Waubeeka Owner Makes Final Pitch to Planning Board

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The owner of Waubeeka Golf Links is not giving up on the idea that the Planning Board will support a bylaw that would allow a hotel on the property.

Ahead of Tuesday's 7 p.m. public hearing at the elementary school on proposed zoning bylaw amendments, Deep sent the board members a 13-page letter to make his case one more time and inform the panel that he has commissioned the marketing study that three board members demanded as a condition before the panel would keep working on its own amendment.

The Planning Board on Jan. 26 voted 3-2 to stop working on its own bylaw amendment to create a Waubeeka overlay district for the South Williamstown parcel, which is part of the town's Rural Residence-2 district, where such a hotel is not permitted under any circumstances.

Deep then put the question on the May annual town meeting warrant by citizen's petition, using the bylaw language crafted by the board and Town Hall staff for five months before the January vote brought the process to a halt.

The bylaw as written would allow a hotel by special permit of the Zoning Board of Appeals and require that 85 percent of the Waubeeka property remain open space.

At that January meeting, the majority of the Planning Board felt that Deep needed to bring more information to the panel before it could consider the idea any further. The board asked him to provide a marketing study, a schematic design for a possible hotel and the name of the partners he might bring in on the project.

This week, he provided the board with three possible schematic designs showing how a hotel might be situated on the property and he said he had a market analysis from Tennessee-based STR, a globally known provider of research to the hotel industry.

Previously, Deep had argued that it was premature to pay for a market analysis, but on Friday he said his belief in the project compelled him to take the risk.

"The reason I did it was I want to give them every opportunity to vote yes," Deep said. "Maybe one of those three will say, 'He's really trying, he's sincere, he's given us what we want. I'm not going to be the deciding vote that knocks this down.

"If one of them says that, I think all three will say that."

Deep's letter tells the board that he has spent more than $25,000 on the project.

He said STR's contract prohibits him from making multiple copies of the market analysis (or distributing it publicly), but he invited individual Planning Board members to sit down with him and review the report.

His letter does reference the report's conclusions.

"STR Analytics refers to our current period of time as the Goldilocks era," Deep wrote. "The economy is growing, unemployment is low, interest rates are low, inflation is in check, and the county occupancy rate is projected to rise above 65 percent and could climb as high as 72 percent, on an annual basis. The time is now for hospitality venue expansion!

"The results from the Smith Travel Report show that in July and August of 2015 the average daily rate from the seven local high end hotels that were included in the study was $241 in July and August and only $138 in April, which means that in prime summer months when demand is high, a typical room can command a 57 percent higher rate. The occupancy rate averaged 72 percent in July and August, but dipped to 35 percent in March. This reinforces the key market factor for Waubeeka: if there is strong demand for high end accommodations, the market supports this kind of development. By offering such integrated recreations, golf, meeting, and hospitality services year round, Waubeeka will attract higher end visitors year round."

Deep did not provide the name of a potential developer/partner, though he said he has had preliminary conversations with several businesses who might be interested. His letter continues to maintain it is premature to finalize that detail.

"I do not foresee any developer expressing a willingness to invest in soft costs, feasibility studies, engineering studies, water and sewer tests, design work etc. without the land being properly zoned to actually permit the building of a country inn/resort," he wrote.

"Right now it is beyond imagination that any developer would invest upwards of $200,000 in studies, plans and calculations — not to mention the opportunity cost of their valuable time — unless there was a realistic chance of an actual development being approved."

Deep invited each of the Planning Board members to meet with him in person to discuss the proposal and go over the market analysis from STR.

The Waubeeka overlay district is one of six zoning bylaw amendments on the annual town meeting warrant. The other five were drafted by the Planning Board. Two are intended to make it easier for residents to operate small businesses in residential neighborhoods. One would expand the Village Business District to include a large parcel at the south end of Spring Street where Williams College hopes to build its replacement for the Williams Inn.

Deep's proposal, which had the support of two members of the Planning Board, including its chairwoman, was first brought to the panel because Deep wants to make the Waubeeka Golf Links economically viable.

His attorney, Stanley Parese, has mentioned to the board a couple of times that if the golf course — which is losing money — goes out of business, the entire property could be subdivided for residential development by right.

Deep has repeatedly told the board the he does not want to see that happen, a notion he reiterated on Friday.

"If [the overlay district] passes at town meeting, I will not be the person to close that golf course," he said. "If they just give me the chance, I won't be the one to close it. I don't care how much money I've got to spend."

