collect recycling, however, or the railyard recycling operation will run into the same issue as regional recyclers, where money goes into manually separating materials, cleaning them, and stopping trash from breaking the machines.

Right now, bottles come to the railyard in relatively pure condition. They aren’t delivered in the same truckload as other types of recycling, or pulled from residents' bins and mixed in with plastic bags and half-empty spaghetti cans.

“I can’t use this (if it's) covered in spaghetti sauce,” Milanoski said, gesturing to the piles of glass.

In the more immediate and tangible future, 2M and the railroad are looking at further purifying and crushing the glass pellets into a fine powder. That opens up new uses, including remaking it into fiberglass.

Milanoski hopes to be in that phase by the end of the year.

Alison Bosma can be reached at 508-634-7582 or [email protected]. Find her on Twitter at @AlisonBosma.