“The retreat brings people together, builds community in the forest, gets participants outside and off their screens, and uses nature sustainably to heal and inspire minds and souls,” stated Great Mountain Forest Executive Director Michael Zafros. Retreat registration closes on July 30.
Much of the discussion [about the hotel proposal] has either lost sight of the real issue or has twisted it into something it is not. I’ve been distressed by the seeming willingness of the participants in this debate to obfuscate what is, in actuality, a fairly simple question.
In his letter to the editor, Steve McAlister writes: "The Board needs to determine if saving a token amount of the building really amounts to historic preservation as intended by the bylaw."
In his letter to the editor, Eric Shamie writes: "The intent of the bylaw is clear: to give an incentive to developers willing to take on the added expense and difficulty of saving and reusing a historic building."
The proposed 95-room, upscale hotel on the site of the empty Searles School complex would incorporate the brick facades and outlines of the 116-year-old building.
The accountant's report will be submitted to the town at the Selectboard’s Wednesday night public hearing to determine whether to issue a special permit that will allow Vijay and Chrystal Mahida and 79 Bridge Street, LLC to demolish most of the Searles school for construction of an upscale hotel, The Berkshire.
In her letter to the editor, Carol Diehl writes: "Those of us who have already invested in this area did so with the understanding that the town would stand behind its duly enacted bylaws."
If the Berkshire Hotel initiative fails to pass the town Selectboard, we will all be faced with a broken down, graffiti laced structure for another ten years.
In her letter to the editor, Anni Crofut of Housatonic writes: "I would respectfully ask our Selectboard to remember that a special permit is, indeed, special."
In her letter to the editor, Beth Carlson writes: "The Mahida team, after all, is doing what is truly American, engaging in our free market capitalist economy and running a business. The volunteer town boards are doing their best to interpret the laws and bylaws."
Because the regional agreement between Great Barrington, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge stipulates that towns pay in a per pupil system, Great Barrington bears 70 percent of the cost.
The silver lining of this autumn of our discontent is that the streets and proverbial water coolers of Great Barrington are suddenly buzzing with neighbors newly engaged with the civic life of our town.
“I don’t think anyone should be under the illusion that changes at this point [in the Main Street Reconstruction Project] will be without a cost to the town.”
-- Sean Stanton, chair of Great Barrington Selectboard
In his letter to the editor, Chip Elitzer of Great Barrington writes, of the Main Street reconstruction project: “The new, overpowering array of tall, cobra-headed street lights is not mandated by the DOT, nor is the intensity of the illumination."
Retired filmmaker and small-scale redeveloper Bobby Houston has made a competing “full cash offer with no contingencies” for the Searles School property.
