Lanesboro —In a so-far friendly disagreement that has some residents joking that the town is trying to annex Hancock, local officials have discovered that a lodge at the summit of the Jiminy Peak ski resort is not exactly where everyone thought it was — maybe.
When resort owner Brian Fairbank moved the former home of the late local naturalist Bartlett Hendricks from the base of the mountain to the top in 1999, he thought he was setting up a nice lodge in Hancock. And the Hendricks Summit Lodge, named after Hendricks and his wife, Mary, has been listed on that town’s tax rolls ever since.
Enter a Lanesboro resident who recently took a close look at an aerial photograph hanging in the town post office of the lodge. He told Town Administrator Paul Boudreau it sure looked to him like the lodge was on Lanesboro property.
Boudreau took a second look at the photograph, and, using a newly completed “Global Information Systems†map prepared by Cartographics Associates Inc. of Littleton, N.H., found the resident’s assessment to be correct.
“I ski over at Jiminy, so I’m pretty familiar with the mountain,†Boudreau said Monday. “I knew exactly what the buildings were when I saw them on the map.â€
He said he was convinced they are in Lanesboro, not in Hancock.
“I would be very much surprised if our new tax maps are in error,†he said. “Let’s put it this way: There’s little doubt in my mind, unless the state coordinates are off, and I doubt seriously that they are.â€
The Hancock Selectmen apparently believe differently.
“They want proof-positive,†Fairbank said Monday.
At issue is whether the lodge and a small ski patrol building nearby should be listed on Hancock’s tax rolls or Lanesboro’s. And there’s also the matter of the lodge’s liquor license, which currently comes from Hancock. If the lodge were actually in Lanesboro, Jiminy would have to apply for a new license there.
The Lanesboro assessors believe there is no argument and have already listed both buildings on the town’s tax list. They have yet to mail out tax bills, however. The Hancock Selectmen and their town assessor, Andre Rambaud, meanwhile, have disputed the finding and want to walk the town boundaries before any decision is made.
Rambaud said last week that his town would continue to assess the property in question. He said his board would accept legal proof, in the form of an official survey, to settle the question of which town owns the buildings, observing that assessors’ maps, while useful tools, can be wrong and are not legal documents. Since Lanesboro has claimed the property as its own, he said it would be incumbent upon that town to prove its case.
Fairbank said he has already made up his mind to end the dispute by having a professional survey done.
“The last thing I want to do is be the culprit for any kind of Hatfield and McCoy thing between Hancock and Lanesboro,†he said. “I want to put it to rest so both towns know it’s a fact.â€
Fairbank said it appears to him that Lanesboro officials are correct, but he can’t really say for sure until after the survey has been completed.
“It’s up in the middle of Timbucktoo,†he said of the lodge.
Jiminy could end up not only paying for the survey by Vince Guntlow and Associates of Williamstown but also significantly higher taxes on both buildings. The tax rate in Hancock is $5.40 per $1,000 of property valuation, while the tax rate in Lanesboro is $18.66 per $1,000. Fairbank said the lodge is valued at $250,000 to $300,000, while the ski patrol building is probably worth about $5,000.
Boudreau said the Selectmen are likely to discuss the matter Monday because the town recently received a letter from Hancock Selectmen’s Chairman Sherman Derby Jr. about the situation. Boudreau declined to discuss the contents of the letter before the Selectmen had a chance to read it, and Derby did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
To Glen Bean, long-time Lanesboro assessor and an industrial engineer by trade, the discovery brought about by the map and aerial photo has been “interesting,†but not much more than that.
The new properties might give Lanesboro as much as $6,000 to $10,000 in new revenue annually.
“That’s a drop in the bucket when dealing with an $8 million or $9 million budget,†Bean said.
Drop or not, officials from both towns are claiming it, thus far without resolution.
Fairbank said he hoped to have the survey completed by the end of the week, which should put an end to the matter — maybe.
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Former Harry's Supermarket Under Construction for Restaurant
Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building.
"It's a substantial renovation that's currently underway here," Brent White of White Engineering said, speaking on behalf of the applicant and owner, Huajie Zhu.
A fire gutted the longtime Wahconah Street supermarket in 2023, and the following year, Zhu purchased the property for $460,000 two years ago to build a restaurant with hibachi in the existing footprint of the more than 100-year-old building.
White explained that the project has been ongoing for over a year, and the Community Development Board granted the property a waiver to reduce the minimum required number of parking spaces so that additional spaces aren't needed.
He noted that, looking at the site plan, there is very little room to do so. A mirror will be installed near the sharp turn on Bel Air Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns.
Pruning will be done on trees in the southeast corner of the existing paved parking lot, as a number of branches are hanging over. The new owners also intend to patch, sealcoat, and re-stripe the parking lot.
A fire tore through the building less than an hour after the supermarket closed for the day three years ago. An automatic sprinkler system is required for the new use.
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