Adams Residents Have 'Robust Conversation' Over Town's Future

Some 50 residents shared their ideas for making Adams more vibrant at the first strategic planning session at Hoosac Valley High School.

CHESHIRE, Mass. — Around 50 Adams residents gave up a sunny Saturday morning to huddle around tables in the Hoosac Valley High School cafeteria to share what they wanted their town to look like.

The gathering last week was the first in a series of public strategic planning sessions to layout out a vision of the Mother Town's future.

Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco expected the popularity to grow with each session.

"We have about 50 people on a Saturday morning willing to get here at 9 am and do this for the community," Mazzucco said. "I think it is fantastic, and I think it is going to grow from here."

The sessions, which are run by the Collins Center for Public Management out of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, allow residents to meet in small groups and discuss the town's assets, challenges, and their aspirations and priorities for the town.

Senior associate for the Collins Center Monica Lamboy said she was impressed by the amount of energy and the "robust conversation" the public showed.

"Maybe at first it may seem a little bit crazy but if they rally behind these ideas they can make it happen," she said. "I saw a lot of positive energy the whole time, and you can tell if there is a lull, but there was no lull the whole time."

The groups of residents collected their ideas on large charts that were later hung on the wall. The Selectmen later reviewed them and collected topics that struck them or were mentioned often.

One topic many of the selectmen pointed too was creating a more vibrant downtown.

Lamboy said this is a challenge many communities face, however Adams is lucky to have a downtown with "good bones."

"You have this strong core surrounded by phenomenal hills that are breathtaking. Not everyone gets that kind of beauty and historical intensity in the downtown," she said. "Elsewhere in the county that are more modern it is just strip mall after strip mall."

Selectman Joseph Nowak said he would like to see a busy downtown that met the needs of its residents like in the past.

"I have lived in Adams my whole life, and when I was young you could walk the square and every need was there for you," Nowak said.

Lamboy said with the advent of big-box stores and online shopping, most people no longer purchase necessities from small downtown stores. She said even retail in dense cities struggle. Adams could however focus on "experiential gathering places" such as restaurants, bars, or performance spaces that could bring people downtown.

Mazzucco agreed and said the downtown Adams economy has to change. He said the town should focus on creating some sort of night life on Park Street.

"I personally find it frustrating that on a Friday or Saturday night there are about 10 bars going in Adams and not one of them is on Park Street," he said. "You drive through Park Street at 9 at night and ... downtown Adams is completely dead."

Mazzucco said anything that would create some sort of nightlife would be a start to creating a new vibrancy.

Nowak noted that many residents focused on maintaining the town's natural beauty and using it as an asset.

"This area has the natural beauty that could bring people here because they can do their work at home and look out and see the beautiful mountains the Berkshires have been endowed with for centuries," Nowak said. "Great poets and writers came here and were inspired."

He would also like to see agriculture in the town work as an asset that could draw tourism.

"People love to see the old stone walls, the red barns, and the cows and pastorally, it is just something beautiful to look at," Nowak said. "It kind of brings you back to days of old."

Lamboy said the town could advertise their farms more and maybe link them to a restaurant downtown and provide tours.

Mazzucco said he hopes the beauty and quality of life of Adams could attract smaller manufacturing. He said the town has to be ready for economic development and streamline the process of bringing in these employers.

Large manufacturing is unlikely come back to the area, and he prefers many smaller businesses than one big one. He said this is what hurt the town in the past because when the mill closed, the town went with it. He said Adams should not put "all of their eggs in one basket."

Nowak advocated for more "out of the box" ideas such as a medical marijuana facility, a slaughterhouse, or a water bottling facility that could utilize Adams' excellent aquifers.  

Mazzucco said these new ideas could help the town because they represent total growth.

"Expanding a current business is great, but when you talk about something new it is 100 percent growth in tax base," he said. "Some of those eccentric ideas that are out there are great."

Mazzucco added that he would like to see Adams act as a hub within Berkshire County and work with surrounding communities.

"Here you can go anywhere. You can go from here to North Adams or Williamstown," he said. "You can go a little bit farther you can go to Hudson or Lake George, and South County is not too far. If you look at that area we are kind of centrally located."

Lamboy said that although housing did not come up a lot during the meeting, it may be worth including in the plan.

Mazzucco said mostly people were concerned about blight, however the issue runs deeper than this because Adams has too much housing.

"We have too much inventory and we have to find a way in the next five years to take these units off the market permanently or it's just going to continue to kill us," he said.

Although the town has cheap housing, many multifamily homes or blighted properties are beyond repair and no one will invest in them.

The board agreed that creating a vibrant downtown, a welcoming community, maintaining a small historic community that revels in nature and art, capturing new employers, and focusing on green energy and sustainability were points to rally their vision plan around.

Mazzucco asked that Greylock Glen have a firm place in the plan because of it is critical to Adams' success.

"That's a decadelong transformative process and we are very close to the end, but it may come to the point where we have to pull out all of the stops to finish the glen," he said. "It is that critical."

The next meeting will take place Saturday, Oct. 17, at 10 a.m. at Hoosac Valley. Subsequent meetings will take place Oct. 24 and Nov. 14.

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