Egremont — The town has been awarded two significant state grants. The Massachusetts Veterans’ Heritage Grant program awarded $15,000 to the Egremont Cemetery Commission to help restore or replace monuments of Revolutionary War veterans interred at either Town House Hill or Riverside cemeteries. Additionally, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development awarded a $100,000 grant from its Fiscal Year 2025 Rural Development Fund to the Egremont Municipal Housing Trust.
Egremont Cemetery Commission receives grant for Veterans Monument Restoration project
Of the Veterans’ Heritage grant, Egremont Cemetery Commission chair stated, “We are very grateful to the Secretary of State’s Historical Records Advisory Board for this generous and timely grant, to help fund the Veterans Monument Restoration project, during Egremont’s 250th year. This project is so important for our community—not only for honoring Egremont’s brave soldiers, but in demonstrating our town’s significant role in the formation of our Commonwealth and our great Nation. We couldn’t be more proud to begin this work.”
The Cemetery Commission and the Egremont Historical Commission are teaming up on the restoration project to verify biographical details for each of the Revolutionary War veterans interred in town. As part of the project, the commissions will also create a database and maps of both cemeteries with field location measurements with GIS technology by students from Westfield State’s Department of Geography, Planning, and Sustainability.
Later phases of the restoration project will include additional marker restoration, landscaping, and the creation of interpretive signage describing Egremont’s history.
The cemetery commission invites interested residents to participate in the restoration work—especially those interested in local history, stonework, landscaping, or graphic design—or simply to help by donating any amount to the Monument Restoration Fund via the town’s website. For more information, contact Egremont Town Historian Beth wood at ELW6W@yahoo.com.
Egremont Municipal Housing Trust receives $100,000 from Rural Development Fund
The Healey-Driscoll administration created the Rural Development Fund to provide funding for communities with populations under 7,000 residents. Egremont was one of 54 such communities in the Commonwealth to receive grants from the fund this year. According to a press release from the town, “[m]onies from the RDF help small communities maximize their assets and take advantage of opportunities—covering activities to boost economic revitalization, including new infrastructure that supports urgently needed affordable housing and business growth.”
The town will use these funds to complete necessary pre-development site work for the Municipal Housing Trust’s first four-unit affordable-housing cluster to be built adjacent to the town’s municipal complex. Site-preparation work for the development will include site excavation and grading, staking of homesites and driveways, installation of base materials for foundations, and installation of utility connections for water, septic, and electricity. A preliminary landscape buffer, composed of native trees and shrubs, will also be included created to visually separate the site from adjacent municipal activities.
“The Housing Trust is very gratified by this grant award—we are ready to move forward with creating sorely-needed workforce housing for Egremont. We’re grateful to the EOED for their support,” said Municipal Housing Trust Chair Richard Stanley.
