When there's a severe storm in town, older folks often need a place they can go to if their power is out or they need shelter. For years, the Congregational Church has served that purpose. It's not ideal - it doesn't have a place to shower and it's missing other elements that an emergency shelter is supposed to have, but it's better than nothing.
Bill Weigle has asked the selectboard for a few hundred dollars to provide some materials - cots, blankets, etc. - for filling that need. The Church can't afford them. Seems like a no brainer, right?
Not. Two of the selectmen - Turner and Flynn - don't like Weigle and therefore have said no. They don't propose any alternative other than the Sheffield school, which is too far away to fill the need in most cases. How about town hall? Or one of the firehouses? No proposals, just a "no" to the church (er, to Weigle).
If Charlie Proctor - a pillar of the church - had made the request, what do you think would have happened?
Turner's stated reason for saying no is that the town can't provide money to a private entity. Now there's a curious position. I hope he remembers it when the selectboard votes on all those charitable contributions that the town is asked to make. It certainly hasn't stopped him from approving them in the past, but maybe he's had an epiphany. We'll see.
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Unfortunately, Selectman Turner is incorrect. He argued 18 months ago, when the question came up of having the town highway department plow the church's parking lot, that it was to the benefit of a private entity. As chair, I reminded him that the Selectboard had voted unanimously to plow the parking lot because the church was an emergency shelter (the town had voted the previous year to allocate money for emergency supplies. It took a year or so for Mr. Weigle, to his credit, to get the church certified as a temporary emergency shelter.) When Mr. Turner protested, we, the Selectboard, turned to our town counsel. Town Counsel explained that it, the plowing, would not be allowed unless the town was using the church's property and paying for the privilege. The town WAS actually using the property and paying for it. Egremont has been paying for the use of the church for a town committee meeting space for years. Upon receiving the Town Counsel's opinion Mr. Turner conceded that the plowing was correct. All of this is memorialized in the Selectmen's minutes, recordings of the minutes, and correspondence. Besides that, AA (certainly a community benefit) meets there regularly; our fire department uses the parking lot on a regular basis; the Memorial Day parade takes over the church parking lot for the day, and has done so for decades; and the fire department DEPENDS on the church's kindness for letting them use their driveway and property for access to the firehouse, since the firehouse has NO FRONTAGE on the street. The church asks for nothing.
We, Egremont, are thankful for their support and the use of their property. Buying goods for emergency usage is NOT benefitting the church, it is for the benefit and safety of Egremont's citizens DURING AN EMERGENCY. It is unfortunate that Mr. Turner and Mr. Flynn do not see this.
The concept of a temporary shelter is "temporary." Showers, etc., are long term and the Emergency Management Team agreed that in THAT case the Sheffield campus would be proper. Further, if the church was first used as a temporary shelter, but the emergency lasted longer than the need just for temporary shelter, the users would be transferred to the Sheffield campus. They then approved the use of the church as a TEMPORARY SHELTER. I was a member of the Emergency Management Team, while Chair of the Selectboard, during these discussions and decisions. The Emergency Management Team then spent the allocated money for supplies for that very reason, as directed by the town vote at an annual town meeting.
The benefit of having the church as a temporary emergency shelter was seen during the last storm, where it was used by many citizens. Where were the water, blankets and two large boxes of emergency supplies bought with our citizen's allocated money? Sitting in a trailer behind the North Egremont fire station! How is it expected to get to the shelter during a storm. Storms, and their severity, are often unannounced. Don't our emergency personnel have more to worry about than moving emergency supplies from one place to another? Worse, imagine not having the church available and making people drive to Sheffield, at night, during a storm, with trees and power lines down and no lights? How dangerous and foolhardy a decision to disallow the church as a temporary shelter!
Over half of our citizens are over 55 years of age, with over 12% being over 70. The ease at which our selectboard recommends a $1.5+ million dollar school budget, but denies a few hundred dollars for the safety of our senior citizens astounds me.
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