While 2023 was not a great year for our planet in general, it was, happily, an uneventful year in Greenfield. As they say, no news is good news!
Probably the biggest news was New Hampshire State Parks’ decision to close Greenfield State Park for the summer of 2024 in order to bury power and communication lines underground to mitigate the park’s frequent power outages. Everyone looks forward to a new and improved Greenfield State Park in 2025.
Greenfield had some wonderful additions to town this year, most notably, Mi Corazon Mexican restaurant and the Gutierrez family. What a joy to drive through town in the summer and see the patio at Mi Corazon full of happy diners with margaritas. Walking into the warm, festive and almost always busy restaurant in the winter may be even better. Thank you, Karla, Alma, Edgar, and everyone else at Mi Corazon.
At the Greenfield Inn, Jarvis Adams V replaced the failing front porch with a new veranda this fall. The veranda is beautifully decorated for the holidays, and the inn’s open house on Dec. 23 was crowded with neighbors and community members singing carols around the piano.
Recreation Director Kayla Kokal added many great new events to the calendar, including pickup adult basketball at the Barbara C. Harris Center and a ski and snowboarding program at Crotched Ski & Ride. In November, Andra Hall’s Girl Scout troop organized a lovely Veterans Day ceremony. Up at Crotched Mountain School, the Seven Hills Foundation team began to revitalize the campus as a full service residential school for children and young people with disabilities. Everyone is looking forward to the indoor pool reopening at some point. In October, the Greenfield Fire Department got to train at a full-building burn when Seven Hills decided to get rid of the old Hemlock building, which was the daycare center in years past.
The Greenfield Covenant Church was delighted to add a steeple to their church this year in memory of Kathleen Osgood. The steeple came by truck and was installed by volunteers. The old office building is now recognizable as a church, and mirrors the Meetinghouse across the common.
Parents in town were relieved when Greenfield Elementary School was not on the list of elementary schools slated for consolidation by the ConVal School District. If a two-thirds majority of voters in the district approve the ConVal reconfiguration warrant articles at Town Meetings in March, Greenfield Elementary School will start to absorb students from Francestown and Temple starting in fall 2025. School Board representative Katherine Heck has spent many late nights hashing through ConVal budget numbers and sitting through long meetings, all on top of her full-time job at the state and her duties as town treasurer.
Greenfield volunteer organizations presented many events, including the ConComm’s talk on bobcats, the FGCM’s two storytellings with Sebastian Lockwood, Oak Park’s farmers and crafters markets, the Historical Society’s covered bridges talk by author Kim Varney Chandler and the “Guns and Hoses” softball game, where the Fire Department took on the Police Department.
Rob Hannings gave a fantastic talk about his vintage baseball collection. The Tractor and Drawbar Club hosted its annual tractor show. The Fire Department threw a third “Fire and Ice” even. The Oak Park Committee hosted Trunk or Treat, and the FGCM pulled off another successful Oktoberfest. Stephenson Memorial Library continues to have a busy calendar of events for all ages.
As far as I know, Greenfield did not have any lawsuits between neighbors or high-profile public dramas this year. On the downside, taxes went up, leaving a lot of people struggling to afford living here, and many families in town were displaced by increasing rents.
We had our share of unpleasant public exchanges on the town Facebook page, resulting in the page being suspended temporarily. But for the most part, people in town helped find lost dogs and cats, safeguarded one another’s errant FedEx packages, gave actual, authentic recommendations for duct cleaning and driveway sealing, supported local businesses and stepped up to help neighbors in need.
Nice work in 2023, Greenfield. Here’s hoping for a peaceful 2024.