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Adams Board of Health May Enhance Signage at Transfer Station

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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ADAMS, Mass. — The town will pursue a state recycling program that will provide it with better signage to promote the transfer station.
 
Board of Health member David Rhoads told the rest of the board last week that he recently attended the Mass Recycling Center Workshop where he was updated on initiatives available to communities to help promote recycling.
 
"They discussed the promotion of recycling within a town," he said. "Effective recycling and reduction of trash as well as signage."
 
The town reopened its recycling center as a full transfer station last year. Town officials have said they want to advertise the transfer station and attract more users.
 
Rhoads said this program could provide signage to help with this endeavor and also make the station more user-friendly.
 
"We can also get signage for the transfer station so that is something that we can apply for," he said. "Our transfer station is in need of some direction and instruction."
 
In other business, the board heard from resident Bill Martischnig who had concerns about what's left of 60 Maple St.
 
"It is all wide open and nothing is fenced off from the sidewalk or passers-by," Martischnig said. "Stuff falls off the roof when the wind blows … it's all wide open on top and you can see stuff moving up there."
 
Both Adams and Cheshire firefighters responded to the April fire that engulfed the century-old four-unit building. The fire forced out three families and killed at least three pets. 
 
Code Enforcement Officer Thomas Romaniak said the town cannot really do anything until the insurance companies complete their findings.
  
"I am sure something will be done but we can't do anything until the insurance companies finish," he said. "It still may be tied up in that."
 
Board of Health member Bruce Shepley added that the property actually falls under the building inspector's purview.
 
"I feel that we always pass the buck, but we can't speak on behalf of the building department," he said. "Our issues of safety are different."
 
The board moved through new and current cases and although they were able to close quite a few cases, Romaniak said he still has to figure out who dumped trash on a vacant lot on the corner of Melrose Street and Marmon Street.
 
"The guy that came in said someone was moving out and they just dumped there," he said. "I am trying to get a hold of the owner of the lot even though it is not his stuff. I am going to try to figure out who did it the best I can."
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Neal, Officials to Celebrate Greylock Glen Center Opening

ADAMS, Mass. — The long-awaited Greylock Glen Outdoor Center will formally open on Friday with host of officials ready to cut the ribbon. 
 
The $7.3 million center is the first step in what Adams officials hope will become a bustling recreational venue at the foot of Mount Greylock. 
 
The town was named developer of 54 acres of the 1,063-acre parcel, part of the Mount Greylock State Reservation, in 2006. The hope was the community could get things moving on developing the site after decades of failed projects. The project has moved forward, in fits and starts, since then with the outdoor center being a critical step after years of preparation.
 
The Greylock Glen's recent history has had a tighter focus with the town more in control of a concept that includes a camping area, amphitheater, outdoor educational center, trail network, and lodge. Many of these elements were hashed 15 or more years ago by the Greylock Glen Advisory Committee, comprised of representatives from stakeholders including Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Mass Audubon and the Appalachian Mountain Club.
 
The project's jumped through numerous hopes, from the local Conservation Commission to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act.
 
It's been 15 years since the initial plans were unveiled at the Adams Free Library for a campground, lodge and outdoor center within a 29-acre footprint that would access miles of trails within the glen and up to the state's highest summit. 
 
But since the vision started to come together, the project has been stalled by, among other things, the global economic collapse of 2008 and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic … not to mention all the regular steps that need to be taken to make such a massive project "shovel ready."
 
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