You can listen to the whole interview HERE
The Hilltown Community Development Corporation (Hilltown CDC) is expanding its transportation services to better serve rural communities in Western Massachusetts. Initially focused on residents aged 60 and over, the program will now provide transportation to all in need, including low-income residents, individuals with disabilities, and those without personal vehicles. This expansion is made possible by a $50,000 grant from Transportation for Massachusetts and the donation of a disability-friendly van from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Hilltown CDC’s services include wheelchair-accessible vans and a driver pool program where certified drivers use personal vehicles to transport others in exchange for reimbursement.
For more information, you can read the full article at Hampshire Gazette, MassLive, or The Republican
I am very sad to hear of the passing of Steve Kulik. I got to know Steve fairly well in my job as Executive Director of the Hilltown CDC. I was hired in 2011 and Steve was our State Representative. He went out of his way to meet with me and help me get a handle on the work the CDC does and what the pressing issues in the Hilltowns were. I knew there was a paucity of knowledge in Boston about Hilltowns. Little did I know I was getting to know one of the most compassionate and effective legislators in our state. I also soon learned that Steve was one of the founding community members of the Hilltown CDC.
As I got settled into my job, I developed a relationship with Steve that showed me another side to politics and government. I saw how he was able to advocate for our rural towns with kindness and intellect and at times, when needed, some fierce advocacy.
Without hesitation, Steve worked tirelessly to help move a piece of legislation through state government that has resulted in millions of new dollars designated for community development programming, providing assistance to many of our rural friends and neighbors. This legislation was the Community Investment Tax Credit or CITC. This has enabled CDC’s across the state to leverage millions of dollars from donors who receive a tax credit on their donation.
For folks who follow Hilltown CDC’s work, we would not have a Mobile Market selling local farm products without CITC, we would not have developed additional affordable housing units, nor would we have been able to expand our transportation services for seniors without CITC and Steve’s advocacy.
There is one other memory I want to share.
When Steve retired for the legislature, Hilltown CDC helped an event to honor his life and work. His wife Suzanne and children Sam and Elizabeth attended the event. Family and friends put together a collage of pictures of Steve’s life. It was a beautiful time.
I brought some musician friends of mine to the event, and we played some jazz music while people honored Steve. On a break, I took a look at the pictures of Steve’s life. I saw this young guy with a long ponytail letting his freak flag fly.
At that moment it all made sense. Steve was a counter-culture activist who figured out how to get inside the system and change it for the better. He never lost his hippie idealism.
He was “one of a kind” in the messy system we know as politics. There is one thing I know for sure, we need more Steve Kulik’s in our world if we are going to get anything done.
Dave Christopolis
Executive Director
Hilltown CDC
Can you take a moment to help Hilltown CDC? We must demonstrate support each year for our federal grant applications.
If you have utilized the services provided by the Hilltown CDC or I know someone who has benefitted from or could benefit from these services, please add your name to our list of supporters below!
Please save the date and join us for our virtual annual meeting on Tuesday, October 18 at 6-8PM on Zoom
Click to Join: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89124349232
Dave Christopolis,
Executive Director
Town of Cummington Awarded $31K to Construct Two Pedestrian Crossings on Main Street
The Town of Cummington was recently awarded $31,000 in funding through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Shared Streets and Spaces Grant Program. The program provides funding to municipalities and public transit authorities to quickly implement improvements to plazas, sidewalks, curbs, streets, bus stops, parking areas, and other public spaces in support of public health, safe mobility, and strengthened commerce. The program originally launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the summer of 2020. The Town of Cummington applied for funding during the fourth grant application round in March 2022.
The grant will fund the construction of two new pedestrian crossings on Main Street: one at the Cummington Community House and another at the entrance to the Hillside Terrace Senior Housing. These new crossings will include ADA compliant pedestrian ramps, high-visibility pavement markings, and new signs to help people walk to these community destinations. The Town expects to begin construction in Summer 2023.
New Business Promotion Plan Released!
Revamped Business Directory and Regional Tourism Campaign
Chesterfield, MA – The Hilltown Community Development Corporation has announced that they have begun the process of revamping their business directory program for the digital age and are creating the region’s first cohesive tourism campaign. The directory, which was first produced as a print booklet in the 1980s, will now shift its emphasis to the online directory which has been streamlined to make it easier for Hilltown residents and visitors to find local businesses and attractions. In conjunction, a series of brochures will be created to promote tourism (2022 Fall Day-trips and and 2023 Summer Day-trips) as well as guides to Health & Wellness, Hilltown Living (home, building, auto), and Business Services. Twenty-five thousand tourism related brochures will be distributed in the Berkshires, The Pioneer Valley and throughout the Hilltowns in public places such as restaurants, town halls, general stores and libraries. Five thousand each of the local business related brochures will be distributed within the Hilltowns throughout 2023.
