As we turn the page on the calendar and begin 2023, our focus turns to the prospects of everything new: new goals, new beginnings, new hopes. But one “new” thing that should be off the table for 2023 are new construction projects. Something tells me that the majority of you will agree. But that shouldn’t stop us from remembering the vision and the reasons why we undertook them in the first place.

Some feel that as a Town Manager I initiated too many infrastructure projects at the same time. While everything was not supposed to happen simultaneously (thanks COVID), it did happen that way. Downtown, Pond Street, the Public Safety Building, and Mindess School are disruptive, but they are vital to our health as a community and most had been put off entirely too long. 

We have all felt the impacts of this construction but with winter here, things quiet down a bit. Construction crews will be taking a winter break and wait for the warmer weather to come back and finish up the work on the Downtown project and Rt. 126/Pond Street.

I often talk about my first experience of Ashland, which was driving down Myrtle Street and seeing Mill Pond and the falls rushing under the bridge. It was one of the first clues to me that Ashland has a truly unique identity; how many communities have a water feature in downtown?  and I felt that it was important to amplify those attributes throughout the town center. That vision, combined with the tireless efforts of others like the Select Board, Open Space & Rec Committee, Public Works, and Assistant Town Manager Jenn Ball, and funding through Town Meeting, led to the construction of the Riverwalk and Mill Pond Park. 

I have studied, witnessed and been a part of downtown streetscape revitalization efforts in other cities and towns and have seen firsthand how it increases a sense of community spirit that spreads throughout other neighborhoods. We should be proud of the fact that we are making significant investments in realizing a vision that includes a more pedestrian and bike friendly, safer, accessible, and attractive downtown. That vision, refined, advanced through the input of hundreds of residents in multiple public forums and funded thanks to Town Meeting and our legislative delegation, is what led to the downtown revitalization project currently under construction.

It has been uplifting to see the downtown take shape with new streetlights and sidewalks. But there is still a ways to go. Boring underneath the railroad crossing for underground utilities has proven more challenging than originally thought. Instead of finishing that section by the end of the calendar year, we will move that to the spring. Streetscape work like inlaid crosswalks, new sidewalks and granite curbing will continue in the spring as well. We will finally repave the Front/Main intersection up to the Main/Homer/Summer intersection. After that, we have to depend upon Eversource to remove the poles and unveil our new and improved downtown!

Since 2013 the Town of Ashland has been spearheading The Pond Street (Rt. 126) Project, an estimated $22 million infrastructure revitalization initiative for the 10,000 linear feet of roadway through Ashland, connecting Framingham and Holliston. The project, under the direction of Massachusetts Department of Transportation (Mass-DOT) is more than half way through construction with an end date near the start of 2024.

While the engineering and design of the project was funded through the town’s local option Meals Tax in 2013-2014, the $22 million construction costs are funded by the Massachusetts Transportation Improvement Program (or “TIP”). For the first time since its construction, Pond Street will have sidewalks, bicycle lanes for pedestrian, bicyclist and motor vehicular safety. The revitalization of Pond Street is designed to have positive economic, developmental and regional impact. Crews have milled and paved the roadway, created a roundabout to slow traffic making it safer for pedestrians, installed new sidewalks, fixed drainage issues and enhanced infrastructure. In the spring crews will complete the new intersection at Algonquin Road, install new crosswalks with signals, connect utilities including new lighting and lastly do a final pave of the stretch of roadway to reveal the new and improved Pond Street!

I feel heartened when I look at all that has been accomplished so far, and excited about the way our town will present itself when these are finished. While a town is not made up of construction projects alone, I look forward to 2023 as the year in which many of those projects are completed, and we all have a chance to enjoy the work that we have all put in to making Ashland a better community.