A press conference was held on June 27, 2023, to announce the acquisition of Adirondack Farm, a historic 70-acre property in Fall River, Massachusetts. The property, previously owned by the Penult family who operated a petting farm for nearly 40 years, is now part of the Fall River Bio Reserve. The city's vision for the farm includes developing it into a visitor center, welcoming center, and an environmental education and discovery center, with a particular focus on engaging Fall River schoolchildren and adults. The acquisition was made possible through multiple grant funds, including support from the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Bristol County ARPA funds, the Community Preservation Committee, and a $150,000 state earmark secured by State Representative Carol Fiola. Speakers, including Mayor Paul Coogan, Water Department Forester Mike Labossiere, and State Representatives Carol Fiola and Alan Schmidt, highlighted the property's historical significance, its role as an economic driver, and its importance in preserving natural open space and providing educational opportunities. The event also recognized key individuals who championed the project and emphasized the collaborative effort required for its success and future development.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Watch the video to verify.
Council
Public / Other
good morning everybody thank you very much for coming out I think we're going to get started uh so first off I just want to say uh thank you for the rain uh staying away from us right now um it was a little bit uh rainy earlier this morning as everybody knows but uh we're getting some good weather now we're all here today we just wanted to announce that we were finally
0:23able to acquire this beautiful piece of property uh this piece of property that's known as Adirondack farm this has been a farm working farm within the city of Fall River for a number of years the family that previously owned this property uh the penult family worked the farm they had petting zoos multiple things for uh for families to come out and people to enjoy uh this property over the many years
0:56so you know us the Fall River water department in the city of Fall River our state delegation our partners within the bio Reserve uh always saw this property as a key piece of property is right into the entrance way uh to our bio Reserve over 16 000 Acres of protected Forest land that has uh miles and miles of hiking trails and passive Recreation available throughout it so this property
1:25being able to fold into that whole entire mend was very key for us being able to create the overall Vision that we have for this property it's going to take a lot of time it's going to take a lot of involvement from the city our partners so as well as some of uh some other people that we're going to look to get involved hopefully we'll have we'll be able to build a friends group to the
1:53buyer Reserve into the Adirondack Farm and be able to keep all of these projects moving forward overall we'd like to do a visitor center here welcoming Center and an educational center one of the big things being able to get the Fall River School children from the city out into this area not only school children but adults as well to realize what we have out here uh so first off again thanks for coming
2:22out I'm going to open it up uh mayor Coogan will come up and uh and say some remarks about the project um thanks Paul and I want to thank everybody involved with this project particularly uh state representative Carol Fiola and representative Schmidt who joined us today I have so many Visions for this piece of property and Paul and I used to joke around and and Mike about a Raptor Center a petting zoo
2:50a classroom space outdoors from the indoors for our children to come out and take a walk and see what a great spot we have here in the reservation um all the way down to the city drinking water the potential for this piece of land as an economic driver for the city of Fall River is tremendous we want people to appreciate the outdoors respect the outdoors and have a ton of fun right in Fall River whether they're
3:15taking one of the trails which is just down the road or just enjoying a bike ride out here in the reservation so working with the water department and and acquiring the Adirondack Farm was a key piece of the progress that we're seeing out here to keep it natural open space and a benefit to all the children in the city of Fall River and that's what our goal is going to be for this
3:35piece of land leave it in its natural state as best we can and have events everybody can enjoy I appreciate everybody coming out today and we see nothing but good things on the horizon for this piece of property thank you
3:54thank you very much mayor next I'm going to call up Mike laboscia is he I'm sure most of you know him uh he's the Forester and project manager for the water department he's based out in our in our Fall River Reservation you know he's been with this property for uh you know working with these property owners for years without Mike this project as well as many others that happen out in
