Home > CPA, Middleboro > Middleboro gets $400K land grant

Middleboro gets $400K land grant

January 8th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

Back in the October 2009 town meeting, Article 14 was approved that provided $60K along with a previously approved $40K for the purchase of a large chunk of land near Assawompsett and the Black Brook Conservation Area.

I won’t take the shine off this good news by pointing out that our $100K investment would have been more like a $50K investment if we were participating in the CPA – the best no-brainer planning tool available. Oops,,, just did. As reported in this Enterprise article:

Middleboro came out on top of the last round of state grants and was awarded nearly $400,000 to protect a huge swath of land in south Middleboro along the largest natural inland body of water in Massachusetts.

The land, owned by developer Ernesto Caparrotta, is in the middle of 865 acres of protected land along the 4,000-acre Assawompset Pond Complex, a large regional water supply for more than 200,000 people.

Another $400,000 was approved through a water supply grant, and The Nature Conservancy picked up the remaining $350,000.

“We’re very, very excited,” said Planning Director Ruth M. Geoffroy, the major architect of the effort.

She said the newest purchase caps a long-term goal to protect land and the water supply in one of the region’s environmentally richest areas that is home to several endangered species. She said the purchase price is about $860,000 for 88 acres that would fall to the developers’ shovel without the grant.

Geoffroy said the land will be open to the public, but there is no decision on whether hunting will be allowed.

Kudos to Ruth and everyone who worked to put this together.

I have to get out to this area and see what sort of trails there are.


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