Shutesbury Board Lifts Lake Wyola Dam Emergency, Pauses Committee Overhaul

SHUTESBURY — July 7, 2026 — Shutesbury Select Board lifts Lake Wyola Dam emergency and defers a contentious committee overhaul after an extended public hearing. The board unanimously voted to end the state of emergency declared last Thanksgiving after dam keeper Walter Tibbetts discovered sinkholes near the Lake Wyola Dam, with Town Administrator Haley Bolton confirming that emergency repairs are complete and the lake has reached full summer pool. The board also unanimously appointed Calvin Ellison as town clerk and signed two Kestrel Land Trust conservation restrictions totaling roughly 340 acres on Montague Road and Poverty Mountain. A National Grid petition to install a single smart-meter relay pole on Pelham Hill Road passed without opposition. The meeting's longest stretch was a joint listening session on Bolton's proposal to reconstitute the ad hoc Lake Wyola Advisory Committee as a standing body with restructured membership — a move that drew opposition from more than a dozen speakers, including LWAC chair Mark Rivers, engineer Terrence Smith, and Lake Wyola Association president George, while planning board member Michael Deke and former LWA president Noreen Pease expressed support for the alignment with standard municipal practice. The board made no vote on the restructuring, instead directing Bolton to consult town counsel and place a potential rescission of the prior disbandment vote on the July 21 agenda.