“The pandemic hit us all profoundly in ways that we could not expect. It forced some businesses to close, others to push more into online initiatives and increased workloads with the added headache of supply shortages,” says Dave Christopolis, Hilltown CDC Director. “We are now thinking about the future of business in the Hilltowns and how we can best support our unique village centers and foster a thriving business economy. The Hilltown Directory and the accompanying informational brochures are an important part of supporting Hilltowns businesses and we want to create them in the most sustainable and effective way possible.”
The Hilltown Community Development Corporation surveyed businesses in May 2022 about their pandemic experience and thoughts on the effectiveness of the old print directory. One hundred seventy business owners responded. “We found out that our businesses had concerns about the effectiveness of the directory as response is so difficult to track. We also tested our ideas about promoting the Hilltowns as a distinct and cohesive place to ‘eat, live and play” and found that business owners were overwhelmingly positive about these new initiatives.”
Due to the increased cost of paper, and concerns about sustainability, the CDC will no longer produce and mail the directory to every household, Brochures that largely replicate most of the listings of the old directory will be created.
“The CDC played an important role in supporting new businesses in the Hilltowns that opened during and after Covid-19 that are now thriving such as the Carm’s, the Common Table and their new ice cream store in Chester and the Williamsburg Country Store. The CDC’s new directory initiatives should further help locals find businesses and drive increased interest in our region,” continues Christopolis. “We are literally 30 minutes away from larger population centers and with concerns about gas prices rising, we hope to welcome more day-trippers from the surrounding areas to our unique rural way of life that includes so much natural beauty, agricultural richness and artistic expression.”
Businesses interested in getting involved are encouraged to look at the advertising opportunities at hilltowndirectory.com/adopportunities. The cost for a listing in the online directory for one year and inclusion in one print brochure is $100. For more information, contact Advertising Director Joan Griswold at joang@hilltowncdc.org or 413-296-4536x102. For inclusion in the Fall 2022 Day-trips Brochure the deadline is August 3, 2022. For inclusion in the online directory and one other brochure.:September 1, 2022
The Hilltown Community Development Corporation is a private non-profit organization that seeks to improve the quality of life for Hilltown residents by addressing economic, housing, education, social and community needs while preserving the rural character of the area.
Hilltown Community Development Corporation has been listening to your thoughts and created new business development initiatives. The pandemic hit us all profoundly in ways that we could not expect. We are thinking about the future of business in the Hilltowns and how we can best support our unique village centers and foster a thriving but responsible business economy.
We have been taking a hard look at both the print and online Hilltown Business Directory and conducted a survey that 170 of you answered. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration! Based on that survey we have made the following decisions:
· We will promote the Hilltowns as a cohesive and wonderful place to live, work and play with a series of brochures distributed throughout the Hilltowns, the Berkshires and the Pioneer Valley as relevant to the topic.
· For 2022 into 2023 these brochures will include: Fall Daytrips, Home & Auto; Health & Wellness, Business Services and Summer Daytrips.
· We have simplified both the look and categorization of the online directory and make it easier to find and highlight your business. We will increase our search engine optimization, social media marketing and Google Adwords outreach so more people find us online.
· We will create content features about local businesses and daytrip suggestions that are featured both online and in the brochures.
· We will cease printing the full directory due to the rising cost of paper and our concerns about sustainability. Additionally, the survey revealed that business owners have not found it that effective.
We have revised the website and will distribute the Fall Daytrips brochure mid August - October to take advantage of our most scenic, and well-traveled time of year. Please click here to see a mockup of the brochure that includes ad possibilities. The rate for 2022 will be $100 for an online listing that includes 35 words of copy, a photo carousel and inclusion in one of our brochures. Joan Griswold at the CDC (joang@hilltowncdc.org) is available to answer any questions you may have and take your ad insertions or you can place your ads through our web interface here. It's super simpler and should take less than 10 minutes. As always we welcome your thoughts and comments.
Sincerely,
Dave Christopolis
Executive Director
If you are interested in steady, local work and quick payment--
Hilltown CDC is currently seeking General Contractors who are interested in bidding on Housing Rehabilitation projects funded by various state and federal grant programs. We recently received Housing Rehab funding, and we will be bidding many projects in the upcoming months.
Projects are planned in the towns of Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Plainfield, Peru, Worthington, and Williamsburg with projects typically ranging around $40,000-50,000. Contractors working on Hilltown CDC administered projects are assured payment for all approved work and a quick turnaround on invoices as well as a source of steady, local work year-round.
A minimum of a Home Improvement license is required. General Accident and Liability insurance as well as Workman’s Compensation insurance, if applicable, is also required.
HCDC is an EEO/Section 3 Employer. Women & members of minority groups are encouraged to apply.
Please contact Adam Korelitz, Program Manager, at (413) 296-4536, ext. 123 for an application or email adamk@hilltowncdc.org.
