The Appalachian Mountain Club will no longer manage Bascom Lodge and the Visitors’ Center on Mount Greylock, the state’s highest mountain, ending an arrangement of 15 years, an AMC spokesman said this week.
“The AMC is basically moving out of the Berkshires,†said John Brennan, AMC manager at Bascom Lodge Monday.
The decision to end the arrangement was voted by the AMC board in Boston last week, said Brennan.
“We’ve been here 15 years,†said Brennan.
The decision, he said, was prompted by lodge’s need for extensive repairs — totalling about $1 million.
“Bascom Lodge needs a tremendous amount of work, a new septic system, a new water system. Right now, the waste is trucked out,†he said.
“We’ve had a contractual arrangement with DEM to manage Bascom Lodge and in exchange we provide programs,†said Brennan.
He is one of six full-time AMC staffers at Mount Greylock, where seasonal employees number about 30.
“We have programs that will run through April,†he said. “We’re not leaving here until May 31.â€
AMC spokesman Hal Lacroix in the Boston office said, “We’re sending a letter to DEM this week notifying them that we’re going to discontinue our management of the Visitors Center and Bascom Lodge.
“We’re looking for some other offices in the area,†he said.
“We intend to continue our full commitment to our conservation and trails program out here,†he said. “Our maintaining the trails will not change at all. We have a trained staff that are experts at trail maintenance, and we have very active volunteer membership.
“But whether we’ll still be leading hikes remains to be seen.â€
“We have an extensive program, and [its future] is still to be determined.â€
The lodge is closed for the winter, but, Lacroix noted, “we’ve led workshops out of the lodge.â€
The lodge is a popular stopover for through-hikers. The workshops and hikes attract both visitors and local residents. And the berry brunches in season are regular sell-out attractions.
Said Lacroix, “The key thing is that we’re not going to be operating the lodge with overnights and food service, and we’ll be out of managing the visitors’ center.
“It’s an environmental issue, really, on top of the summit. DEM is mandated by the state to upgrade its water and waste disposal system. They need to deal with it. It’s been identified for quite a while, that the septic system was failing.â€
“After April we don’t have any plans to operate out of the lodge. The workshop and education program is undergoing changes. The specific situation is related to environmental issues,†he said. “Elsewhere, the club is thriving.â€
The Appalachian Mountain Club has 87,000 members nationwide, 32,000 of them in Massachusetts.
The club maintains 350 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut and New Hampshire, and has 1,400 miles of trail, some of it in the Berkshires.
Douglas Poland, DEM regional supervisor of forests and parks, referred inquiries to state Director of Forests and Parks Todd Fredericks in Boston, who could not be reached for comment.
Poland said only that the AMC and DEM planned to make a joint release about the change.
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RFP Ready for North County High School Study
By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The working group for the Northern Berkshire Educational Collaborative last week approved a request for proposals to study secondary education regional models.
The members on Tuesday fine-tuned the RFP and set a date of Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 4 p.m. to submit bids. The bids must be paper documents and will be accepted at the Northern Berkshire School Union offices on Union Street.
Some members had penned in the first week of January but Timothy Callahan, superintendent for the North Adams schools, thought that wasn't enough time, especially over the holidays.
"I think that's too short of a window if you really want bids," he said. "This is a pretty substantial topic."
That topic is to look at the high school education models in North County and make recommendations to a collaboration between Hoosac Valley Regional and Mount Greylock Regional School Districts, the North Adams Public Schools and the town school districts making up the Northern Berkshire School Union.
The study is being driven by rising costs and dropping enrollment among the three high schools. NBSU's elementary schools go up to Grade 6 or 8 and tuition their students into the local high schools.
The feasibility study of a possible consolidation or collaboration in Grades 7 through 12 is being funded through a $100,000 earmark from the Fair Share Act and is expected to look at academics, faculty, transportation, legal and governance issues, and finances, among other areas.
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The bridge had been closed to all vehicle traffic since March 2023 after being deemed structurally deficient by the state Department of Transportation. click for more
The Water Department has been responding to multiple water line breaks throughout the city since Friday, causing temporary loss of water in some areas. click for more
Nearly a year of study and community input about the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge has resulted in one recommendation: Take it down. click for more