Puppets Teach Resilience at Lanesborough Elementary School

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:30PM / Monday, April 27, 2026

The kids learned from puppets Ollie and a hermit crab.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Vermont Family Network's Puppets in Education visited the elementary school recently to teach kids about being resilient.

Puppets in Education has been engaging with young students with interactive puppets for 45 years.  

The group partnered again with Bedard Brothers Chevrolet, which sponsored the visit. 

Classes filtered through the music class Thursday to learn about how to be resilient and kind, deal with change and anxiety, and more.

"This program is this beautiful blending of other programs we have, which is our anxiety program, our bullying prevention and friendship program, but is teaching children the power of yet and how to be able to feel empowered and strong when times are challenging and tough," said program manager Sarah Vogelsang-Card.

The kids got to engage with a "bounce back" song, move around, and listen to a hermit crab deal with the change of needing a new shell.

"A crab that is too small or too big for its shell, so trying to problem solve, having a plan A, B and C, because it's a really tough time," Vogelsang-Card said. "It's like moving, it's like divorce of parents, it's changing schools. It's things that children would be going through, even on a day to day basis, that are just things they need to be resilient, that they feel strong and they feel empowered to be able to make these choices for themselves."

The resiliency program is new and formatted little differently to each of the age groups.

"For the older kids. We age it up a bit, so we talk about harassment and bullying and even setting the scene with the beach is a little bit different kind of language, something that they feel like they can buy into," she said. "For the younger kids, it's a little bit more playful, and we don't touch about harassment. We just talk about making friends and being kind. So that's where we're learning as we're growing this program, is to find the different kinds of messaging that's appropriate for each development level."

This programming affirms themes that are already being discussed in the elementary school, said school psychologist Christy Viall. She thinks this is a fun way for the children to continue learning. 

"We have programs here at the school called community building, and that's really good. So they go through all of these strategies already," she said. "But having that repetition is really important, and finding it in a different way, like the puppets coming in and sharing it with them is a fun way that they can really connect to, I think, and it might, get in a little more deeply for them.

Vogelsang-Card said its another space for them to be safe and discuss what's going on in their life. Some children are afraid because maybe their parents are getting divorced, or they're being bullied, but with the puppets, they might open up and disclose what's bothering them because they feel safe, even in a larger crowd. 

"When we do sexual abuse awareness that program alone, over five years, we had 87 disclosures of abuse that were followed up and reported," she said. "And children feel safe with the puppets. It makes them feel valued, heard, and we hope that in our short time that we're together, that they at least leave knowing that they're not alone."

Bedard Brothers also gave the school five new puppets to use. Viall said the puppets are a great help for the students in her classroom, especially in the younger grades. 

"Every year, I've been giving the puppets to the students. And I also have a few of the puppets in my classroom, and the students use them in small groups to practice out the strategies with each other, which is really helpful," she said. "Sometimes the older students, like sixth graders, will put on a puppet show. They'll come up with a whole theme and a whole little situation, and they'll act it out with the strategies for the younger students. It's really cute, they've done it with kindergarteners, and the kids really like it."

Vogelsang-Card said there are 130 schools in Vermont that are on the waiting list for them to come in. Lanesborough Elementary has been the only Massachusetts school they have visited, thanks to Bedard Brothers. 

"These programs are so critical and life-changing for children in such a short amount of time, and we are the only program in the United States that does what we do, which is create this content in this enjoyable, fun, engaging way with oftentimes difficult subjects," she said. "Vermont is our home base, but we would love to be able to bring this to more schools, and we can't do this without the support of community, business funders or donors, and it really makes a difference for children."

The fourth-grade students were the first class to engage with the puppets and a lot of them really connected with the show.

"I learned to never give-up and if you have to move houses, be nervous, but it still helps," said William Larios.

"I learned to always add the word 'yet' at the end," said Sierra Kellogg, because even if she can't do something now, she will be able to at some point.

Samuel Casucci was struck by what one of the puppets talked about. "He said some people make fun of him if he dresses different, come from different place, brings home lunch, it doesn't matter," Samuel continued. "We're all kind of the same. We're all kind of different, like we have different hairstyles, different clothes. We're all the same because we're all human."

"I learned how to be more positive about myself and like, say, I can't do this yet, it's positive and helpful," said Liam Flaherty.

The students got to take home stickers at the end of the day with contact information of the organization.