Mount Greylock Council Seeks Advice Navigating Long Vehicles Ban
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Advisory Council is drafting a letter to the stsate Department of Conservation and Recreation seeking advice on how it can make the top of Mount Greylock accessible with the new ban on long vehicles.
DCR informed the council at its last meeting that, in most cases, vehicles longer than 22 feet will not be allowed to traverse the roads to the summit.
The letter originally requested that DCR advise ways to navigate this change, such as having a special permit that would allow larger vehicles to ascend the mountain.
Council members requested the reference to "special permit" be removed because that process can be tedious and the phrasing would limit the solutions DCR could come up with.
The state agency might hyperfocus on that avenue rather than come up with other alternatives, one councilor said.
The council voted to revise the last sentence of the email to say, "please advise ways to help our community navigate these new vehicle restrictions, such as local regional staff being able to grant a waiver at the discretion of local supervisor to accommodate staffing changes."
Cheshire representative Gary Trudeau said he received legal advice (though he didn't name source) that the ban is in violation of federal Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
Mark Jester, DCR's mountain manager, said it had already been determined by attorneys and internal reviews that the restriction on its high-country properties was not in violation of ADA.
Mount Greylock Supervisor Deanna Todd added that the ban was put into place because it is a safety concern since vehicles were unable to pass those larger than 22 feet.
A vehicle must be able to "maintain its own lane the whole way up. That's the whole thing right there in the nutshell," she said.
Some councilors said the restriction is taking opportunities away from people with mobility impairments and the impact it will have on schools taking children up to the summit. School buses run between 20 and 45 feet in length.
Schools cannot afford getting shorter buses and school trips are often the only chance children from South County have to see the summit, one member said.
"I liked the letter because it was mostly asking for advisement. It's not saying this is what we want. It's saying we want advice because I want to see everyone be able to get to the top of that mountain," Trudeau said.
"Some of these kids, the only chance we'll ever get to get to the top of that mountain is on that school bus that's going up there."
The selling point of Greylock is not the trails. It's the awe that people feel from the views at the top of the state's highest mountain, several members said.
Although the summit is not accessible to vehicles longer than 22 feet, Jester wanted to clarify that they have not taken any opportunities away. They just ask that the schools approach the mountain in a different way.
He also noted that the Visitor Center offers programming that is often underutilized by schools.
In addition to the programming, the center has pictures and sculptures that demonstrate the vastness of the top of the mountain so kids still get the feeling and a lot of the natural history, Todd added.
But Trudeau responded that the photos, sculptures, and activities do not provide visitors the experience of actually seeing the view at the top of the mountain.
Councilors juggled possible solutions ranging from adding staff to direct traffic at the narrow turns, setting a day designated for school buses only to travel up the mountain, and creating a waiver.
The issues that the members ran into with the possible solutions involved lack of staff and communication methods.
Todd said there isn't enough staff to be placed at the tight turns and that the mountain has "spotty cell service" and does not have a reliable method for communicating with the summit.
Although the bus designation day sounded like a feasible solution, board members thought it unlikely that multiple districts would communicate to visit the mountain the same day.
Jester also said they may not be able to restrict access to the top of the mountain from other visitors since it is public property.
The mountain is also very popular in September when tourists and schools want to visit but that is also when the reservation reduces its seasonal staff, Jester said.
"In the fall, this place is a nuthouse. I mean we will have 2-to-3,000 people on the mountain a day or more. And then you'll get the colleges, you'll get the schools … everybody wants to come in so it could be a real tax on staff," Jester said.
The mountain roads will open for the season on May 20 and Bascom Lodge on May 27.
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