Lenox officials reach compromise with Cranwell over Blantyre Road

12:00AM / Wednesday, March 20, 2002Print Story | Email Story

The Lenox Select Board this past Wednesday spoke with representatives from Cranwell Resort and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, reaching concensus after some discussion. Attorney Phillip Heller, co-managing Director Peter Burack, General Manager Lewis Kiesler, and project manager Joe Burke represented Cranwell. Selectman Terrence Field said many people in town are concerned about Blantyre Road and the way it looks now. Cranwell has cleared a large section of wooded land, to begin a new subdivision. They had to show people what First Fairway will look like in the end, Field said, and then he was sure people would feel better. Heller explained that 17 years ago, Lenox passed the Great Estates Bylaw. Large properties were deteriorating. The bylaw made historic houses available for commercial development, no matter what zone they were in, but required that the houses keep their historic appearance. In the time since the bylaw was established, two properties have been developed: Cranwell Resort and Canyon Ranch at Bellefontaine. The bylaw is unique, according to Heller ... and it works. The Cranwell estate covers 383 acres, 260 of which are controlled by the resort. It has established 107 hotel rooms spread throughout a series of buildings. It has also proposed a 40-room conference center, but this proposal will have to go back to the Zoning Board of Appeals. In 1986, the ZBA approved 151 condominiums on the site plan, which now calls for 144 units. Heller assured Selectman William â€œSmittyâ€ Pignatelli that Cranwell considers the property to be built out after those 144, and will not seek to build more. They have in many cases built fewer condos in an area than they were approved to build. The current site plan has changed only slightly from the 1986 site plan, to take wetlands into account. After 1997 master plan, each building location went back to the Lee Planning Board, the ZBA and Department of Public Works Director Jeffrey Vincent. Once construction on Blantyre Road is completed, there will be new screening between the houses and the road. Cranwell is transplanting 14 pine trees â€” 30 feet high, with 25- to 30-foot spread â€” beyond the plantings and saplings they planned. The construction on Blantyre Road will not be finished for another year and a half. Burack assured the board that the owners of the new houses would also be concerned about screening, and the resort wants the property to look nice. When Cranwell built 23 units by Walker Street, many people thought it looked bad, Burack said. Many said they liked the view up to the mansion house. Cranwell planted more than 70 trees between Walker Street and the new houses. These trees are not 30 feet high, but they will get there. And he asked people to remember that on Walker Street, they see the back of the houses. On Blantyre Road, they will see the fronts of the housesâ€™ walks, and flower beds rather than decks and deck chairs. In 1993, when Cranwell was under construction, people asked what was happening. There were many dark buildings up there, Burack said. The resort removed a large chapel, which they believed distracted from the mansion. They planted young trees around the houses near the mansion and restored it, along with its dormitories and golf course, and created the restaurant and tavern. Besides the resort guests and homeowners, Cranwell attracts weddings and banquets. Its new spa with plate glass roof opens this month. Burack hopes it will make Cranwell a year-round resort. Burack finished with an estimate of Cranwellâ€™s worth to Lenox. Besides the jobs it supports â€” about $3.8 million in payroll each year â€” the resort payroll generates approximately $100,000 a year. Cranwell has paid $709,000 in payroll taxes since it opened. It has paid more than $1,000,000 in property taxes since 1994. All but three of the landowners are seasonal, Burack said. Room taxes add another $124,000 a year. The resort uses regional and local companies for construction work, and has spent $40 million all told since it began building. Mass. Cultural Council Debbie Smith and a colleague from the Lenox branch of the Massachusetts Cultural Council came before the board, because the state has made a matching grant available to them. The state allots them $3,300 a year, which is distributed to local cultural councils that apply. The state has announced that if the town contributes a minimum of $500, the state will match the contribution, up to the annual $3,300 â€” in addition to the regular yearly sum. If Lenox gave the cultural council the full $3,300, the local cultural council would get a total of $9,900 to spend in FY 2003. This is a one-time deal, Smith said. It would not be an annual appropriation. The Lenox Cultural Council is flooded with applications every year, she said. It