North Adams Heritage State Park Debate Regains Steam
 The City Council revisited the Western Gateway Heritage State Park's privatization on Tuesday evening. |
Prior to a 5-3 motion, approving the designation of the Redevelopment Authority's attorney as a special municipal employee if necessary , the order — and entire process thus far — was challenged by Barrett.
He was skeptical of Solicitor John DeRosa's involvement in both Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts and the Partnership of North Adams — both of which are involved in the private development. In addition, he questioned why the city never received an $881,000 MassWorks grant , why there wasn't a project manager appointed yet and how come no lease had been determined, despite the developer being selected a year ago.
"And now a year after the fact you're saying we're going to negotiate a lease? It doesn't pass my smell test of what's going on here and if this City Council approves this tonight I will go to the special general, I will go to Ethics Commission and find out what's going on here," Barrett said.
Mayor Richard Alcombright said the attorney is needed to review the plans and be a part of the process in various aspects. He also said DeRosa's involvement was already cleared by the Ethics Commission.
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| Mayor Richard Alcombright and City Councilor John Barrett III sparred over various aspects of the Heritage State Park's privatization. | |
The mayor also said the governor also froze all MassWorks grants until the budget was settled or appropriately figured into the year. He also contacted Secretary Greg Bialecki via email on Sunday to see what can be done to expedite the process.
Barrett said privatizing the park also was detrimental to citizens and taxpayers and costs the city a revenue source, estimating the approximately $750,000 from the upfront for a 20-year lease only covers eight years of current revenue.
The mayor said whether or not it was worth $75,000 a year, the park needs $3-5 million in improvements to return it to "any sort of glory."
"One of the things I saw immediately coming into office was that it was a losing proposition that needed significant repair... It was in terrible shape and we did not have the expertise, marketing or management... to run a retail or commercial operation," Alcombright said. "That's not what cities do. Cities permit. Cities allow the private sector to operate. Cities allow the private sector to succeed."
As for the actual order at hand, City Councilors Lisa Blackmer and Jennifer Breen said it was a standard practice to adopt this order to assist the Redevelopment Authority. Councilor Alan Marden said it was previously adopted because of a conflict of serving two communities and questioned why so many people are needed in this process.
Breen endede debate when she suggested the council move forward with the issue and challenged Barrett to write to the Ethics Commission for them to "write an opinion so we don't have this inneundo any longer."
"I personally refuse to allow North Adams to live in the past any longer. We're not going to survive if we keep having these kind of quagmire, political issues, and it's very obvious that's what it is," Breen said. "Instead of saying something's wrong why don't you prove that something's wrong?"
In other business:
- The City Council amended its ordinances to extend the parking meter collection time to 7 p.m. and increase the hourly rate from 10 cents to a quarter.
- Lynette Bond's appointment to the Planning Board was reviewed again after term issues the prior meeting. According to state law, Bond's term needed to be five years, not three. Barrett opposed the measure, not because he said it had to do with Bond, but rather because he opposed replacing long-time board member Joseph Gniadek.
- North Street traffic concerns were addressed by the council. Blackmer said Traffic Commission quorum issues makes it difficult to address this issue in the summer. Barrett suggested expanding this evaluation throughout the entire city and Breen suggested expanding it to sidewalks, breakdown lanes and bike tracks to "evaluate all issues of traffic." Both of those amendments were withdrawn.
Tags: appointments, Heritage State Park, parking meters, privatization, traffic,
