In Great Barrington, a tale of two sidewalks
Without the Select Board’s knowledge, town officials secured a million-dollar state grant to aid a developer’s struggling luxury housing project and pay for a landscaped “pedestrian walkway.” Meanwhile, across town, safe sidewalks for low-income residents remain elusive and unfunded.
In Great Barrington, a Tale of Two Sidewalks
Without the Select Board’s knowledge, Great Barrington officials secured a million-dollar state grant to aid a developer’s struggling luxury housing project and pay for a landscaped “pedestrian walkway.”
Meanwhile, across town, safe sidewalks and walkability for low-income residents remain elusive and unfunded.
By Bill Shein
March 8, 2024
Book the First: Recalled to Life
“The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there.”
--“A Tale of Two Cities,” Book One, Chapter Five
One day last November, likely on a weekday afternoon, one of those curious-looking Google Street View cars drove along South Main Street in Great Barrington. Catching the attention of drivers and pedestrians, its roof-mounted panoramic-video cameras did what they do along ten million miles of roadways around the world: Capture the scene, in detail, to deliver a ground-level perspective in Google Maps.
Its cameras are variously mounted on cars, snowmobiles, and boats, carried by scuba-divers, attached to dog sleds, and even placed on the backs of camels, according to the company. From those vantage points, they routinely pick up extraneous images of people and sometimes capture odd scenes—the most famous, perhaps, of a horse calmly eating a banana. (A man in a horse-head costume, it turns out, in Victoria, British Columbia.)
On that day in Great Barrington, its view of the South Main corridor, which begins about half a mile from the town’s ever-more-upscale downtown shops and restaurants, included a mix of grocery stores, a few restaurants, a locally owned garden center, a chain office-supply store, barber shop, gas station, a place for outdoor-equipment repairs, an abandoned fairgrounds, the town’s popular bagel shop, a cemetery, and a provider of health care and other services for those without insurance.
As Google’s mundane-compared-to-a-camel vehicle passed unremarkable landmarks—the doctors’ offices at East Mountain Medical, the James Modolo Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post, and the new Windrush Commons affordable-housing complex—the seven lenses of its rooftop camera scooped up photos of two girls at the road’s edge. They were walking south on the western side of the busy road, also called Route 7. One wore a pink jacket, the other a hoodie and black-and-lavender backpack.
With traffic speeding past, the children walked on the grass, not sidewalk, as they traversed the VFW and East Mountain Medical properties toward Windrush. In several images, they look directly at the camera, perhaps intrigued by the video gadget on the roof. (Google blurs the faces of people caught by its cameras.)
The reason they weren’t on the sidewalk? Because there isn’t one. Indeed, there is no safe, accessible, pedestrian connectivity with the rest of Great Barrington for the one hundred and fourteen income-qualified residents who last summer moved into the new, eight-acre, five-building, forty-nine unit, Windrush complex—a project whose development timeline dates back at least to 2017. According to Berkshire Housing, which manages the property for its primary owner, the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire (CDCSB), as of late December that resident headcount includes forty-nine children under eighteen.
A sidewalk was, though, built in front Windrush itself. There’s also one directly across Route 7. But, for now, at least, never the twain shall meet: There is no crosswalk in that immediate area—and certainly not one with the kind of pedestrian-activated flashing lights, islands, and other safety features recently installed downtown. Nor are there any permanent traffic-calming features that might slow vehicles as they enter the area.
There is one crosswalk a couple of hundred yards to the north that spans the roadway between a law firm and veterinary clinic. But it can’t be reached via sidewalk from Windrush.
All of this means that for Windrush residents and others who’d like to walk—or roll in a wheelchair or move with other assistive devices—for exercise, or for fun, or to travel between their homes and amenities like those nearby grocery stores, restaurants, and shops captured by Google’s all-seeing eye, the town’s oft-repeated and laudable goal of “walkable neighborhoods” doesn’t exist for them.
At least not without significant risk: At that point near the end of the built-up, town-owned part of Route 7, vehicles start to accelerate south toward Sheffield. Drivers know the speed limit will shortly increase to fifty miles per hour and they won’t see a traffic signal or controlled crosswalk for miles. Merging with traffic from the development’s parking lot can also be a challenge
Image captions
Coming north, cars and trucks race into Great Barrington from that stretch of state-owned highway, often traveling well above the posted speed of thirty-five miles per hour—a limit that begins three-football-field lengths prior to Windrush, near a National Grid office and just prior to the driveway that leads to town’s Senior Center.
Drive past that area with any regularity and you’ll see pedestrians on the shoulder and crossing the busy roadway wherever they can. One morning in early January, as I was capturing photos and video for this story, I watched two people leave East Mountain Medical; they later told me they had been at medical appointments. One traveled in a wheelchair, the other used a rolling walker. To return home to Bostwick Gardens, the complex of fifty-nine apartments across the street reserved for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, they rolled into the road, made their way to the other side when they could, and then continued on the shoulder until they arrived at passable sidewalk. Traffic sped past at every turn; several cars crossed dangerously into the opposite-direction roadway to avoid them.
Even as eighty additional units of much-needed and hard-won affordable housing have been added to that area of Great Barrington over the last five years—including thirty-two new units at Bostwick, completed in 2019—ensuring pedestrian safety and connectivity for those living in the fastest-growing neighborhood in Great Barrington continues to take a back seat to other projects throughout the town. And with adequate public transportation a challenge across the region—and critical for lower-income residents without automobiles, and for those who are elderly or disabled—Windrush residents can’t safely walk to the BRTA bus stops at the Senior Center or Big Y Plaza.
Love and gratitude for housing at Windrush, but worries about pedestrian safety
The community of people and families in that area of town appears to be more demographically diverse than Great Barrington overall: Young and old, single parents, Black, white, and brown, employed and not, mobile and less so, some in good health and others with medical struggles. The kids are cute, as everywhere; they like to wave. Some residents have cars, others don’t. Several told me they love the town’s innovative Tri-Town Connector micro transit bus service—even if, some said, it’s not always reliable as it struggles with staffing and start-up challenges.
During one visit to Windrush on a quiet, cloudy weekend afternoon just after New Year’s, a girl in a bright red winter jacket, probably around ten years old, raced her electric scooter in a loop around the complex’s smoothly paved pathways. She giggled when she passed me; as I stepped out of the way on each pass, she grinned mischievously.
In conversations outside their homes, residents said how grateful they are for new, secure, and affordable housing. (Rents vary based on the unit, family size, and income.) Some faced homelessness after their rent at other housing, including in Great Barrington, was increased dramatically after properties were sold; others relocated from nearby towns in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, and some arrived from further afield, coming for a job or a safe, affordable place to live out their golden years.