March 2, 2022 - Senator Adam Hinds presented a check for $50,000 to the Hilltown Mobile Market on the porch of the Sawyer Farm Store in Worthington this afternoon. The funding comes from the Massachusetts legislature through the American Rescue Plan or ARPA.
Hinds was quoted saying that the Hilltown Mobile Market solves many of the challenges we face in the Hilltowns with one innovative project, connecting residents with limited access to food and transportation to a market that also prioritizes the economic viability of local farms.
Hilltown CDC is grateful to the Senator for his support and to all the partners that have made this project possible. Hilltown Community Health Center, the Collaborative for Educational Services, and Cooley Dickinson Health Care have all worked together with Hilltown CDC over the years to address food insecurity in our communities.
The Hilltown Mobile Market 2022 season will begin July 16th and run through November 18th. Farm shares are will be available for purchase soon as well! For more information about the market please visit www.hilltownmobilemarket.info
The Channel22 WWLP story can be found at https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-market-makes-food-more-accessible-for-community/
“What Happened at The Veterans Home?” is a homegrown indie film, written, directed, produced, and scored by Cummington musician Laura Wetzler. Laura and cinematographer Jared Skolnick shot it safely, one actor at a time, over the course of eight days in Florence, Agawam, Holyoke, and Greenfield, MA.
This 50-minute award-winning film is an emotional drama about a disabled veteran, her nurse daughter, and a CNA aid worker caught dead center in the pandemic nursing home tragedy, who refuse to be silenced.
Date: Sunday, March 20, 2022 Time: 2 pm
Where: The Academy of Music 274 Main St. Northampton MA
Tickets on sale now at: aomtheatre.com or 413.584.9032
Tickets: $18-20.+
To register for complementary tickets for veterans and health care workers (100 tickets available) contact: info@nervygirlfilms.com.
An Official Selection at 25 international film festivals, “What Happened at the Veterans Home?” has won numerous prestigious awards, including Best Screenplay in Paris, Best Feature in Athens, Best Humanitarian Film in Prague, Best Actress in Amsterdam and Naples, and Honorable Mention at The Cannes World Film Festival, among others.
2021 Mobile Market Operator Monica Guzik, originally from Huntington, recently completed her master’s degree in Sustainability Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For her final coursework she prepared an analysis of the impact that the Hilltown Mobile Market has had on farms and consumers in the Hilltowns since its inception in 2019.
Click here to read the 2019-2021 Impact Report!
The Hilltown Open Studio Tour returns this year on Saturday and Sunday, October 2nd &3rd. The visually rich experience of seeing the artists - in their intimate studio settings – complements the beauty of Western Massachusetts’ rolling hills, farms, mountain streams, and autumn foliage. Enjoy 22 studios and 25 artists working in a variety of media on this self-guided tour from 11am to 5pm both days. You may begin at any studio (locations and map on www.hilltownartsalliance.org) or at the Cummington Community House, 33 Main Street, Cummington, MA.
The tour is fresh each year with several new artists – and returning artists presenting new works! COVID shutdown provided a long creative incubation time for each artist on the tour, and new perspectives and
approaches are an even greater part of the annual event after a year hiatus!
Learn more at: https://hilltownartsalliance.org/open-studio-tour/
“I spent the pandemic shutdown creating jewelry for an exhibition at the British Museum in London and a stylized oak tree design, both collections inspired by History, Nature and Architecture.” explains artist Jen Parrish-Hill. “Being surrounded by nature means you want to help preserve it, so I donate a percentage of each website sale to an organization that brings light to issues threatening our wildlife, our environment, our earth.” Peaceful, but not isolated, Parrish-Hill also states that her Hilltown setting is rich in creative sharing amongst artists and looks forward to the return of the studio tour. “For solitary creators, having people visit (even just once a year) can be very rewarding - the conversations, meeting neighbors and the joy of being part of a talented community of artists.”
Painter Cyndy Sperry looked to history during the pandemic for perspective. “Well now, Picasso and Matisse painted through two world wars,” she points out. One special COVID project she completed was a rework of Emmanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” done through a Zoom collaboration with art partners.
Another highlight this year is a Raku firing at Project Art, a live work artist residency program specializing in contemporary ceramics. Internationally known artists, Kadri Pärnamets and Sergei Isupov will be doing a dramatic Raku firing over the two days – works will be glazed, loaded, fired and then removed from the kiln while red hot, placed into flammable materials which starve the piece of oxygen, blacken the clay surface and produce colorful highlights in the glazes and rapidly cooled in buckets of water. The drama comes from the carefully managed fire, smoke, steam and high anticipation of the many variables that create an unpredictable, but always beautiful, outcome.