4:20the bio reserve and within our watapa reservation wouldn't happen so I'll turn it over to Mike for a short history of the property as well as some other information thank you Paul thank you everyone for coming very exciting day um I wanted to share just a little bit of the history of this property because this property has really deep roots in both Westport and Fall River and just to
4:46just to kind of set it up for a little bit of perspective um an exhaustive study of more than a dozen properties on both sides of the Northwest upper was um led us to Adirondack Farm our good friend Bill Gonzalo confirms The Farmhouse appeared on an 1850 map of Fall River and was likely built by a George Borden whose family owned the property for some time later the house was owned by a Spencer
5:12Borden family and also the Harold freelove family until 1979 when the property was acquired by Eugene and Lucero Pino the original Farm probably more than 70 acres in size was typical of a 19th century subsistence farms in Northwest port and East Fall River Blossom Road agricultural Corridor these Farms were narrow and long having Shoreline along the Northwest up a pond and a house and Barnyard close to the road
5:42there are many fields were divided by stone walls in the central Farmers Lane connected the fields to the pond this Farm extended to the Westport Town Line and included the mouth of a freshwater stream Ralph's Brook and a 50 acre Peninsula Ralph's neck that jutted far into the pond between the neck and the farm was a Cove so suitable for ice harvesting that the macombers leased it to the Arctic Ice Company
6:07connecting the peninsula to the farm is a cart path driftway or a drift otherwise known as a driftway named Adirondack Lane it passed along the Westport line and Crosses Ralph's Brook at a granite Bridge so just to give you sort of a flavor of the Vintage and the pedigree of this of this farm this this uh we know we know farming was going on in the 1850s and probably before that again
6:39we're not in Westport we're in Fall River so that's that's that's just an amazing thing and how fortunate that we're at the Gateway of the the southern part of the biorreserve Gene Penal was a Marine he grew up not far from here and a vision of this Farm sustained him during his overseas tours when he finished his enlistment he and Lucy bought the free love Farm and as their family grew restoring the
7:05farm became a family affair Gene and Lucy instilled a love of the land into their two children David and Michelle they appreciated their Rural Life and values and they also acted on their impulse to share those values and this beautiful setting by running a Petting Farm for nearly 40 years it was in that spirit that the family gave us the opportunity to acquire this property we hope to honor that Legacy by
7:32creating the Southeastern Massachusetts Biore Reserve Environmental Education and Discovery Center here so this has been a a conversation I would say well over 20 years with the family in the 1990s they actually tried to get an APR here they had conversations with the agriculture preservation department of Agriculture to protect the farm so their impulse to do this came way before we
8:03started talking to them and they that was that was something that they felt strongly about we had we had numerous conversations about protecting the farm and then the idea suddenly that not just protect the land but the farm and wrap up their ideals and their ideas into this project was just just perfectly suited for the moment and so we're really grateful for the family for letting us do this and this is
8:28although we're celebrating that closing this is really the commencement of uh or the firing gun for the work ahead it will not be light there's this is a diamond in the rough as you look around I I think of you know I think of my back just mowing some grass here but there's there's a lot of work that needs to be done to really crystallize this Vision so I I thank you all for for sharing in
8:51this moment and I look forward to working with you all as we go forward so thank you Michael all right so um you know without a project like this we wouldn't you know Without Partners to be able to do something like this this isn't something that you know one person or one Department could take on uh you know it takes a whole entire uh Village to be able to uh to make something like
9:23this you know one thing that Mike didn't say which he usually does I didn't want to steal his son to most people don't know that Fall River is made up of over 50 percent either protected Forest land or water um not the urban city that everybody knows it so you know we really want people to be able to come out here uh and enjoy that you know one of the one
9:45of the uh people that have always helped out out here uh is uh and I think he was on the original um one of the original people when they drafted up the actual bio Reserve uh was uh Senator Michael Rodricks and I'd like to acknowledge Maureen Flanagan from his office for being here so thank you for the support over the over the many many years um we have uh Andrew rapoza City councilor here um
10:15we also have Carol Fiola and uh rep Schmidt as well who are also supporters of this some of the funding for this project I just wanted to run through we were able to get multiple grants for this project so so far from the city's funds water departments funds we have not invested uh we have not invested anything into this project we've been able to secure it with our partners multiple different Grant funds one Grant