The 49-unit Windrush Commons opened last summer after years of work by the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
The 49-unit Windrush Commons opened last summer after years of work by the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
They shared the usual concerns of people in any neighborhood and any apartment building: Worries about kids playing in parking lots as cars come and go (a small playground area was recently added in back). Some wonder if the buildings have enough insulation and say you can hear a lot through the walls.
Residents were happy to talk to a journalist, if nervously at first, but reluctant to be identified in this story. To a person—not a scientific sample—they had good things to say about their new housing situation. There was unanimity, though, about the nearby roadway and the danger from cars and trucks traveling quickly past the complex. And that to get to the grocery store, or connect to the rest of town by foot, they had to walk in or across what several called “a highway,” and come too close to traffic. “It’s dangerous,” one resident told me, worried about whether speeding trucks could stop quickly enough to avoid a person who tripped while trying to cross or a child chasing a ball.
With no sidewalk beyond the Windrush property, residents and others walk or roll in, or near, the shoulder of South Main Street to connect to supermarkets and other amenities. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
But what to do? It’s not something they often discuss. It just is. As one resident who relocated from central Berkshire County told me, “it's ingrained”—to get anywhere by foot, you’ll have to be in the road. “At least it’s a wide shoulder,” the resident said.
“It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”
—“A Tale of Two Cities,” Book One, Chapter One
All of this has certainly not gone unnoticed. Last month, when the municipality’s town manager, Mark Pruhenski, and his well-regarded superintendent of public works, Joe Aberdale, yanked a rehabilitation plan for South Main from suspended animation and proposed a town-funded, $3.5 million effort to, once and for all, address the area’s road, sidewalk, and safety issues—including roughly six-hundred feet of new sidewalk to connect Windrush—it was quickly stripped out of the town’s 2025 capital budget.
Both the town’s Finance Committee and its five-person Select Board voted to remove it as they made a host of cuts to the proposed budget, taking note that the project, as presented this year, was to be funded entirely with new debt.
Chris Rembold, the town’s longtime planner, director of community development, and assistant-town manager, has been connected to the project for years. But in the face of an unavoidable budget ax—one that could have meant the layoff of six town employees—he told the boards that “by deferring [the project], we have more time to seek grants more flexible in design.”
He was referring, presumably, to a languishing, years-long effort to secure what could have been upwards of eight million dollars in federal funds for a substantial South Main Street project—initiated in late 2017 by Rembold and the town’s former public-works supervisor, Sean VanDeusen—with more stringent, and expensive, design and engineering requirements that must be underwritten by the town.
Even though project planning was first initiated more than six years ago, the town has still not completed that required design work—regardless of whose funds it plans to use and which design standards it will meet. According to documents obtained from MassDOT and the town in public-records requests, town officials were slow to move the project along after MassDOT first reviewed and approved it in 2018—despite certified letters sent to the town and one meeting held in December, 2019. Internal emails reveal MassDOT project managers struggling for several years to get a response to their inquiries.
Eventually, the town’s contracted project engineer at Pittsfield’s Foresight Land Services emailed MassDOT in May, 2022, to apologize and say that he was seeking new meetings with town officials. A new agreement for design and engineering services was signed last June; it will cost the town $67,800, including $8,500 to pay for the design of upgraded sidewalks from the edge of downtown to Big Y and adding new sidewalks to Windrush and the Senior Center. It follows an earlier contract with Foresight, signed in September, 2019, that paid the firm $96,500 for work on the project.
What’s held things up? MassDOT’s recent roundabout project—designed, funded, and managed by the state—may have been a factor, as well as pandemic interruptions and, later, the departure of VanDeusen, the former DPW superintendent.
A construction sign near the just-completed roundabout at the intersection of Routes 7 and 23 in Great Barrington, in June, 2022. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
A construction sign near the just-completed roundabout at the intersection of Routes 7 and 23 in Great Barrington, in June, 2022. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
But not completing the design and engineering work came with a penalty: The project couldn’t advance much further in a county-wide queue for federal funds known as the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Rembold suggested to the Finance and Select Boards last month that the town decided to abandon that funding route “five or six years ago.” In the interim, and as Windrush moved toward completion, it’s unclear if a more modest sidewalk-and-crosswalk project was considered in advance of the arrival of more than 100 new residents. (The $19 million Windrush project broke ground in the fall of 2021.)
Aberdale, the DPW supervisor, told me that design work under the agreement signed last year is now advancing quickly—fast enough, he said, to possibly seek a state grant later this year through MassWorks, the state infrastructure-grant program for municipalities and public agencies that might cover at least some of the cost. He described plans for upgraded crossings at the Big Y Plaza and near the Olympian Meadows ballfields further north, and a crosswalk at Windrush at Brookside Road. The contract signed with Foresight last spring specifically includes design of “crosswalks near the Senior Center” in its scope of work.
Steve Bannon, the Select Board’s chair since 2018 and a member since 2010, told me during an interview in early January that he’s aware of the problems on South Main. “We [know we] need to do something there, and sooner rather than later,” he said. But this year, at least, town officials say they’re constrained by a “rough” budget year, even as Aberdale and others argue that years of deferred maintenance and long-put-off-but-necessary projects are increasingly coming due—and at ever-higher price tags as time passes. (One piece of the larger project is about to begin: A half-million-dollar replacement of a road-supporting retaining wall at the Mahaiwe Cemetery.)
Ben Elliott, the Housatonic resident and Triplex theater director who was first elected to the Select Board last May, conceded that this year’s budget choices are difficult but said “kicking the can down the road indefinitely”—on this and other projects—“is not a strategy.” Like Bannon and Aberdale, he told me that’s been the problem. “So many of these things are now necessary, and they’re coming due, and it’s a really difficult juggling act to not put so much on the backs of our taxpayers,” he said.
As they grappled with budget cuts last month, another Select Board member, Eric Gabriel, a Housatonic electrician who also owns rental properties, thought it sensible to put off the South Main road-and-sidewalk project for other reasons, too. He cited residents’ “construction exhaustion” following the roundabout project and its resultant backups and delays throughout the Main Street corridor—long a topic for complaints and humor on the local Facebook community board. “It will provide a pleasant break this coming summer,” he said, meaning from traffic, though one might image it also means from Facebook sniping.