Normally Sergei and Kadri spend their daughter Roois's school year in Cummington and summers in
their homeland, Estonia. Throughout the pandemic year, Roosi attended school from home and clay
work was part of her new curriculum while working side by side with her parents in the studio and when possible, joined by masked-up friends from the neighborhood and classmates. Due to its immediacy and outdoor process, these special firing events were popular with both kids and their parents during the pandemic year. Other recent works by Sergei and Kadri will be on view in the building's gallery run by Ferrin Contemporary during HOST.
Please check the website for any updated COVID information and be prepared to wear a mask inside the studios.
The Hilltown Mobile Market received a grant through the Startup Circle of the Hampshire County Food Policy Council, in partnership with Cooley Dickinson Hospital, to offer a Veggie Rx prescription program.
Starting in August, prescriptions will be available in $10 vouchers to shop at the Hilltown Mobile Market and four other Hilltown farm stands. The prescriptions are being distributed through the Hilltown Community Health Center’s Community Health Worker program, targeting families who are food insecure or individuals managing a diet-related disease.
To learn more about the program please reach out to Kim Savery, Director of Community Programs and Family Support, at ksavery@hchcweb.org
The Hilltown Mobile Market is a different kind of grocery store. Every week the market gathers fresh and affordable Hilltown-grown produce from our neighbor farms. Everyone can shop for produce from the colorful veggie van at one of our four weekly stops in Blandford, Cummington, Huntington and Worthington. Purchases with SNAP, HIP, WIC and Senior Coupons are welcomed!
Our 2021 weekly market schedule:
THURDSAY
WORTHINGTON: 2:00-3:30PM
Congregational Church
156 Huntington Road
CUMMINGTON: 4:30-6:00PM
Kingman Tavern
41 Main Street
FRIDAY
BLANDFORD: 2:00-3:30PM
Post Office
102 Main Street
HUNTINGTON: 4:30-6:00PM
Town Green
24 Russell Road
Got a few seconds?
Each year, Hilltown CDC applies for federal funding through the Community Development Block Grant to fund vital programs such as the Hilltown Elder Network (HEN), HOPE, Housing Rehab, It Takes A Village and the Hilltown Food Pantry. It is time to apply for next year's grant and we need your input for a strong application! Please demonstrate your support in two easy ways:
1) Sign Your Name (10 seconds)
2) Take the Survey (5 minutes)
If you, or someone you know, has participated in, or could benefit from participating in any of these programs and you would like to share support, success stories, or ways to improve the programs please contact Bea at beavh@hilltowncdc.org or 296-4536, ext. 11. Additionally, if there are new programs/activities you would like to have considered for future CDBG funding, please let us know!
Looking to get into the field of Public Health? The Southern Hilltown Adult Education Center has partnered with Holyoke Community College and BHN (Behavioral Health Network) to support Hilltowners to prepare for and succeed in the Community Health Worker Apprenticeship Program. The CHW program training course work will prepare students to work with children, youth, and families who have been impacted by opioid and substance abuse.
The training program consists of 9 college credits in the first year- free of charge, along with a $5000 sti-pend. The second year consists of a paid full-time apprenticeship, with an additional $7500 to the paid position. The 6 credit fall 2021 course will be fully virtual.
In person info session: June 21, 6pm at the Village Enterprise Center, 26 Main St, Chester. Virtual option also available. Call 413-354-1055 for more information.
Visit the SHAEC website for additional details about starting a new career in public health.
Leaky roof? Drafty windows? Soggy septic?
Now Accepting Applications for Housing Rehab!
Hilltown CDC received new funding for the FY20 Housing Rehab Program for the towns of Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Peru, Plainfield, Williamsburg and Worthington, and we are currently applying for the FY21 grant that may also include Westhampton. Income eligible homeowners who live in these towns are encouraged to apply now if you need help with your housing repairs.
The Housing Rehab Program is designed to address health and safety hazards such as:
Siding
Roofs and Chimneys
Windows and Doors
Floor Joists,
Flooring Insulation,
Walls,
Ceilings
Handicap Accessibility
Septic Systems and Sewer Tie-ins
Plumbing and Electrical Updates
Wells, Pumps, and Hot Water Tanks
Porches, Decks, and Stairs
Lead Paint Removal
Asbestos Removal
These NO Interest/NO payment loans may be entirely forgiven, and all work is completed by a licensed contractor of your choice. Please don’t delay, funding is available, and you may be surprised to find out you qualify! Please contact our Housing Rehab Program at (413) 296-4536, ext. 123.
| Household Size | Maximum Gross Annual Income |
|---|---|
| 1 | $47,150 |
| 2 | $53,850 |
| 3 | $60,600 |
| 4 | $67,300 |
| 5 | $72,700 |
| 6 | $78,100 |
| 7 | $83,500 |
Funding is provided by the US Dept. of HUD/DHCD and MA CDBG Programs to the Town of Chesterfield.