Franklin County Mass - general info from 2015

[Peteri Szerlagi]

from a debris management plan

2 BACKGROUND Franklin County is located in the upper Connecticut River
valley area of western Massachusetts, and is bisected by the
Connecticut River with the Berkshire hills to the west and the Pelham
hills and Quabbin Reservoir to the east. Franklin County is comprised
of the following 26 municipalities covering an area of 724 square
miles: Ashfield Bernardston Buckland Charlemont Colrain Conway
Deerfield Erving Gill Greenfield Hawley Heath Leverett Leyden Monroe
Montague New Salem Northfield Orange Rowe Shelburne Shutesbury
Sunderland Warwick Wendell Whately Franklin County is the most rural
area of the Commonwealth, with an estimated population density of less
than 102 people per square mile, compared to approximately 835 per
square mile for the state. According to 2005 land use data, 77% of
Franklin County was forestland.

1.2.1 Population, Households, and Employment As of the 2010 Census,
the total Franklin County population was 71,372. Franklin County
experienced its greatest population increases in the 1970s and 1980s.
By the 1990s, the population growth slowed to a modest rate of 2.1%
for the decade. In the last decade, a relatively stagnant population
trend continued, resulting in a population loss (-0.2%) from 2000 to
2010. Franklin County municipalities range in size from Greenfield
with a population of 17,456, to Monroe with a population of 121.
Approximately 46% of county residents live in communities with a
population of less than 5,000. According to the 2007-2011 ACS
Five-Year Estimate data, there were 33,666 households in Franklin
County, of which 69% were single unit dwelling structures. Of the
30,362 occupied housing units (or households), 88% were owner-occupied
and 12% were renter-occupied. The average household size of owner-
occupied units was 2.42 and for renter-occupied units was 2.25.
Seasonal homes account for less than 4% of the total housing units in
Franklin County as a whole, but there are several towns where they
represent a sizable percentage of the housing stock, including Heath
(57%), Rowe (22%), Hawley (18%), Monroe (14%), Warwick (14%),
Shutesbury (13%), Charlemont (12%) and Ashfield (11%).1 1 U.S. Census,
American Community Survey, 2007-2011, Table B25004, Vacancy Status.

Franklin County Disaster Debris Management Plan 3 December 2014
Federal sources provide statistics about the number of workers
employed by private sector employers located in Franklin County. As of
2011, the largest private sector industry was manufacturing, with
18.4% of total private sector employment. This is a significantly
higher proportion than compared to the state (7.6%) and the nation
(9.7%). The region’s primary manufacturing sub-sectors include the
production of plastics and rubber products (over 908 jobs), fabricated
metal products and metalworking (405 jobs), as well as candle-making,
food products, and paper product manufacturing. Franklin County has a
significant proportion of its workers in the public and private sector
educational services industry. For the public sector, this includes
K-12 local schools, Greenfield Community College, and Franklin County
residents working at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. In
the private sector, there are several independent secondary schools in
Franklin County as well as higher educational institutions located in
nearby Hampshire County. The agricultural, forestry and fisheries
sector in Franklin County is important to the region’s current
economic base as well as to maintaining its rural historic character
and quality of life. These natural resources are also the focus of new
business opportunities in emerging clusters, such as specialty food
production, eco-tourism, value-added wood products, and more.
According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, there were 741 farms in
Franklin County, which was a 25% increase from 2002.

1.2.2 Transportation Network The primary north-south transportation
highway for western New England is I-91, which passes through the
center of Franklin County. Similarly, the primary transportation
corridor along the east-west northern tier of Massachusetts is Route
2, which traverses the width of Franklin County. (See Appendix C for
the Franklin County Road Jurisdiction Map.) Fixed-route public transit
services are provided by the Franklin Regional Transit Authority
(FRTA). The hub for FRTA transit services is the John W. Olver Transit
Center in downtown Greenfield, which opened in 2012 as the nation’s
first net-zero energy intermodal center. Franklin County has two
municipal, general aviation airports: Turners Falls Airport and Orange
Municipal Airport. The Orange Airport is classified as a limited
commercial airport which can accommodate jet traffic, and is also home
to the nation’s first comme