No doubt officials need to balance disruptive infrastructure work against complaints from annoyed constituents grumpy about road delays. Indeed, last October, Gabriel praised the work that Aberdale has advanced around town, even if it meant traffic slowdowns. “Impressed and excited for the amount of DPW projects going on,” he said at the beginning of the October 30 Select Board meeting. “It might take a little bit longer to get through town, but it’s exciting to see a lot of these sidewalks, trip hazards, sidewalk improvements and everything getting sorted out … it’s a large list and it’s good to see it all getting done,” he said.
When I spoke to Gabriel recently, he described painful and challenging budget choices—all made, he said, under the cloud of large upcoming expenses like a new high school, the possible acquisition of the troubled Housatonic Water Works, and the cost of addressing deferred maintenance at many town-owned buildings. “There’s a long list of everything that needs to be prioritized,” he said. “It’s just hard to keep asking the town taxpayers over and over again.”
Gabriel acknowledged the need for safety improvements on South Main and expects it to come up for consideration alongside other priorities next year. “We [also] have 400 kids that need a new school, and 850 residents that want to feel at least remotely safe when they turn on their faucets,” he said.
Leigh Davis, the vice chair of the Select Board and recently announced candidate for state representative, noted her concern about safety on South Main even as she spoke of relieving taxpayer burdens. During one of the several budget meetings held last month, she pressed Aberdale and Rembold about plans for crosswalks near Windrush, at least. “I just worry because we have seniors and new housing,” she said.
Both Aberdale and Great Barrington Police Chief Paul Storti told me there’s not been much discussion of safety concerns, or a substantial number of traffic accidents in the area near Windrush. So, particularly with the possibility of the larger project hanging out there, it hasn’t been a focus and the two haven’t spoken about it, Storti said. But with the full project pushed off again, there may be something to do in the interim. “I think it’s going to have to be evaluated and addressed, even in the short term, and make sure people are safe,” Storti told me.
A lot of traffic comes through South Main and past the now-fully-occupied new housing complex and the other apartments across the street: According to data from MassDOT included in a South Main project summary, and confirmed with the agency this month, the average annual daily traffic (AADT) on that stretch of road is 19,600 trips, including 1,372 by trucks. (That’s comparable to state data for average daily traffic on Main Street downtown.) There are also fourteen hundred daily trips into and out of Brookside Road, which connects to South Main directly across from Windrush.
One Great Barrington resident, Nan Wile, previously served on the Great Barrington Housing Authority and has been concerned about safety in that part of town since construction began at Windrush. She’s repeatedly reached out to town officials and urged action to, at minimum, add traffic-calming signage.
“The safety risk is current,” she told me in a recent email, arguing it needs to be addressed in some way prior to the larger rehabilitation project. Last fall, in an email sent to all Select Board members and town staff, she wrote, “The cluster of housing complexes near the senior center do not have safe pedestrian crossing or driveway egress options,” she wrote. “The traffic there is continuous and thick in the early morning (and some hours of the afternoon) and the area is now heavily populated.”
A few weeks ago, the Great Barrington Police Department responded to her concerns, with a nudge from Davis, and deployed its electronic radar trailer to display the thirty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit, capture how fast vehicles are going, and flash “Slow Down!” messages.
According to the first batch of radar data provided to The Argus, which covered February 18 through March 6, eighty-five percent of northbound traffic averaged just under forty-eight miles per hour. Maximum speeds during morning rush hours reached as high as eighty-five miles per hour. Across the period, and for data captured at all hours, about a third of all drivers were beyond the threshold where they are considered violators and would be subject to ticketing.
A new report shows the frequency of speeding as drivers enter the area of Great Barrington's senior and affordable housing on South Main Street. (Great Barrington Police Department)
The speed sign, which was placed south of Windrush near the Senior Center, is meant to serve as a traffic-calming device to slow drivers, so the data captured is less relevant to driver speeds when the sign is not present. But it helps with traffic-calming solutions: Storti told me that data from placements of the electronic speed sign is used by the department for targeted enforcement, a.k.a. officer-staffed speed traps.
Many projects, an active public-works department, and climbing debt service
Many may not be fully aware of the pedestrian connectivity and safety concerns of residents in that part of town—even among housing advocates who worked for years to make Windrush a reality.
Carol Bosco Baumann, the former executive director of CDCSB, told the media at Windrush’s ribbon-cutting last summer that walkability was among the considerations for choosing the site. “The location as part of the Main Street corridor in Great Barrington is ideal for people who would like to live and work in Great Barrington,” she told Josh Landes, the Berkshire County reporter for Albany’s WAMC Northeast Public Radio. She noted its proximity to medical offices, grocery stores, and cafes: “It allows [Windrush residents], with the sidewalks that have been put in by the town of Great Barrington, and the crosswalks, it allows them to safely walk to town should they choose to.”
Contacted about Windrush’s pedestrian-connectivity issues, and the long-delayed municipal construction project, Philip Orenstein, the recently named interim executive director of CDCSB—and also chair of the Great Barrington Finance Committee—declined to comment.
At recent budget meetings, Orenstein asked questions about the project, which as proposed last month would have been funded entirely with borrowing. He spoke with concern about rapid growth in the town’s debt service, which he said will surpass twenty percent of its operating budget, but also encouraged fully funding a line item for engineering and project-design spending. “[It’s] really important to plant the seeds for meaningful grants,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s deferred gratification but it’s a very important investment.”
In large part the rising debt service is a result of Aberdale’s successful efforts to advance a host of public-works projects to completion during his first—remarkably busy—year-and-a-half on the job. (A bulleted-list progress report from Aberdale to the Select Board filed in late January runs to nine pages.) That completed work triggers previously voter-authorized borrowing to pay for it, increasing town debt and interest payments. At one recent meeting, Orenstein pointed that out, and addressed Aberdale directly. “I’m complimenting you,” he said to some laughter in the Select Board’s meeting room.
“We’ll just start a lot of things—a lot of slow things is equal to a handful of fast things. Same amount of work.”
—Great Barrington DPW Supervisor Joe Aberdale
Aberdale comes to the town gig after a long career as an engineer: Fourteen years as chief engineer at Berkshire Gas, then a decade-and-a-half as chief engineer and manager of purchasing at Pittsfield’s Maxymillion Technologies, and finally a long stretch at the Unistress Corporation, eventually as a vice president overseeing design and project management—building bridges and garages across the northeast. He also owned and helped run his family’s business, Aberdale’s, an iconic food and package store established in Housatonic in 1961 and that was sold to new owners in 2021.
