Lanesborough News: Bike Track Defies Order; Golf Course Opens
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LANESBOROUGH — The Beaudoin Motocross track on North Main Street was in operation Wednesday, April 23, in spite of the fact that the Board of Health's cease-and-desist order for disturbing the peace was still in effect.
That brought Peter Beaudoin Jr. and his opponents, his North Main Street neighbors, to the Board of Health meeting and to the Selectman's meeting on Monday, April 28.
The order was put in place last October after neighbors complained of noise from the dirt-bike track. The board turned down an appeal by Beaudoin and his wife, Michelle, in November, saying it would investigate the noise factor when the racing season resumed in May. Attempts to find a compromise last summer between the Beaudoins and the neighbors failed.
Beaudoin proposed at the April meeting that the order be lifted and that he be permitted to run the track Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and one Saturday a month all day. The neighbors oppose any operation of the track and requested that the cease-and-desist order remain in effect.
The board agreed and declined to lift the order.
In an interview, Police Chief Michael Bashara pointed out that the job of the Police Department is to act in criminal matters and that, in this instance, the cease-and-desist order is a civil matter based on the noise generated by the track disturbing the peace. He said the enforcement of civil matters is a function of the town through the Board of Selectmen and its ability to assess of fines.
The Selectmen are researching the assessment of fines for ignoring the order.
Golf Course Opens on Route 7
LANESBOROUGH — The town's new nine-hole public Donneybrook Golf Course on Route 7, just north of Brodie Mountain Road, opened for business on Wednesday, April 30.
It's a beautiful and challenging course. The clubhouse, the former Kelly residence, is warm, welcoming and very lovely.
Matt Kelly, general manager and the son of J.W. Kelly, owner, designer and builder of the course, gave this writer a delightful tour of the course and the clubhouse Thursday.
Each hole has four tees, lengthening or shortening the hole to suit the skill of the golfer. The course is built on the eastern slope of Brodie Mountain. There are incomparable views of Greylock from everywhere. All greens and fairways are watered with water pumped from a 50 gallon-per-minute artesian well and accompanying pond, which is near the clubhouse.
J.W. Kelly bought the Chadwick Farm, approximately 400 acres, 200 on each side of Route 7, in 1971. He started to develop the golf course in earnest about five years ago, after sellinig the Brodie Mountain Ski area. The landscape was littered with slabs of stone, which he gradually piled up at various locations and are now very visable as you go round the course.
There is a stone quarry on the property that was in active use in the last half of the 19th century and from which most of the stone in Lanesborough's stone buildings was quarried.
The course is open to the public. Greens fees are from $25 to $45 depending on the day and the time. Memberships are from $600 to $1,500.
Everyone, golfer or not, should visit the clubhouse and walk the course. They are a great addition to Lanesborough and the Berkshires.
Information provided by Lanesborough Concerned Citizens Newsletter. To receive the weekly newsletter with more Lanesborough news, e-mail ahartheimer@yahoo.com.