received upwards of 40 this year, asking a total of $16,000. This year, the council approved 13 applicants. The state has encouraged them to give larger sums to fewer people; they used to give to 20 or more groups a year. They do not restrict their grants to Lenox organizations, but require that residents of Lenox get some benefit from any funds they give. For example, they fund the Berkshire Concert Choir, which has 12 singers from Lenox. And they fund Shakespeare & Company, which serves school districts throughout the county. Shakespeare & Company is an ongoing cultural council project, and, at $500 a year, one of the largest. Smith said they need a commitment by May 14 in order to give the state notice that they intend to apply for the matching grant, but they would not need the actual funding in place before late summer or early fall. The board supported them, and agreed to bring the request to the Lenox Town Meeting in May. Soccer Fields Update Town Manager Greg Federspiel said the contractor is waiting for warmer weather right now. The town has applied for $100,000 grant for the project. Federspiel also negotiated for a refund of the money they did not spend on the upper field, when the construction stalled in the face of car-sized boulders. Saloomey Construction Inc. will gave back just under $60,000. The town will rebid the upper field as a separate project: they will dig more shallowly and bring in fill, Federspiel said. If all goes well, they will have this field seeded by fall of 2002, too. The town has worked out an agreement with local folks who do seeding and will seed the fields this spring. They will be available in the fall of 2003. Federspiel said in his mind, even without delays in construction, it had always been an outside chance that the fields could be ready for late fall in 2002. He does plan to replace the trees that have been cut. Other business In other business, the board as licensing authority estimated that the temporary increased resident population of Lenox as of July 10 will be 10,000. They accepted this yearâ€™s Chapter 90 funds, state funds for infrastructure. This yearâ€™s Chapter 90 allotment, $73,775, is more than expected, but they have budgeted the same amount in 2002 and 2003, and next year may be slimmer. They also authorized Federspiel to accept a $10,000 grant from Massachusetts Housing Partnership, to create design plans for the Lenox House Shops property. Pignatelli brought up another ongoing housing issue. He recently met with the Conservation Commission, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission planner Joellyn Gregory and others, to talk about East Street. The town is making an effort to rezone it, now that water and sewer lines are heading in its direction. Under the current zoning, they are afraid it could become crowded and built up. They aim to draft new zoning to present to the town at the 2003 Town Meeting. Pignatelli asked Federspiel to be sure the initiative is adequately funded. Federspiel said besides the funding from Executive Order 418, the planning board has $15,000 in its budget for the coming year, to use for planning and consulting work, and can put some of it toward East Street.

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McCann Recognizes Superintendent Award Recipient

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:32PM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Landon LeClair and Superintendent James Brosnan with Landon's parents Eric and Susan LeClair, who is a teacher at McCann.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Superintendent's Award has been presented to Landon LeClair, a senior in McCann Technical School's advanced manufacturing course.

The presentation was made last Thursday by Superintendent Jame Brosnan after Principal Justin Kratz read from teachers' letters extolling LeClair's school work, leadership and dedication.

"He's become somewhat legendary at the Fall State Leadership Conference for trying to be a leader at his dinner table, getting an entire plate of cookies for him and all his friends," read Kratz to chuckles from the School Committee. "Landon was always a dedicated student and a quiet leader who cared about mastering the content."

LeClair was also recognized for his participation on the school's golf team and for mentoring younger teammates.

"Landon jumped in tutoring the student so thoroughly that the freshman was able to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment despite the missed class time for golf matches," read Kratz.

The principal noted that the school also received feedback from LeClair's co-op employer, who rated him with all fours.

"This week, we sent Landon to our other machine shop to help load and run parts in the CNC mill," his employer wrote to the school. LeClair was so competent the supervisor advised the central shop might not get him back.

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