Shortly after he accepted an early-retirement package from Unistress, Aberdale was having breakfast with Bannon, who said the town was looking to hire a new DPW supervisor. “One thing led to another and here I am,” he told me during a recent conversation. He said that over the years, many people saw him at the Housatonic package store, wholly unaware of his engineering career—and deep experience. “Most people just thought I worked at the business on nights and weekends and that’s all I did,” he said.
His approach in Great Barrington has been to acknowledge that things can move slowly in government. “That’s okay,” he said he told Pruhenski and Bannon. “We’ll just start a lot of things—a lot of slow things is equal to a handful of fast things. Same amount of work,” he said. “I’m here for a few years to help out and try to get as much done as we can, as well as build a staff.”
Bannon acknowledged during the budget discussions that decisions to defer projects in recent years have landed the town in a challenging financial position—something Aberdale told me he noticed as soon as he took the job. “The less we do, the farther behind we fall,” Bannon said of public-works investments. “I think we’re paying now for the fact that we did fall behind.”
Image captions
Image 1Philip Orenstein, at left, is chair of the Great Barrington Finance Committee and Interim Executive Director of the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire (CDCSB). (YouTube/Town of Great Barrington)
Philip Orenstein, at left, is chair of the Great Barrington Finance Committee and Interim Executive Director of the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire (CDCSB). (YouTube/Town of Great Barrington)
Philip Orenstein, at left, is chair of the Great Barrington Finance Committee and Interim Executive Director of the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire (CDCSB). (YouTube/Town of Great Barrington)
In both master plan and zoning bylaw, walkable neighborhoods a priority
Windrush was built by CDCSB and Wayfinders, Inc., a Springfield-based housing organization, with help from advocates and partners who juggle many moving parts to design, fund, and build affordable and workforce housing. (CDCSB is currently preparing the former Thornewood Inn on the northern edge of town, off Route 7, for use as congregate, workforce housing.)
When I spoke to Wayfinders’ executive director, Keith Fairey, for a story about housing in late 2022, he said the need for more affordable and workforce housing units is significant. “The need is across the board,” he said, highlighting tight vacancy rates driven by people “living longer, healthier lives and staying in their homes,” millennials looking for houses and apartments to buy, and lower-income people struggling to find housing in a Berkshires market squeezed by weekend homes. All of which, he said, has broad economic impacts.
The Windrush project was possible thanks to a 2017 zoning change in Great Barrington, championed by Rembold, that created what’s called a Smart Growth Overlay District (SGOD). Under a state law known as Chapter 40R, financial incentives are available for zoning that enables increased affordable housing through denser residential and mixed-use development that aligns with various goals. (In addition to that portion of South Main, the overlay district includes an area around Rising Mill and another at the Housatonic Mills.)
The smart-growth bylaw language includes seventeen pages of requirements and project-design guidelines and mandates—a number related to pedestrian access and safety. One design standard reads, "Development should be designed to encourage pedestrian and bicycle travel to and within the site and provide a safe and aesthetically attractive pedestrian and bicycle environment.
The overlay district also aligns with key priorities and goals detailed in the town’s most recent master plan, completed in 2013, and other municipal planning documents. The master plan’s vision statement, “The Town We Want,” highlights “walkable neighborhoods and vibrant village centers.” One “core initiative” is to “promote walkable connections within and between neighborhoods, as well as to commercial, civic, cultural, educational, and recreational activities.”
It also recognizes the town’s evolving demographics: “There are also many people with lower incomes who need affordable housing if they are going to live near their jobs and better public transport to get to them,” the plan says. “Promoting compact, diverse, walkable neighborhoods and better public transportation will serve the needs of our changing population.”
A “Complete Streets” priority, South Main soon fell by the wayside
Six years ago, as the smart-growth zoning changes were approved and plans for Windrush were coalescing, some residents and municipal officials already had major South Main Street rehabilitation and sidewalk improvements in their sights. They knew an estimated $80 million of new development was underway and on the horizon: A substantial expansion of Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, which now includes a popular café, and dozens of new senior and affordable housing units—at minimum.
The view driving north and approaching the Great Barrington Senior Center and a collection of affordable- and senior-housing complexes. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
The view driving north and approaching the Great Barrington Senior Center and a collection of affordable- and senior-housing complexes. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
In fact, the plan for significant road and sidewalk improvements on all of South Main Street was the third-highest-ranked project—out of eighteen—in the town’s “Complete Streets Needs Assessment and Prioritization Plan,” issued in the summer of 2018.
That report came at the end of a public-engagement process and online survey that received more than 300 responses. (MassDOT also made a presentation about the South Main Street proposal during an April, 2018, public-input session. One of its project documents noted that “special needs of elderly low-income population will be engaged, [and] pedestrian accommodation will be improved.”)
Residents ranked the South Main Street overhaul behind only improvements to Lake Mansfield Road and creating a safe pathway for students who walk between Simon’s Rock College and downtown—which they still do, often along a dangerous, shoulder-and-sidewalk-free stretch of Alford Road. (Aberdale told town boards earlier this year that he is investigating how to improve safety on that narrow roadway.) “Enhancing safety for seniors by improving sidewalks and crossings in this area is also a major goal,” the report said, highlighting existing sidewalk gaps. It also noted that the South Main project was eligible for federal funding: “Upcoming federally funded TIP project,” it said in one description, though noted elsewhere that TIP projects can take many years to receive funding.
In 2018, residents ranked the South Main Street overhaul behind only improvements to Lake Mansfield Road and creating a safe pathway for students who walk between Simon’s Rock College and downtown.
As described in the report, which was produced with help from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, a complete-streets approach that adds sidewalk and biking improvements when repaving roads can produce “increased connectivity and livability—particularly for children, seniors and people with disabilities.” The report also described equity benefits: “Not all residents can afford an automobile, and in aging communities, older residents may not be able or wish to drive. Complete Streets enable and create affordable transportation that can be used by anyone,” it said. (In this context, transportation includes walking.)
Ranked second-to-last on the final priority list of eighteen items was a plan to address sidewalk gaps on West Avenue in an area adjacent to the upscale “The Hill” neighborhood above downtown and near Fairview Hospital. Yet that work began recently with three-hundred-thousand dollars in state-grant funding; in total, it includes repairs and additions to a total of 3,400 feet of sidewalk on West and Lewis Avenues.
A portion of new sidewalk on West Avenue in Great Barrington this month. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
A portion of new sidewalk on West Avenue in Great Barrington this month. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
An extensive Lake Mansfield redevelopment project, which includes substantial improvements to the popular, open-to-all, lakeside-recreation area, has received $1.7 million in state Municipal Vulnerability Grant funding since 2022. Work began in November on the overhaul—which adds numerous accessibility and other improvements—and it’s slated to be completed later this year.
