Acting City Council President Gailanne Cariddi at an Aug. 23 North Adams City Council meeting.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city's finances should receive a $2 million boost by year's end, and additional revenues are likely within the next three years.

City councilors approved a phased 3,420-acre sale of city-owned woodland property known as the Broad Brook watershed in Pownal, Vt., to the U.S. Forest Service for $3.5 million during an Aug. 23 council meeting.

"I think this is an excellent deal for the City of North Adams," said Mayor John Barrett III, who requested councilor action on the sale during the meeting. "I know it's a good deal. It will allow us to put ourselves in a very stable position."

The vote was unanimous among the seven councilors present; Councilor Marie Harpin and City Council President Michael Bloom were absent from the meeting.

The approval also clears the way for the vast acreage to become part of the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.

Three-Phase Sale

Barrett told councilors that the sale is scheduled to occur in three phases, with the first purchase expected to conclude by Dec. 31, 2005. The initial transaction includes about 2,015 acres and will bring $2 million to city coffers. Phase Two is scheduled to generate $400,000 for about 435 acres and the final 970-acre phase is expected to bring $1,100,000 to the city. The transactions are slated to occur within a three-year timeline.

The approval followed a council vote to formally declare the site as "surplus property available for disposition."

Councilor Alan Marden abstained from the vote. He later explained that because he is involved in real estate sales and purchases, he abstained to avoid any possible conflict of interest concerns.

City Councilors William Donovan Jr. and Clark H. Billings

Acting City Council President Gailanne Cariddi, and Councilors William E. Donovan Jr., Clark H. Billings, Ronald A. Boucher, Robert R. Moulton Jr., and Richard J. Alcombright approved the surplus property designation.

Pownal Support For Plan

In November 2004 and in accordance with a town bylaw approved during the mid-1980s, Pownal voters gave the nod to the federal property acquisition and inclusion of the property as National Forest land.

Forest Service officials said in September 2004 that they hoped to secure town support for the proposal; a contract with the city that stated the Forest Service intentions to buy the land required evidence of significant progress by March 2005. Because Vermont town elections and town meetings occur in March, the matter was put to town voters during a Nov. 2 election.

Prior to the sale vote, Billings asked Barrett what would occur if, after the first phase is completed, the Forest Service is unable to complete the subsequent scheduled purchases. Barrett said any property paid for by the Forest Service would remain under the service ownership but should the Forest Service fail to acquire the anticipated federal funds required for any transaction phase, the city will retain ownership of the affected property.

Water Rights

The property was appraised at $4.8 million, Barrett said, but emphasized that the appraised value included the estimated value of timber cutting. Logging the site is an ill-advised use of the property, Barrett said, and pointed out that the work would take years and would not protect a watershed on the property.

The city would carry a property tax obligation on the property as well, Barrett said of a city-launched logging endeavor. Under terms of the sale, the city generates revenue, rids itself of the tax burden, and the city and the town of Pownal will hold water rights to the watershed, Barrett said.

"Part of the agreement says that the Town of Pownal and City of North Adams will have water rights," Barrett said. "[Water] is there for emergencies for North Adams and Pownal."

The property was acquired by the city through a series of purchases beginning in 1888. The city stopped using the watershed as a source of city water about 13 years ago. Costs to upgrade the site to meet stricter federal water supply requirements were considered too expensive in view of the water availability at two additional reservoirs, and the city opted to halt use of the site as a water source.

Barrett told councilors that some equipment, including chlorinators, are at the watershed site and will remain there.

'A Great Windfall'

Boucher termed the sale a "great windfall" for the city. Barrett had told councilors during the discussions that the property sale was generating more revenues than he anticipated.

"As the council may recall, I thought a few months ago that we'd get $2 million for the whole property," he said. Barrett credited city Administrative Officer Katherine Eade for her work during the negotiations.

Councilors Ronald Boucher, Robert Moulton Jr., and Richard Alcombright

More To Come

Two additional city properties adjacent to but set apart from the 3,420 acre, forest-zoned site are also destined for sale. Both parcels are zoned rural residential.

One parcel contains about 189 acres and the other hosts an occupied caretaker home on about 21 acres of land. Pownal town officials have expressed support for residential development on the larger parcel as a means to generate property tax revenue. Barrett said that the properties will be sold through a public bidding expected to occur this fall.

The city paid about $36,000 in property tax to Pownal on all the property. The majority of the tax revenue received by the town was handed off to the state as part of Vermont's public education funding formula. Vermont's education revenue mechanism awards monies to municipalities via a complex and controversial system of calculations; the town received about $9,000 of the city-paid tax money directly.

The Forest Service has agreed to make a yearly payment in lieu of taxes [PILOT] to the town. A city-owned 351-acre Stamford, Vt., property will also be sold but not to the Forest Service. Stamford Selectmen voted against supporting a Forest Service sale earlier this month.

Barrett told councilors that the Stamford acreage is slated as last on the sales list, and will also be sold through public bids.

"We have absolutely no use for that property," he said.

All offers or bids for the remaining properties must earn City Council approval before sales can occur, Barrett said.