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Bass Water Grill is changing hands this week. The restaurant's been in business for 15 years.

New Owner of Bass Water Grill to Move Realty Company to Cheshire

By Brian RhodesiBerkshires Staff
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CHESHIRE, Mass. — Lakeside restaurant Bass Water Grill will close its doors on Saturday after 15 years in business. 

The restaurant at 287 South State Road started operation in 2007, replacing the building's former restaurant, the Lakeside. Craig Kahn, owner of All Seasons Realty Group in Pittsfield, is buying the property and plans to move the group's office there and potentially open a cafe.

"I think there's a lot of cool things that we could do with it, too, that will be great for the community," he said this week. "It will be good all around. I think it'll be a really, really nice situation."

Restaurant owner Edward Bassi posted about the change in hands on the restaurant's Facebook last week. 

"After being a part of the welcoming community for the last fifteen years, the one thing we will miss most is our family," the post read. "We thank our staff and community for standing beside us for this crazy ride."

While he said plans are not final, Kahn intends to utilize the kitchen space and wants to make sure he does it right.

"I would like to have some sort of cafe in the front, possibly utilize the back part of the bigger kitchen for some catering or events or things of that nature," he said. "I don't have anything 100 percent set in stone or concrete. Right now, I'm really focused on just getting the office up and running and going."

Kahn said he and his firm have known that the building was for sale for several years. He highlighted the location and the floorplan as significant reasons for the purchase.



"We started thinking about it, and seeing the growth potential, having an open concept office and then working with the town trying to do a cafe possibly in there," he said. "And working with the lake and the trail, it just seemed like an overall good scenario," he said.

iBerkshires unsuccessfully reached out to Bassi several times for comment.

There's been a restaurant at the location for years. Jason Boucher had operated the Lakeside Restaurant for about decade before it changed hands and had overseen a renovation of the kitchen after a fire and added the reception hall in 2002. Bass Water is the last operating sit-down restaurant in Cheshire — Bea's Daily Buzzz closed in 2005, Christina's in 2007, and the Country Charm had closed its doors in 2004 after 33 years.

Tags: business closing,   restaurants,   

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Adams Votes for North Berkshire EMS

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen on Thursday voted at the end of a 2 1/2-hour meeting to designate Northern Berkshire EMS as its primary provider of emergency services as of Jan. 1. 
 
The vote was 4-0 and comes two days after the Cheshire Select Board unanimously voted the same. 
 
Members and supporters of the Adams Ambulance Service asked the board to hold off on its decision but officials were not confident that it would be able to rectify its financial woes within a four-week timeframe. Or if the state Department of Public Health would allow it to continue operation since it had notified the DPH that it would close Dec. 31 if not earlier. 
 
The service is also under a corrective order by the state for failing to develop a state-approved plan to prevent coverage from being disrupted. It has a deadline of Dec. 20 to comply.
 
"The Department of Public Health says we cannot move forward assuming that Adams Ambulance Service will be allowed to continue to provide coverage to the town," said Town Administrator Jay Green. "That is the context of the hearing."
 
Green stressed that Adams Ambulance is a private non-profit that is not operated or funded by the town and that the change in service provider does not mean it will cease to function. Rather, Northern Berkshire will be the first dispatched for 911 calls; Adams will still be part of mutual aid, will be able to take transports and continue to cover Savoy and Hawley.
 
Selectman Howard Rosenberg said the lack of information coming from the ambulance service over the past 18 months played into their decisions. 
 
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