About three dozen Holyoke, Massachusetts, residents turned out Wednesday night to discuss what to do with the now-closed Mount Tom Power Station.
Some ideas raised by residents at the meeting ranged from converting the coal-fired plant to natural gas or solar energy, to creating a mixed-use complex of business, residential and recreation.
Kevin Hively is leading the study on how best to reuse the 128-acre site along the Connecticut River.
“Once the community understands what are the rules of the road, so to speak, we will work with them to develop a potential series of things they’d like to see happen on the site that are actually possible given money, development constraints, environmental issues, etc,” Hively says.
While it’s ultimately up to the site’s owners GDF-Suez to determine what happens to the property, Hively says the study will allow the public to engage the company in an informed discussion about the site.
Longtime resident Fran O’Connell says he’d like to see a recreational component preserved in reclaiming what he calls one of the most magnificent pieces of property in western Massachusetts.
“A place where you can put a canoe in the river, maybe some nature trails,” O’Connell says. “They can do something with solar energy or even have a business there, but there has to be general access for the public to get to the river. I mean, we’re dying for it here in Holyoke.”
Organizers say the study’s next public workshop will be in February, with a finalized list of options presented in August.