image description — Community Development Director Donna Cesan updated the Selectmen on the Greylock Glen proposals.

Adams Request Should Spur 'Interest' in Greylock Glen

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
11:18PM / Wednesday, August 24, 2011Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — The Greylock Glen Advisory Committee is gearing up to release an expression of interest request in the next two weeks for possible developers of an eight-acre area of the glen.

According to Donna Cesan, director of community development, the interest statements will help guide the committee in crafting a request for proposal and generate interest in the project. In October, the committee is looking to host a conference with possible developers that will include a site visit as the project's vision comes to life.

"I'm just excited to be at this point," Cesan told the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday. "I think the site sells itself."

The committee is finishing up gathering graphics and wetlands data to add to the request to send out to prospective developers before the group applies for a MassWorks grant to install infrastructure.

Contractors can submit can submit information — from funding to possible partners to full plans — that the committee will then use to formulate the next steps toward crafting a request for proposal.

"I didn't want the amount of information [requested] to be a turn off but then again, you don't want to compare apples to oranges," Cesan said. "It's not a hardship. I didn't want it to be a hardship."

Interested contractors will not be disqualified if all of the information is not included nor is a strong interest statement guaranteeing the eventual contract.

"We want more than a yes or no; we want to know what they are thinking," Town Administrator Jonathan Butler said.

As the plans begin to unfold, Cesan wanted to make sure the Selectmen were on board with the contents of the request. As the town begins to apply for competitive grants and attract developers, officials need to be a unified front, Cesan said.

"I want us all on the same page about what we are about to embark on," Cesan said.

The board members expressed their support of the request except for Paula Melville, who expressed her appreciation for Cesan's work but does not support the proposed project. The current project includes a campground, a lodge, conference center, amphitheater, hiking trails and an education center.

Cesan said the committee is intentionally taking the most recent incarnation of the Greylock Glen project slowly and avoiding to make any promises because of its past history of failed projects. Town officials have been working toward developing that site for decades.

Tags: Greylock Glen,

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Adams needs any help that it can get to redevelop as a place for people to visit. Once a thriving community, we are a beautiful town with an almost non existent retail community. We need to give people a reason to come here. Thanks to those who are working to try to establish Adams as a place to visit, which would boost our town economy, just as towns and cities around us have already done.
from: Good!	on: 08-25-2011 08:36AM I Agree (48) - I Disagree (1)

Paula doesn't support the Glen project? What a surprise. That's because Ed Driscoll does not support the Glen project in its current incarnation. Despite the fact that this is as close as the town with EVER come to having a project. I can't wait for next year when we can run Paula out of office. She is just ridiculous sitting there as Driscolls parrot. I have no use for either one of them now.
from: Townee	on: 08-25-2011 08:46AM I Agree (51) - I Disagree (5)

This Town of Adams has to wait for all the old people to die off, then changes for the better can occur.
from: Resident	on: 08-25-2011 09:47AM I Agree (9) - I Disagree (11)

Paula is a lost cause. She is one of the biggest electoral mistakes the town has ever made and a drag on the community. I wish the town would do it's homework before electing these board members with an agenda. Especially and agenda that seems to be entirely dettached from everyone elses in town who are looking to help Adams grow. The unfortunate thing here is that Paula has NO IDEA what her real agenda is. She has been asked. It just seemd to be an agenda of "NO" and that's it. She is at Driscoll's beck and call and seemingly cannot make a decision herself on the spot. Maybe we should allow her to call in to Driscoll during meetings so she can answer questions that are posed to her. What a waste of a board seat. And I voted for her. Shame on me!!!!!
from: Sick of this	on: 08-25-2011 12:59PM I Agree (39) - I Disagree (8)

Is it true this Board is going to be part of History repeating itself by spending taxpayer money aimlessly on infrastructure work or studies speculating someone or anyone will ever come to the Glen!! Doesn't anyone besides Paula Melville remember all the money spent on these same wasted efforts during the Glen days that left a path of destruction our town and surrounding communities still have not recovered from. This was all done before and nobody came. There is pipe in the ground and electrical conduit as well as ski stantions and concrete abutments still protruding from the ground. Paula has a valid point. All that money went down the drain with detrimental results, still no benefit! I agree with Paula. Lets forget about the build it and they will come dreamers or philosophers, that only happens in the movies. Lets get the camp grounds done, lets continue to get the recreational trails established and focus the spending on realistic attractions that will enhance the recreation on the mountain and be consistent with the enviroment the majority of us want to preserve. Let this initial development serve as the nucleus or be the incubator for future development.Anyone who knows Paula Melville knows Paula Melville wants the Glen area to be an asset and utilized as much as any of us but this Board is putting the cart before the horse and not being financially responsible by scaling back the spending plan.Paula has the realist and Business approach, One step at a time. Let's break out the definite attractions and the rest will happen naturally or not at all. If there is a viable developer for any future expansion let their stockholders invest their own money and not use free funding / monies from taxpayers we can immiediately create assets with that will draw people and generate revenues for the town. This Board needs to spend this money like its our own because it is the taxpayers and this time lets get it right and lets get our monies worth and create an asset for the town.
from: historian	on: 08-26-2011 12:11PM I Agree (10) - I Disagree (11)

Letter: Progress Means Moving on Paper Mill Cleanup

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Wednesday, February 11, 2026

To the Editor:

Our town is facing a clear choice: move a long-abandoned industrial site toward cleanup and productive use or allow it to remain a deteriorating symbol of inaction.

The Community Development team has applied for a $4 million EPA grant to remediate the former Curtis Mill property, a site that has sat idle for more than two decades. The purpose of this funding is straightforward: address environmental concerns and prepare the property for safe commercial redevelopment that can contribute to our tax base and economic vitality.

Yet opposition has emerged based on arguments that miss the point of what this project is designed to do. We are hearing that basement vats should be preserved, that demolition might create dust, and that the plan is somehow "unimaginative" because it prioritizes cleanup and feasibility over wishful reuse of a contaminated, aging structure.

These objections ignore both the environmental realities of the site and the strict federal requirements tied to this grant funding. Given the condition of most of the site's existing buildings, our engineering firm determined it was not cost-effective to renovate. Without cleanup, no private interest will risk investment in this site now or in the future.

This is not a blank check renovation project. It is an environmental remediation effort governed by safety standards, engineering assessments, and financial constraints. Adding speculative preservation ideas or delaying action risks derailing the very funding that makes cleanup possible in the first place. Without this grant, the likely outcome is not a charming restoration, it is continued vacancy, ongoing deterioration, and zero economic benefit.

For more than 20 years, the property has remained unused. Now, when real funding is within reach to finally address the problem, we should be rallying behind a practical path forward not creating obstacles based on narrow or unrealistic preferences.

I encourage residents to review the proposal materials and understand what is truly at stake. The Adams Board of Selectmen and Community Development staff have done the hard work to put our town in position for this opportunity. That effort deserves support.

Progress sometimes requires letting go of what a building used to be so that the community can gain what it needs to become.

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