Tilting at windmills again on Greylock

By Glenn DrohanPrint Story | Email Story
You’ve got to admire the persistence of Tony McBride, the local undertaker who quipped some 40 years ago that the obituary had not yet been written for a tramway on Mount Greylock. McBride now seems to have re-ignited the Greylock Glen Now committee in Adams — a group of local cheerleaders who unsuccessfully exhorted the Michael Dukakis administration and later the William Weld administration to finish what they had set out to do at the Greylock Glen — that is, develop the thing, for goodness sake! Never mind that 1,200 condominiums or 850 single-family homes and a golf course would have eaten up much of the public land and been an eyesore and a playground for the rich just below the state’s highest peak. When the cheerleading didn’t work, the committee went into hibernation for a time, as Paul Cellucci and later the Berkshires own Jane Swift seemed to be proceeding on apace with a new plan — this time for a modest 300 vacation homes, an inn, 160-room conference center, environmental center, golf course, cross country skiing and hiking trails, among other things. Well, we all know what happened, as hapless state officials got suckered by a less than forthcoming developer, and Swift and other sane people in power saw that the numbers just wouldn’t work — especially in the tanking economy. Over the past two years, those townspeople who still want a glen development have waited patiently as the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency has tried to hammer out a new plan — so far one that calls for a very modest proposal for an environmental center and recreational trails. That patience has evidently worn thin, as McBride and his newly charged group are now calling for the state to repeal the state legislation that has protected the 12,000-acre Mount Greylock Reservation from downhill skiing, tramways and chair lifts. McBride also wants the state to allow a hotel and a restaurant on the reservation (although both already exist at the Bascom Lodge). Heck, why not a casino? Greylock Glen Now has about as much chance of succeeding with its plan as the Williams College basketball team had of defeating the Harlem Globetrotters. One can certainly understand the group’s impatience. The 1985 legislation that authorized a joint public-private partnership and $8.5 million in state funds for a glen development was an “emergency bill,” passed because the town and Northern Berkshire desperately needed economic development. Over the last 20 years, Adams has lost population to such an extent that McBride said last week, only half-jokingly, that the National Guard was leaving town because “there’s no one left to guard.” He and others in his group have also bemoaned the fact that few environmentalists, if any, have raised uproars over mountainside condominium developments in Hancock and New Ashford. Trouble is, Mount Greylock is a statewide icon and a rallying point for every environmental group in existence. Greylock Glen Now should leave the mountain and the reservation alone and stick to the glen itself. State Rep. Daniel E. Bosley, D-North Adams, kindly suggested as much when he advised the town to try to get the glen land back from the state — which, after all, essentially stole it while whispering sweet promises, all of which have been broken. If McBride thinks environmentalists have been tough on the glen, wait until he sees the tiger that leaps to the defense of the reservation. Now is the time to hold the state’s feet to the fire and pursue realistic goals, not pipe dreams that Beacon Hill will laugh at and the Boston media will savage. MassDevelopment, even without its departing guru and Berkshire County advocate Michael Hogan, still has the guns to get things done. And the glen land has long been earmarked for development, despite the perennial outcry of those who would like to see it remain forever wild (perhaps for the four-wheelers who are ravaging its meadows and wetlands?). The group is Greylock Glen Now, not Greylock Reservation Now. It should stop tilting at windmills, climb down from its soapbox mountain and pursue a dream within its means.
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Senior Golf Series Returns in September

Community submission
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Berkshire County Fall Senior Golf series returns in September with events on five consecutive Wednesdays starting Sept. 18.
 
It is the 22nd year of the series, which is a fund-raiser for junior golf in the county, and it is open to players aged 50 and up.
 
The series will feature two divisions for each event based on the combined ages of the playing partners.
 
Golfers play from the white tees (or equivalent) with participants 70 and over or who have a handicap of more than 9 able to play from the forward tees.
 
Gross and net prices will be available in each division.
 
The cost is $55 per event and includes a round of golf, food and prizes. Carts are available for an additional fee.
 
Golfers should call the pro shop at the course for that week's event no sooner than two weeks before the event to register.
 
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