Hadley Conservation Commission Approves O'Connell Lodge Stormwater Overhaul With Salt Restrictions

HADLEY — January 14, 2025 — Hadley Conservation Commission unanimously approved a new order of conditions for the former O'Connell Lodge property at 329 Russell Street, allowing Valley Community Development Corporation to rehabilitate roughly 20 years of deferred stormwater maintenance on the Route 9 site. William McCann of Brookshire Design Group presented plans to restore an overgrown west-side detention basin and southeast stormwater swale to their 2002 design capacities, repave the parking lot, reset four catch basins and related infrastructure, and install ground-mounted solar panels on a south-facing rear slope. The commission also issued certificates of compliance closing out the site's original 2002 wetlands order — which had sat unrecorded at the Registry of Deeds for more than two decades — and a separate 2006-era order for 70 Chimura Road. Key conditions on the Russell Street order include no road salt within the 200-foot riverfront zone, given the site's location in a public water supply aquifer, and a required operation and maintenance plan for the stormwater system. Separately, local farmers Billy and Danny Kelly asked the commission for guidance on removing two beaver dams blocking drainage on agricultural land, with a decision expected at the February meeting.