The 2018 prioritization plan, and its accompanying survey data filled with hundreds of free-form comments, made no mention of concerns about pedestrian connectivity between the corner of Main Street at Searles Castle, on the southern edge of downtown, and the baseball field, skate park, and river walk to the east.
But that purported need was quietly made a priority last year at the request of a local real-estate developer whose luxury housing projects in downtown Great Barrington had stalled amid controversy and funding uncertainties.
Book the Second: The Golden Thread
“There was a great hurry in the streets of people speeding away to get shelter before the storm broke.”
--“A Tale of Two Cities,” Book Two, Chapter Seventeen
A million-dollar grant. A landscaped ‘pedestrian walkway.’ And a Select Board largely in the dark.
It’s the inarguably difficult Job One for municipal administrators in today’s rural communities: Find money to pay for that long, constantly refreshed list of projects in budgets stretched by unmet needs, aging infrastructure, miles of roads, inflation, climate-change impacts, and more. That means squeezing budget dollars and, as much as possible, avoiding expenses that increase local property taxes. In Great Barrington, as made clear during recent grappling over next year’s budget and a property-tax levy that may grow by eight percent, there’s too much to do and not enough money to do it.
So that’s why municipal officials typically issue press releases, make announcements, and holler from the rooftops when grant awards of almost any amount come through the doors of town hall. Those funds represent sweet victory after months—sometimes years—of hard, dogged work to secure money through highly competitive grant programs that can have onerous, time-consuming application processes. But when successful, it means projects get completed while reserving other revenues raised via local property taxes for other municipal needs.
Indeed, scroll through the “Town News” section of townofgb.org to see a steady stream of press releases crowing about needs met by grants large and small:
MassWorks Awards $126,000 for Old Route 7 Greenway Trail Completion (August 10, 2021)
GB Receives $62,500 State Grant for Bus Stop Improvements (October 11, 2022)
State Awards $3.2M for Infrastructure Work at North Plain Road Affordable Housing Site (October 26, 2022)
GB Receives $385,000 State Grant to Improve Route 23 Near Monterey Town Line (March 29, 2023)
GB Receives $1.35M for Housing Rehab for Income-Eligible Homeowners (August 29, 2023)
Yet on October 25, 2023, the town scored one of its largest grants in recent years and virtually no one—including most of the town’s Select Board—has heard the news: One million dollars from the MassWorks infrastructure program for work at the luxury-apartments-and-retail complex under construction at the former Berkshire Community College (BCC) building at 343 Main Street, directly across from Town Hall.
Despite the large grant awarded to the municipality, there was no press release, no post to the town’s website, and no announcement or discussion at any public Select Board meeting. Other than brief mentions in larger news stories about the $164 million in state grants awarded to 338 projects in 161 communities that day—locally, one in iBerkshires and another in The Berkshire Edge—there was something akin to radio silence.
When complete, the restored historic building at 343 Main will house thirteen large, luxury apartments and feature two still-unannounced retail stores. Ian Rasch, the Egremont real-estate developer whose Alander Group is developing the project, has said that twenty percent of the apartments will be offered at some level of affordability.
According to the grant application and other documents and emails acquired from the town and state agencies via multiple public-records requests since last fall, the million dollars will be spent to clean up the developer’s property boundary with the adjacent Searles Castle, upgrade and bury utility connections, remove utility poles close to the building, grade and repave the large parking lot, and improve drainage.
The grant-funded project—which, emails suggest, will be administered by Alander Group itself under a contract with the town—also includes construction of a landscaped “pedestrian walkway” on the property, improving the aesthetics and “ameliorating blight,” the application says. That six-foot-wide path featuring benches, lighting, and plantings will begin at Main Street, continue southeast along the border fence with Searles Castle, and follow the edge of 343 Main’s parking lot to the back. And then, according to both the text of the grant proposal and the architectural drawings submitted to the state, it will end at the property’s eastern property line at the conjunction of a dirt path, drainage ditch, and electrical transformer.
That last landmark comes with some irony, perhaps: According to the application package, the walkway promises “a transformative impact on downtown residents, businesses, and visitors” by providing connectivity to a baseball field, soon-to-be-improved skate park, and the Housatonic River Walk. But to reach those amenities from the abrupt end of the new walkway, a pedestrian will first need to navigate past chain-link fencing that surrounds an abandoned-for-now luxury condo development behind the Berkshire Co-Op Market, walk along the dirt path, continue across the Co-Op’s driveway and parking lot, and then step onto the sidewalk at Bridge Street to continue south.
The proposed location of a "pedestrian walkway" funded by a MassWorks grant secured by the Town of Great Barrington last October. Main Street is to the left, the Berkshire Co-Op Market parking lot at top right. (Berkshire Argus graphic/Google Maps)
The proposed location of a "pedestrian walkway" funded by a MassWorks grant secured by the Town of Great Barrington last October. Main Street is to the left, the Berkshire Co-Op Market parking lot at top right. (Berkshire Argus graphic/Google Maps)
Accessibility is also in question: While an early drawing of the landscaped pedestrian walkway shows a handicap-accessible ramp where it meets the dirt path, it was found to be on property not owned by Alander Group. The final drawings show no accessibility ramp. Anyone rolling or with mobility challenges could face difficulty moving beyond the end of the concrete-pervious-pavers walkway where it ends at a dirt path.
The grant application also references a “public-private partnership” that would—in exchange for the grant funds spent for work that will aid the luxury-housing project and construct the pedestrian walkway—provide an unspecified number of public-parking spaces somewhere on the 343 Main Street property. The spaces would be permanently granted to the town via an easement.
The grant-funds-for-parking arrangement is strikingly similar to a deal struck early last year between Alander Group and the Town of Egremont. In that case, a written agreement detailed the swap: The town’s help securing $578,000 in state-grant funding to pay for repairs to an Alander-owned dam on Prospect Lake in exchange for ten parking spaces, for Egremont residents, at the company’s new “landscape hotel” at the former Prospect Lake Park Campground. It also promises lake access for those who use the Egremont-resident-only parking spaces. (See The Argus’s reporting for more on that hotel project.)
