Easthampton, Massachusetts

7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 water infrastructure under the roads. LaChapelle adds, “We wanted to pick a certain thing: we wanted to protect our water supply and protect it from extremes – from drought but also from flooding.” The mayor hasn’t done all this alone, obviously. She is quick to call attention to the professionals that Easthampton has partnered with to build up and help sustain their city. “I can’t say enough about Mike Michon, with One Ferry Project, for working with the city, really listening and respecting what the residents wanted. He’s a great partner. We worked together to do an entire site plan. He said he’d get the first building open in a year. He did it in 11 months,” LaChapelle boasts. Jonathan Wright at Wright Builders teamed up with Rochelle Putney, GM of River Valley Coop, for a project that’s a “game changer for the city,” LaChapelle says. “River Valley Market has 80+ union jobs, sources natural food, and is all net zero. It all runs off of massive solar.” The City of Easthampton also worked with Congressman Richard Neal to secure 15 million in new market tax credits. “There are so many things to be excited about,” LaChapelle says. “If you go back to the 1800s or the early 1900s, everyone had a side hustle. Maybe you had a farm that supplied potatoes to area restaurants or colleges, but your side hustle was fixing tractors for those farms or making machine parts. Or maybe you worked at Rock Valley Machines and you knew where to get pierogies made from fruit cakes. That’s not new. The informal business – that sector, that community – has always been robust and vibrant.” The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Easthampton and, because of that, it’s a place – and space – where people want to be. PREFERRED VENDOR/ PARTNER n Baystate Health www.baystatehealthjobs.com