image description
The Board of Selectmen held an executive session following the regular meeting Monday to discuss the ongoing litigation with the Berkshire Mall.

Lanesborough, Berkshire Mall Getting Closer to Assessment Settlement

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — A settlement regarding the assessment of the Berkshire Mall may be near.

The Baker Hill Road District's Prudential Committee held an emergency executive session with the Board of Selectmen on Monday night, in which both boards discussed the current Appellate Tax Board cases between Berkshire Mall LLC, the Board of Assessors and the Baker Hill Road District as well as cases between those entities in the Massachusetts Appeals Court. 
 
According to Mark Siegars, attorney for the Baker Hill Road District, the mall's owners offered a settlement to which the town has seven days to respond. The board called the emergency meeting to discuss further negotiations, but after about an hour, no action was taken.
 
The town's attorney Jeff Blake offered no comment, saying public discussion could be a detriment to the town's negotiating position — one of the few reasons a board can call an executive session in Massachusetts.
 
While details of the offer were not disclosed, the offer may signal progress in a continuing battle over property assessments. The Berkshire Mall, currently owned by Strategic Property Services, appealed the property's assessments for both 2015 and 2016.
 
Prior to that, the previous owners, Pyramid Companies, had appealed decisions from 2010 through 2012 and ultimately reached an agreement. That agreement was multiyear and impacted future assessments.
 
The value and future of the mall has been of significant concern for Lanesborough because of its importance to local revenues. Since 2008, the value has declined from $60.4 million down to $33.5 million in 2014. The agreement reached with Pyramid carried an assessment of $36.7 million, after a re-evaluation, in 2015 and $31.5 million in 2016. 
 
With the sale of the mall in 2014, that agreement was reopened and taken to court, leaving those figure still uncertain.
 
Those assessed figures, however, do not take into account the closure of two anchor stores — Best Buy and Macy's — in the last year. The impact of the loss of those two stores is not expected to be truly known until the 2018 re-evaluation. 
 
In other business, Town Manager Paul Sieloff said Pittsfield Community Television will no longer be managing the town's community television station. But, he said he is in the midst of discussions with another entity to take over.
 
"We got a proposal from an entity to take over and manage the whole system for us," Sieloff said. 
 
Sieloff said with the expansion of Charter Communications throughout town, there should be a boost in franchise fees. He suggested upping the revolving fund by some $2,000 to help upgrade the equipment used to film and broadcast government meetings. 
 
"This equipment was updated in the last eight months, we spent $16,000 to $18,000, and we've had a lot of good change to the process," Sieloff said. 
 
He hopes to have a new entity in place to run the town's station by Nov. 1. Resident Ronald Tinkham added that with the upgrades Charter has made to the cable infrastructure, the channel has changed to 191. 
 
The Selectmen also stuck to their guns when it came to a request to turn on a streetlight the board had previously voted to remove from Baglee Avenue. Two residents there asked for the light to be put back. But, the town had removed the light, as well as others, as a cost-saving measure. 
 
Chairman John Goerlach suggested that a functioning light on the street be relocated to provide some illumination toward the end of the dead-end road. Selectman Robert Ericson agreed.
 
"We will look at what the effect of moving it will be," Ericson said.
 
The state Legislature was unable to pass a home-rule bill to remove some land around the Narragansett Avenue bridge from Article 97 conservation restriction. The land needed to be removed in order to allow for a reconstruction of the bridge and requires a 2/3 vote from the Legislature during formal session, which closed on July 31. 
 
Nonetheless, planning for the project is continuing. Blake presented the board with an order of takings to legally have the easements for privately owned properties needed for the project. Blake said all of the landowners agreed to donate the land in a "friendly taking" but instead of receiving paperwork for each individual property, the order of takings ensures the easements for all. 
 
The Selectmen also rejected the idea of raising plumbing and gas inspection fees for commercial properties to $100. Sieloff said the fee change, which was first suggested last August, would align the two as well as be more in line with the prices in other communities. 
 
"It's a hard call with the tax increases already," Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers said. "I'd like to see no increase, a hold until times are better.
 
Sieloff also said the town is again looking for an accountant. The Selectmen had hired someone but he backed out. The town is now accepting applications again for another consideration.

Tags: assessment,   Berkshire Mall,   street lights,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships

LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock. 
 
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
 
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
 
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). 
 
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
 
 MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities. 
View Full Story

More Lanesborough Stories