The location at the corner of Searles Castle and 347 Main Street, across from Town Hall, where the new pedestrian walkway will begin. An indeterminate number of public-parking spaces have been promised to the town in back. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
The location at the corner of Searles Castle and 347 Main Street, across from Town Hall, where the new pedestrian walkway will begin. An indeterminate number of public-parking spaces have been promised to the town in back. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
The town’s MassWorks grant application, which emails suggest was drafted largely by consultants for Alander Group, also promises the proposed work and new walkway will aid future redevelopment of the adjacent, vacant property at 347 Main Street. It's a brownfield parcel and the long-ago home of a beloved Great Barrington institution, The Deli, that the town is seeking to acquire via a tax-lien taking. (In 2022, Rasch told me he might be interested in buying the property.) The application also describes Rasch as a Great Barrington resident; he lives in Egremont, though Alander Group is based on Railroad Street downtown.
When I first asked for more details about the grant in early November, Pruhenski, the town manager, emailed a short statement: “This is a grant to the Town that will pay for streetscape and pedestrian connections/enhancements across the street at the former Deli and BCC buildings, connecting Main St. through the lots, behind the buildings and over towards the Co-Op,” he wrote. “The project will support the current redevelopment of the former BCC building (343 Main St) and the future redevelopment of the neighboring site currently in tax foreclosure (347 Main St.) containing the former Deli building.”
The Town of Great Barrington's $1.1 million MassWorks grant application, filed last June. (Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development)
Architectural plans attached to the grant application note that The Deli building is “to be demolished in the future” and, based on labels and line drawings, suggest the entire parcel will be used for municipal parking. That would be unusual: the town’s master plan specifically discourages creating parking lots directly on Main Street, even with well-known parking challenges in the busy downtown, and notes their low economic value. (Rembold, the assistant-town manager, told me in that November email thread that no discussions about plans for the property, which remains tied up in a state Land Court process, have been held.)
But in the weeks and months since then, numerous follow-up questions and requests for interviews sent to Pruhenski have been ignored. Details of the public-private partnership, the specific location and number of parking spaces granted to the town, and an explanation of the decision-making that prioritized this project—and grant application—ahead of other infrastructure projects that need funding all remain unknown.
(Prior to publication of this story, additional messages seeking information and an interview with Pruhenski did not receive a response. An email sent to Rasch last week with a list of questions about the grant and Alander Group’s two downtown projects also did not receive a response.)
Documents say the new pedestrian walkway will end at the intersection of a dirt path, drainage ditch, and transformer. That location is adjacent to a parcel behind the Co-Op Market that has been approved for a complex of 27 luxury condos, though that project has stalled following the property's sale in 2022. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
Documents say the new pedestrian walkway will end at the intersection of a dirt path, drainage ditch, and transformer. That location is adjacent to a parcel behind the Co-Op Market that has been approved for a complex of 27 luxury condos, though that project has stalled following the property's sale in 2022. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
Even as the town makes deep budget cuts in the face a growing tax burden, and searches for ways to fund expensive-but-necessary infrastructure projects in the coming few years, three Select Board members told me they had no knowledge of the town’s application or the million-dollar award. A fourth said he only learned about it after-the-fact.
When I described the grant last month to Davis, the most housing focused Select Board member, she said, “That’s the first I’ve heard about it … I probably just missed the press release. I don’t know anything about it.” But she said she would investigate. “I’m assuming it’s benefiting the town, if the town applied for it,” she said.
Davis, who works for a local affordable-housing nonprofit, has previously opposed the use of local taxpayer funds, at least, to support Alander’s downtown projects.
Earlier this week I also described the details of the MassWorks grant to her colleague, Ben Elliott, and asked if he knew anything about it. He didn’t. “It doesn’t ring any bells,” he said. He told me that he’d like to get more information before commenting. “I need to take a look at it to get a full idea of what we’ve done. Thank you for letting me know,” he said.
An identical conversation unfolded with Gabriel. “I don’t know that I’m aware of that,” he told me during a conversation about his work on this year’s budget and the town’s many infrastructure needs. “I guess it’s not ringing a bell for me now,” he said. Like Elliott, he said he’d have to learn more about it before he could comment on the specifics.
In early January, Bannon, the board’s chair, told me he only became aware of the grant when he was notified of the award in late October. Like Davis, Elliott, and Gabriel, he said he didn’t know any details. “I’ll talk to Mark about it,” he said.
More generally, Bannon said that town staff don’t need Select Board sign-off to apply for grants. “It’s a strong town manager form of government. [Town staff] can do things on their own and it doesn’t have to be under the guidance of the Select Board,” he explained, noting twice-annual strategic-planning sessions with town staff conducted in open session during Select Board meetings.
Pruhenski, who was named town manager in 2019 after working for the town of Richmond and earlier serving for ten years as head of Great Barrington’s health department, has consistently received high marks for job performance from the board in annual reviews, most recently last month.
(Garfield Reed, the remaining Select Board member, did not respond to a message requesting an interview.)
Plans for a pedestrian walkway alongside his property—and one that ends near the back entrance—was also news to the artist Hunt Slonem, who purchased the adjacent Searles Castle in 2021. He’s not been contacted by the Town of Great Barrington or Alander Group. “I haven’t spoken to anyone,” he told me.
As he’s done with other large, historic properties, Slonem is busy restoring the 140-year-old building and its 40-odd rooms back to an extravagant private residence, something he said may take a lifetime. (His restoration work is explored in a new coffee-table book, “The Spirited Homes of Hunt Slonem.)
A view of Searles Castle, center left, as seen from the Berkshire Co-Op Market's staff-parking lot. The chain-link fence surrounds a portion of land slated for condominium development. The 343 Main Street project is at right, towards Main Street. In the center is the location of the end of the planned pedestrian walkway. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
A view of Searles Castle, center left, as seen from the Berkshire Co-Op Market's staff-parking lot. The chain-link fence surrounds a portion of land slated for condominium development. The 343 Main Street project is at right, towards Main Street. In the center is the location of the end of the planned pedestrian walkway. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
He has concerns about the new walkway next door—particularly since he’s already struggled with people wandering onto his property and hanging out in his yard. “I just don’t want [pedestrian] traffic haranguing me,” Slonem said. “I’ve had people banging on my door who want tours … [but] it’s not open to the public in any way, shape, or form,” he said. “I can’t afford for it to be. It’s too much of a liability.” He said he may need to put up a gate or a fence near where the pedestrian walkway ends.
(The grant will fund “wayfinding” signs at each end of the walkway, according to the application.)
Book the Third: The Track of the Storm
“Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms.”
--“A Tale of Two Cities,” Book Three, Chapter Fifteen
A rescinded grant for 343 Main ‘puts the entire project at risk’
The redevelopment of 343 Main Street began several years ago with a plan to renovate the building into a new home for several nonprofit health-and-wellness organizations and to offer food-related vocational training. Based on the extensive restoration plans and community-oriented use, it won a $250,000 historic-restoration grant from Great Barrington’s Community Preservation Committee (CPC) that was approved by voters in 2022.