10:44fund was through the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs through the state through the land grant program we're also able to get the council approved Bristol County arpa funds for the purchase of this property as well as some of the renovations that you're going to see moving forward out on this property the community preservation committee uh Sandy Dennis and John Brent were were also funders of this project
11:15one of the other big uh funds that we were able to get provided to us was from rep Viola I was a state earmark that went specifically for the purchase of this property so on that I'd like to invite her up just to say a couple words wow lots of memories flooding me right now because um I see Everett Castro over there um and his good friend Barry French who no
11:45longer lives in the area from a sonnet they would bird dog me nine years ago about the need for this discovery center and it goes well beyond that because I recall as Michael knows when the bio Reserve was formed and that land transfer was made there was a commitment to a bio Reserve Discovery Center and we want to only think positive right now but um but that had been promised to us
12:09as part of the the Swap and uh I remember being on the first steering committee in the city of Fall River about the bio reserve and and the the interest trying to get a lot of interest at the time for something a little intangible was difficult so the trustees kind of moved on to other other priorities but the perseverance of people like Mike labasia throughout that success has many fathers although uh
12:38there's always a village that is behind that father and I point to Everett and Barry and Michael and uh now the mayor and the city council my good colleague representative Schmidt and I and and and the senator who was involved with this buyer Reserve from the very beginning so fast forward those 20 years serving on that steering committee and to be standing here and having had the
13:00opportunity to sit with the Pinot family with Michael years ago and talk about you know their love of this farm and and the potential at the time of of this being granted and sold over to the city of Fall River is quite a story and uh we will have and do have an opportunity now for our citizens for our visitors and our children to understand that Fall River is more than a cement and and
13:31brick and mortar that we are 50 water or preserved land and that that nature is very much a part of their life so um I I couldn't be more proud and so in working with Michael through the years as legislators we get a chance to kind of pick some special things each year that we think could use the funding and so last year I was able to earmark 150 000 uh directly for the Adirondack farm
13:58and so collectively when you hear of all the funding sources that doesn't just happen everyone here and Beyond uh has made this happen and it does take a village and and I just want to say uh thank you to everyone involved in particular the Pinot family and in particular Mike labasia for his passion and I encourage anyone listening and watching moving forward to offered to volunteer or consider
14:26volunteering to be a part of the next stage of what will be here as a Discovery Center because it as you see it took a lot of people to make this happen and it's going to take a lot more moving forward so please join us join the city and enjoy this beautiful resource rep Schmidt raphaela you must be talking about a potential friends that friends of Adirondack Farm because you need that broad base of support yeah
15:02thank you for what you did last year and making sure that part of this funding happened I just wanted to well of course we always we all work together up there and uh Carol's priorities are my priorities and it goes the other way as well I just want to again reflect on the appreciation that all of us and by the way you don't have to be from Fall River to appreciate this let me tell you
15:29there's a lot of support just across the line in Westport for this so I want to reflect the appreciation of the area for what the mayor Paul ferland and Mike have done here when this all was created what 20 years ago and you know what we we do miss having Senator roderick's here because he was here at the creation when Fall River the trustees of the reservations the Haws family came together and created this
16:08extraordinary open space undeveloped space 15 000 Acres which they called the bio reserve and which was set aside to be undeveloped forever and he was there at the signing and that was a remarkable joining together of different groups and so we just uh Maureen we hope you will reflect our appreciation of the senator who's up there fighting our fights and everybody's fights up at the State House
16:41yeah of course he is yeah so a big appreciation for the senator
16:52uh so it turns out that Farm preservation land preservation always creates jobs as well and the jobs that will be created here at this Visitor Center are just part of that speaking of appreciation I can't let this uh go by without uh appreciation to two wonderful champions of open space who are here today Mike who has been recognized thank you Mike and also Jennifer Dubois Jennifer is just leaving the Westport
