Rail Trail Extension Threatened By Adams Corporate Park
ADAMS, Mass. — Town officials are frustrated with the tenants at the Corporate Park because they have yet to sign easements that would allow Berkshire Bike Path Council extend the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail to North Adams. The delay could cause the project to lose $2.5 million in federal funds earmarked for the project.The board approved on Wednesday giving the five tenants 10 days to sign the easements before the town explores other options, which could include taking the land through eminent domain.
"It's a delay tactic and we're going to lose $2.5 million," Selectman Scott Nichols said. "We can't keep delaying this thing and I want to put some teeth on it."
The "teeth" is the threat of eminent domain but Selectmen Michael Ouellette and Jason Hnatonko opposed using that tactic. Both Selectmen said they want to invite the tenants to meeting to work out an agreement.
"I would like to know what their problem is," Ouellette said. "I want to do the trail... but I'm not a proponent of eminent domain."
Board of Selectmen Chairman Arthur "Skip" Harrington said those businesses have been invited to multiple meetings and the council has gone out of their way to accommodate their concerns. The project is already past its deadline for the money but state officials have given the town "leeway" to get the easements.
"They've been invited to the table many times and have not responded," Harrington said. "We have to get this done."
At April's town meeting voters approved to accept the easements "at no cost to the town" because the tenants did not express desire to get paid for it. Harrington said on Wednesday that has changed and some of the tenants now want money. Nichols said that was "ludicrous" because the town has given them tax breaks in the form of tax increment financing (TIF) agreements.
"I have a real problem with that," Nichols said. "Fine. We'll give them $1,000 and take away their TIFs."
Many of the board members said the land for the one mile extension "unusable." Most of the land is behind trees and many of the easements would only allow temporary access to construct the trail, Nichols said.
The goal of the council for the trail to eventually connect Vermont to Connecticut. The trail currently runs from Pittsfield to Adams and this section will connect it to North Adams, where the council is planning to extend further into Williamstown. Many members of the council and local trail advocates filled the meeting room Wednesday to support the project.
The vote was 3-2 with Ouellette and Hnatonko voting against because of the threat of eminent domain.
In other business, Harrington reported that the town has received a $33,000 grant to perform a feasibility study on regionalization its emergency dispatch services. The town currently operates it own dispatch center and the study will look at possible cost savings by contracting that service out.