But shortly thereafter, when key nonprofit tenants pulled out—in some cases, records suggest, well before the town-meeting vote on the CPC grant—Rasch converted the project to high-end housing, with large studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments that he said last May will rent for up to $3,500 per month. Two retail spaces are also planned. He’s also promised a few affordable units that, he says, will help advance a mixed-income downtown that he advocates as the path to an equitable, livable, and vibrant community.
When word emerged of the change from nonprofit health-and-wellness center to expensive residential apartments, there was a strong negative reaction in the community. But the town committee that made the award voted to let Alander Group keep the grant. After meeting with Rasch, it agreed the funds were granted to restore the large, historic windows, regardless of what would happen inside the building. “A façade is a façade is a façade,” said the Community Preservation Committee chairperson, Karen Smith, at the time.
Renovations on the exterior of the former car dealership included a new roof and extensive brick work. The replacement of large, historically accurate windows was funded with $250,000 from Great Barrington's community-preservation funds. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
Renovations on the exterior of the former car dealership included a new roof and extensive brick work. The replacement of large, historically accurate windows was funded with $250,000 from Great Barrington's community-preservation funds. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
But state officials had a different reaction. MassDevelopment’s Underutilized Properties Program (UPP) had, in October, 2022, awarded a half-million-dollar grant to the project based on the original plan. According to emails and documents acquired by The Argus in a series of public-records requests since late 2022, program managers at MassDevelopment sought permission from the agency’s director and legal counsel to rescind the grant, which they did in early January, 2023.
Alander’s consultants protested strongly, saying they had advised agency staff of the change via email a few weeks before the grant was announced. They also warned that losing the grant would imperil the project. “The loss of funding puts the entire project at risk,” wrote Kara Anderson, a preservation expert from a Boston-based organization that helps historic-restoration projects and provides UPP consulting services. “It will likely stall, leaving a key historic asset halfway built out, in a highly vulnerable condition, and at enormous risk of loss. This is a terrible and avoidable potential circumstance,” she wrote to Shayvonne Plummer, a development manager at MassDevelopment.
But sending an email about the pivot in use was outside the required process for application changes, MassDevelopment said. It also pointed to news reporting that examined the timeline of the change. Rescinding the grant was required “to maintain the program’s integrity,” wrote Plummer in an email response. Internally, MassDevelopment staff noted that its board had approved the grant for a different purpose. “Board voted for a health facility and scope has changed to housing,” a program manager wrote to MassDevelopment CEO Daniel Rivera.
Still, MassDevelopment staff encouraged Alander Group to reapply in the next grant cycle. It did, asking for one million dollars for a project renamed as the “Downtown Historic Housing Initiative” and winning a grant, last October, for $450,000, that will help pay for the build-out of the new apartments.
After losing the original UPP grant, work at 343 Main was halted, according to grant application documents. And a few months later, in early May, 2023, town voters rejected a total of $400,000 in community-preservation grants for Alander Group’s other downtown project at the Mahaiwe Block, the large, mixed-use building across the street at 322 Main Street. Rasch sought town funds to help underwrite two affordable units there at a cost of $125,000 each, and asked for another $150,000 toward historic-restoration costs at the 120-year-old building he acquired for $3.5 million in October, 2022. He described plans to nearly double the number of residential units in the building to add more downtown housing by remaking the top two floors into luxury apartments after a wholesale renovation.
That historic building, which long offered below-market “naturally occurring affordable housing” to a mixture of working and retired people in Great Barrington, was emptied of most of its tenants over the course of the year prior to the sale by the former owner, a local real-estate agent named Madeleine Victor-Pieczarka. As she prepared to sell the building, and later under the terms of a purchase-and-sale agreement she signed with Rasch in early 2002, Victor-Pieczarka stopped renewing tenant leases without explanation. That meant nearly all residents were soon living month-to-month, in an overheated housing market without many rental vacancies, and with no information about when they might be forced to move.
Indeed, as uncertainty hung over the building for the better part of a year, most tenants moved out. (Rasch helped pay relocation and rent expenses for a few remaining tenants, according to interviews with the former tenants and Rasch in late 2022.)
The two downtown projects created turbulence for Alander Group in the community, from the pivot to expensive apartments at 343 Main Street after winning a town grant, to the loss of housing for many longstanding, low-income, Mahaiwe Block residents. It all happened at a time of community focus on skyrocketing housing costs, few available rental apartments, and concerns about the demographic trajectory of the region and who could afford to live and work in Great Barrington.
But along with a mix of housing advocates and developers—both private and nonprofit—Rasch continues to argue that the region, just like the nation, needs many more housing units at all price points to make up for a years-long construction deficit. And that converting underutilized buildings like 343 Main to high-quality housing, without infringing on open space and, also, building to modern, climate-friendly standards, checks many boxes on any list of good things for a community.
At the town meeting where his grants were ultimately rejected, he made his case that $125,000 in grant funds to underwrite a unit in his building that could be offered at an affordable price, for ten years, was a good deal—particularly when considering that building new multi-unit housing can cost $500,000 per unit and up. And that the timeline to get affordable-housing developments like Windrush conceived, permitted, designed, funded, and built was too long to wait to address the urgent need for more housing.
The real-estate developer Ian Rasch, speaking at Great Barrington's Annual Town Meeting on May 1, 2023. (CTSB-TV)
Significantly, he also criticized what he described as a divide between “rich people housing and poor people housing,” the latter segregated by wealth and income and, in the case of Great Barrington, built on the outskirts of town where Windrush, Bostwick Gardens, and other affordable and senior housing is clustered. “That's a disgrace, in my mind,” he said. Another large affordable-housing complex, Bentley Apartments, was built on the outer edge of another neighborhood east of downtown, atop a site polluted with capped dioxins and adjacent to Great Barrington’s sewage-treatment plant. Additional housing is planned there, possibly as a small-cottage community with both rental and to-own houses, all to be built by CDCSB.
However impassioned, Rasch couldn’t convince town voters. A number of town-meeting speakers were hostile to the idea that a private developer should get any public funds at all since his was a profit-making venture. That’s a common view, but one that some housing advocates say oversimplifies the reality, and complexity, of adding affordable units to the region’s housing inventory to meet urgent needs.
A surprising pivot at the Mahaiwe Block building
The month after Great Barrington voters passed on that $400,000 for the Mahaiwe Block—which, combined with the rescinded MassDevelopment grant, took nearly a million dollars out of Alander Group’s redevelopment budget—something else happened: Rasch received a revised document that he requested from an engineer working on the Mahaiwe Block project. And it detailed plans for a substantial change.
