On January 28, District Elena Cohen and I traversed the roads between Erving and Athol, and back again, as we met with nonprofit, state, and municipal leaders to speak about the vital Meals on Wheels program work that LifePath leads for Franklin County; downtown development in Athol; and a multi-generational housing project on the cusp of development in Erving.
Elena and I began the day in Erving with a visit to LifePath’s Meals on Wheels kitchen with Representative Susannah Whipps and Executive Office of Aging and Independence Secretary Robin Lipson and her team.
We then met with Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities’ Secretary Ed Augustus and Rural Affairs Director Anne Gobi in Athol. Athol officials shared the town’s powerful vision for housing, green space, and economic development in a corridor of downtown off Main Street that includes the Greening Lord Pond Plaza project which is already funded through a grant from the Municipal Vulnerabilities Preparedness grant, new housing construction on South Street, and the town’s goals for additional housing, parking improvements, and mill complex renovation.
Representative Whipps, Elena, and I then went back to Erving where town officials and Rural Development, Inc., with partnership from FRCOG, laid out the vision for a very exciting affordable, multi-generational housing project. This project will create 26 units of affordable housing in the heart of Erving next to the Senior and Community Center and to the public library. I am grateful to partner with Representative Whipps to support this project and to Secretary Augustus, Secretary Lipson, Rural Affairs Director Anne Gobi, and Western MA Director for the Governor Kristen Elechko for joining us in Erving to learn about this project which will be a gamechanger for Erving and the region.