Friends of Tully Lake monthly meeting
April 9, 2006 Minutes

Approximately 25 Friends of Tully Lake met at 3514 Chestnut Hill Ave. for our regular monthly meeting.
We discussed the recent Board of Health hearing on the definitive plan, and the upcoming (April 10)
Planning Board hearing on the definitive plan.

The March 28 meeting of the Athol Board of Health was truly historic. Over 100 people attended to hear
the engineers from Whitman & Bingham present their definitive subdivision plan to the Athol Board of Health.
The plan proposes to build 54 luxury homes directly overlooking the southwest corner of Tully Lake.
It will involve clearing over 70 acres of land and installing two unsightly septic detention basins,
each the size of a football field, to contain the waste and runoff from the development.
Two new roads would be built. Over the course of three hours, numerous people voiced their questions and
concerns regarding this development. Abutters to the project objected unanimously to the project, with worries
about drainage and impacts on existing drinking water wells. Citizens from the neighboring towns also gave their
opinions. Attorneys for the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust and for Friends of Tully Lake urged the
Board of Health to exercise their due diligence under the law and to require the developers and engineers to provide much more detailed information on the site and their specific plans for development, pollution control, and means of protecting public health. Greg Newman, the engineer consulting with Friends of Tully Lake, raised several critical issues regarding the project which must be addressed before it can be approved. Both written and spoken testimonies were submitted. Not one person voiced support for this project! The Athol Board of Health listened carefully to everyone and, after deliberation, chose to disapprove the subdivision plan unless Whitman & Bingham and the developer (Dreamtime Builders out of West Boylston, MA) file a request for a 45-day extension within the next few days. In any case, the Board of Health will not recommend the plan for approval by the Athol Planning Board at this point. The engineers must conduct many more tests and conduct a full hydrological study (along the guidelines laid out by Greg Newman) to establish that the property is actually buildable at the enormous scale they are proposing. This will entail a great deal of time and expense for these companies.

The subdivision plan and the recent hearings have been covered in local newspapers, including the
Athol Daily News, the Greenfield Recorder, the Worcester Telegram, the Barre Gazette, and the Montague Reporter.
Letters to the Editor from several FOTL members have been printed in the Athol Daily News.

Future fundraising opportunities include a multi-family tag sale (June 24th), grant proposals to environmental
organizations, hikes, and a car-wash.