17:27land conservation trust to become the head of land conservation for the trustees of reservations Jennifer yeah she you have been you have been really instrumental in what the Westport Land Trust has done and just uh just in case you're not up to date many communities have land trust westport's one of them but what makes Westport unique is that Westport preserves farms and farmers six times the Westport Land Trust has
18:03bought a farm paying market value pull full value put a conservation restriction on it and then resold it at a bargain price to a young Westport farming family so that's how Westport keeps farming so Central and it's just great to have a partner on the other side here uh in Fall River that's committed to doing that sort of thing so I I just had to recognize you uh Jennifer and wish you all the best uh in
18:40your next uh chapter really and uh just got to recognize Eddie Lambert former State Rep former mayor of Fall River thank you for all the support that you have given both Westport and Fall River so that's all I wanted to say but I just had to make sure that we recognized uh the senator Mike and Jennifer yep thank you appreciate the kind words I am just a villager and I am not a weatherman
19:22either so I don't want to take too too too much longer because I want to make sure we do a couple of things before we're done one is um some some photo op um with some uh some checks we have big checks in the barn and the other is um we've got a nice path mowed down to the almost to the water so it's it's going to be a nice day hopefully to uh
19:43to get a look at the land um I did want to mention um a couple of things um one I do want to again just put in particular thank Ed and Carol this working with the family had some really tender moments I mean in the in the middle of all of our dealings Gene passed away so so there's real There's real um um there are moments that that you know
20:10you need a little help and you need a little personal contact and in particular I mean you know Carol and and that as well many many years ago we started this banging this drum and and another person I would remember is Al Lima who also attended those meetings Al was a driving force and a Visionary that really um there wasn't a there wasn't an Open Space Project he didn't have his fingers
20:30in and and helped to help to direct the rudder in a really good way so we do think of him as well but I'm going to introduce a person right now and um his name is Jack Martens if Jack Martens was a young boy at laterno school when he first visited the bio Reserve with a school group later as a Morton middle schooler he and a group of his classmates won a bridge
20:54design contest and built a design forward wooden bridge across Blossom Brook across from the what's upper reservation headquarters these experiences helped connect him to Nature and kindled an interest in Creative expression and working with wood today he has a great job working for a Tiverton Furniture maker so um this is this is in 2015 2016 that that Jack had that experience I tell
21:22this story because Jack's experience helps to illustrate the power that the forest and the bio Reserve as a setting for Education exploration and fun can have on individuals and by extension a community and secondly because this talented young man did me the favor of making a set of home-grown pens um I wanted to I want to present these to our to the to some of the folks who have really been helpful to us in this
21:50project this is a this is a pen commissioned By Us by and uh and built by Jack a home a homegrown product by a homegrown young man and it's made with American chestnut which is a wood that is no that is virtually extinct there's some other sub stories there but um came from the blossom Barn that unfortunately uh was at the headquarters unfortunately didn't didn't make the cut we had to take it
22:19down but this is made from American chestnut from from that Barn um so I would like to first ask Jack to come up and just say a couple of words about what what your experience out here help to cultivate Jack Martin uh first and foremost I wanted to thank everyone for being here um and it's and the bio Reserve is an opportunity to create creativity in people especially for me being a young
22:51person and seeing everything and seeing how everything works out because you know I grew up in a city and growing up I didn't even know this was here so like being able to find it and just being a part of it and being a part of that that project to design the bridge and then coming back again like how should I say after it's been actually three times coming back I went and school trip came
23:14back for the bridge design and I'm back again here in person so it's definitely a great opportunity and I think that it's a great opportunity for the city and the people and the the kids adults and people to just see what we have see what forever has and see the nature and see just not the city but everything else that the city has to offer you know that's it I appreciate appreciate it so um rep Schmidt
23:39um rep Viola mayor I wanted we gotta we gotta act fast already today and made by Jack