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The country store's new space offers an ice cream bar and indoor seating as well as a commercial kitchen for more food offerings.
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The store opened in 2020 as a space for local businesses to sell their wares. It has many different home items and food.
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Lanesborough Local Country Store Expanding

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
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LANESBOROUGH, Mass.— The Lanesborough Local Country Store is expanding into the space next door with plans to open at the beginning of August.

It's currently located at 20 Williamstown Road. However, when Berkshire Mantiques closed, the space on the other side of the complex became available. Owner Ana Bradbury took it as an opportunity for growth and started working on it in the fall. 

The store opened in 2020 to help give a space for local businesses to sell their wares. It has local and regionally produced items and gifts, wines, bakery, deli, ice cream and groceries. .

"We're really excited and grateful to have this opportunity," Bradbury said.

The business has received so much support from their loyal customers to their landlords, she said. "Our mission was to be a hub for local small businesses." 

With the end of the pandemic, came the openings of little kitchen businesses, handmade goods, and other sellers, she said. 

"We wanted to give them a place to sell. For us, it was kind of an eye-opener to see all of the existing Berkshire businesses that were around. I felt like there wasn't a lot of places that you could go and find them all together. So that's what we wanted to do," Bradbury said. 

The larger space will allow Bradbury to make her business into something she always wanted.

"This is what we envisioned it being years ago. So we're finally taking that chance."

The new building will be about double the size giving more freezer space, and a seating area, which is something people have been asking for.

"We just found that there's a want right in this particular area for sit-down seating. That's something that we're going to be adding," Bradbury said. 

"All of our customers are always asking if there's a place where they can sit and eat the sandwiches, or they can sit and eat the ice cream." 

The new space will have an ice cream bar with seating for people to enjoy a wide range of flavors including new ones, as well as a full commercial kitchen for more meal options.

In addition to the original deli sandwiches, store will be able to serve burgers and wings. 

Bradbury said there will more bakery items, such as cakes, and the gift shop will be adding more merchandise from across New England.

She also plans to expand on the events the store has been offering and wants to collaborate with nearby Jake's Java coffeeshop. 

She hopes that the larger space will provide a place where community can come together, hang out, enjoy their time.

"It's really gonna bring something to this side of Lanesborough, and give it more options, like a community space to sit down feeding," Bradbury said. 

The store is open daily from 10 to 6.


Tags: Business,   business changes,   

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Bull Hill Road Well in Lanesborough Moves Forward

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Planning Board heard a proposal from the Village Fire and Water District about a proposed drinking-water supply well at 40 Bull Hill Road.

Officials with the village and with project developers Tighe and Bond gave the project description at the Planning Board's meeting on Monday.

Since 2020, the district has relied on the Minor Road Well, which they said is lacking a redundant water supply source. The Bull Hill Road project will establish a second groundwater source to meet current and future water demands, according to their site plan review application.

The district had previously discontinued its Bridge Street well because of PFAS contamination. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a wide variety of chemicals used in consumer products. Exposure to sufficiently elevated levels may cause developmental effects in infants, impact certain organ functions and the immune system, elevate cancer risk, and cause other health effects.

The project well on Bull Hill Road will be on property the district acquired some time ago. It became a prospect for development around five years ago after the state ordered the district to abandon the Bridge Street well.

The project is on about 1.45 acres of land and will be a source of drinking water for about 2,400 residents.

"There's been a variety of testing completed, as well as a larger well has been drilled at the site, and the larger well, in hopes, would become the production well, as again, the redundant water supply, that's all been permitted so far and tested in accordance with MassDEP drinking water program regulations, and all of the tests came back astonishingly positive," said Joseph Popielarczyk, senior project manager and water/wastewater leader at Tighe and Bond. "So there's lots of water down there, and the water quality is great."

Construction is tentatively expected sometime in 2027 or 2028. He said generator procurement could affect the schedule, with lead times estimated at 40 to 52 weeks. They noted the facility could be built and tested before the backup generator arrived.

The project team described remaining permits and approvals, including MassDEP review and an anticipated Conservation Commission order of conditions. They also said funding was in place, while the timeline remained partly dependent on state review.

Resident Barbara Davis-Hassan asked whether nearby septic systems could threaten the well and whether sewer connections might be possible. 

Popielarczyk said the properties were outside the required source water protection's 400-foot Zone One area, and said there is no worry of contamination from nearby septic systems.

Hassan also asked about what the noise level would be. Popielarczyk said that there will be a generator for the well and that it would be outdoors in an enclosure that will minimize sound and would run mainly for periodic testing or during a power outage.

The board accepted the site plan.

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