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Butler Outlines Adams' Potential GrowthBy Tammy Daniels
iBerkshires Staff
02:38PM / Thursday, September 10, 2009
 Town Manager Jonathan W. Butler discusses the Adam's potential at a breakfast meeting at Town Hall. Top & left: Work has begun on the Jones Block on Park Street. |
ADAMS, Mass. — It's time for the Mother Town to take its place as a Berkshire County leader, says Town Administrator Jonathan W. Butler.
"If Adams is going to become a player, we need to find our strengths," he told the two dozen community leaders gathered at Town Hall on Thursday morning. "What I'm saying is, Adams is open for business."
The event was part of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's "Eggs & Issues" program, designed to bring business people, civic leaders and community activists together in more intimate settings. The topic was an update on the town's master plan and its future direction.
Attendees mingled and dined on egg dishes, muffins and coffee provided by Bounti-Fare. The sponsor was Adams Co-Operative Bank, established in 1895 by a group of 30 businessmen who thought the town needed more banking services.
Butler, hired in June after the town went without a full-time administrator for nearly a year, pegged the town's moribund attitude to various changes in its leadership over the past few years, which may have prevented it from finding its path.
"When I first got here, it seemed that Adams had fallen of the map for a few years," said the Cheshire native. "It's the third largest community in the county ... but we don't act like it's the third largest community."
The town has to aggressively court business in the same way its larger neighbors North Adams and Pittsfield do, he continued. But first, it has to build a strong creative and community core to support the industry it needs.
Amenities such as this pocket park on the Ashuwillticook Trail (where there was once an old mobile home) can make the town more attractive. |
Among Adams strengths, Butler said, is a natural landscape "unrivaled by any other community in Berkshire County," its strong sense community and its old, beautiful buildings. "People here care about their town, they're proud of their town."
The master plan is focusing in on those strengths, with goals to make the town more attractive through neighborhood revitalization, development of the arts and cultural scenes and development of the Greylock Glen.
Butler pointed to the successful facade improvement project that has been refurbishing the fronts of Park Street's buildings. Two critical components are the Topia Arts Center (seen as a catalyst for arts-related ventures) and the now under-reconstruction Jones Block, "one of our great symbols of revitalization projects in downtown Adams," said Butler.
The long-vacant building is being rehabilitated with public and private funds as three first-floor storefronts and upper-story high-end apartments. Behind Park Street, work has been done with parking, parks and commercial spaces along the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, another valuable destination about to be extended from Hoosac Street to Lime Street.
Summer Street is about to get a makeover with hopes that the roadway will become more of an offbeat arts venue to complement the more commercial Park Street. The town has received $885,000 Community Block Grant toward the streetscape improvements; about a third will replenish the Park Street facade program.
Berkshire Chamber President Michael Supranowicz welcomes the breakfast club. |
Among the other jewels Adams can tout is the Discover the Berkshires Visitors Center, the Hoosic River, its agricultural and historical heritage, its excellent public services and its small-town affordability. And, of course, the Greylock Glen, which is being envisioned as recreational, educational and conference center.
It's also the birthplace of civil rights activist Susan B. Anthony, Anthony museum Director Martha Dailey reminded Butler. "She is a national figure. We are going to make her an international figure."
The 27-year-old Butler was upbeat on the town's potential to create and maintain jobs that will keep its youth from leaving if it continues on the master plan's path.
"This is our way of becoming a player in the regional creative economy," he said.
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Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary. Comments are closed for this article. If you would like to contribute information on this article, e-mail us at info@iBerkshires.com |
| Back to the future we go. Wasn't all of this underway 5-10 years ago before the board of selectmen and the then town administrator dropped the ball? I seem to recall Adams being in the news quite a bit. Here's hoping that the town can take advantage of this renewed energy and not throw it away again like it has so often in the past. I'll keep my fingers crossed. | | from: Adams Citizen | on: 09-11-2009 12:00AM
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Do you know what happens to a small town's utopia after the town is sold down the river, so to speak? The citizens of Adams should fight development with all their might, because nothing kills a small town like advertising it as a hidden treasure. It's already evident that drugs and corrupt real estate sales and developments are gnawing at the heart of Adams. Don't cheer for something that is going to make you cry down the road. Cherish Adams. You don't know how lucky you are.
A jealous passerby
| | from: lucy | on: 09-11-2009 12:00AM
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The 27-year-old Butler was upbeat on the town's potential to create and maintain jobs that will keep its youth from leaving if it continues on the master plan's path.
You can not keep YOUNG people in town if there is no place for entertainment! All one hears about during the selectmens meetings is how loud the noise is at the PNA on weekends. Not all young people like to sit home on weekend nights watching channel 22 like the selectmen do!!! Come on Mr. Butler your 27 years young and you lived in Boston, you know YOUNG people like to have a good time on weekends.
| | from: Matt C | on: 09-15-2009 12:00AM
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| Adams does not have a master plan. What is he talking about? The last master plan work actually completed was sometime in the 1940's. Last I heard, there was another committee coming together to start the process of doing a master plan. Are we just pulling things out of our behinds now? | | from: Confused | on: 09-17-2009 12:00AM
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