The engineer’s document, known as a “Chapter 34 Code Compliance Report,” provided analysis of a revised plan and what it summarized as a “decreased scope of work.” The new Mahaiwe Block project would now undertake only a cosmetic renovation of the twelve third-floor residential apartments and the small offices on the second floor; make repairs to the roof; install a new boiler; and divide some of the first floor’s larger retail units into more rentable smaller ones. “Some or all of the residential units may receive cosmetic or systems upgrades, such as painting, cabinets, counters, flooring, tile, fixtures, etc.,” the report said.
Other changes would also be modest, like updates to a couple of public bathrooms to make them accessible. The main floor lobby areas would remain as is. There was no plan for elevators, which would leave the top floor’s residential units out of reach for those with mobility challenges. There’s also no mention of plans to install the climate-friendly, electricity-based heating and cooling systems Alander Group says it makes an essential element of its environmentally minded construction and redevelopment projects.
Importantly, the proposed scope-of-work could be accomplished without altering or reconfiguring more than fifty percent of each floor—a key building-code metric that, if surpassed, would require the entire building to be upgraded to modern code, as originally planned. (An alternate building-code test limits the total expenditure on renovations to no more than thirty percent of the assessed value without requiring those updates, though historic buildings and features get some wiggle room.)
According to documents acquired by The Argus in several public-records requests, in mid-July Alander Group filed that document, a set of architectural plans, and a building-permit application describing “the selective cosmetic renovation and alteration of less than 50% of the floor area of the existing building,” at a total construction cost estimated at $580,000—a fraction of the original planned expenditure, which Rasch told Great Barrington voters in May would be $8.5 million in private investment. (As of mid-February, the town’s Building Department reported no additional building permits have been sought for the property.)
It’s a notable change, particularly considering what Victor-Pieczarka—the former owner—and Rasch both said repeatedly: The building is old, underinvested, and failing. They said it could only be salvaged with sizeable investment that would necessitate much higher rents, and only after a period of construction that required emptying the building of its longtime tenants. In late 2022, Rasch told me the building was on the verge of being “a blighted, precarious living situation for both residential and commercial tenants.”
What factors beyond the loss of hoped-for grant funding led to the change of plans remains unclear. The last few years have seen a challenging building environment: Inflation, rising construction costs, and higher interest rates likely meant expenses far higher than when Alander Group first planned its downtown projects. Required permitting for the Mahaiwe Block’s second-floor change to residential use, the expansion of housing units, parking needs, and investment to meet accessibility requirements, like elevators, may have also been considerations.
It’s also unknown what rents will be for the cosmetically refreshed Mahaiwe Block apartments, office spaces, and retail units, and whether Alander Group has eventual plans for a more significant overhaul as originally planned. Or if, because of substantially less capital investment, the apartments might soon be offered to former tenants and others at affordable rents.
The Mahaiwe Block, at the corner of Main Street and Castle Street in downtown Great Barrington, was built in 1905. It has twelve residential apartments on the top floor. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
The Mahaiwe Block, at the corner of Main Street and Castle Street in downtown Great Barrington, was built in 1905. It has twelve residential apartments on the top floor. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
An email was sent to town hall. Nine months later, a million dollars arrived.
On January 6, 2023, just three days after MassDevelopment rescinded its half-million-dollar UPP grant for 343 Main Street, Rasch sent an email to Rembold, the town planner and assistant town manager. It began, “Would you have time to meet with me in the next week or two to discuss how we might be able to partner with the town on the redevelopment of 343 Main/The Deli property as it relates to a potential MassWorks grant for sidewalk, utility infrastructure, cleanup funding, etc.?” he wrote. “I would be interested to speak with you about potential funding options and how we might be able to support the town on the redevelopment of the Deli property as well.”
Rembold agreed. Not long after, in March, the town submitted two preliminary proposals—both connected to Alander Group’s struggling downtown projects—to the state for review: One for the proposed work and pedestrian walkway at 343 Main Street and a second for remaking the shared alley behind The Mahaiwe Block. For the latter, it described $1.75 million in needed improvements to water and electrical capacity that would help support the Mahaiwe Block project and also address a complicated tangle of utilities that serve the buildings on the south side of Railroad Street.
They would also develop “a pedestrian linkage between Castle Street and the Railroad Street retail corridor on what is currently mostly a dirt path without safe, universal access.” (That’s adjacent to upscale market-rate apartments at 47 Railroad Street, built by Rasch and a partner six years ago.) It also suggested “there are several private building projects that cannot proceed without these improvements,” though it didn’t specify them. The grant would, the proposal suggested, “leverage over $7.25 million in private investment at the Mahaiwe Block building.”
In a reply, the state’s grant reviewers said both proposals met the criteria for the infrastructure-grant program, according to documents provided in response to a public-records request. And while they said every full grant proposal is reviewed on the merits, they noted that all applications submitted to the state’s annual One Stop for Growth grantmaking process—which enables applications to be considered simultaneously by all appropriate state grantmaking programs, including UPP and MassWorks—compete against each other. It advised “prioritization and careful consideration of projects submitted in the same round.”
Indeed, because of that competition—particularly from other applicants in the same community, as state leaders try to spread funds around the Commonwealth—a One Stop frequently-asked-questions document suggests submitting only the “top priority project” in each grant cycle. So, in the end, the town did not apply for the Mahaiwe Block-related grant. Instead, on June 1, the town submitted a single application for the 343 Main Street-related MassWorks funding and asked for $1.1 million in state funds. (The town did not seek funds through One Stop for any other projects, according to documents provided to The Argus by the Executive Office of Economic Development.)
In late September, good news arrived. “Congrats!” Rembold wrote in an email to Rasch and Alander’s UPP consultants. In advance of the state’s planned October press conference, mum was the word. “News is embargoed for now, so don’t spread it to anyone, please,” he added. The same day, Alander Group also won a new $450,000 UPP grant from MassDevelopment, largely replacing the half-million dollars that had been rescinded.
According to the documents acquired by The Argus, there were three other One Stop for Growth grant applications submitted by others for projects in Great Barrington last year.
The first was a million-dollar request from Scarafoni Associates, which sought funds from the UPP to support its transformation of the Housatonic School into eight apartments that will be rented to families earning no more than the area’s median income. The town of Great Barrington has already provided $650,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project, which was awarded to the company—led by longtime Berkshire County developer David Carver—by the Select Board in late 2022.
Next was a $4.4 million request for MassWorks funding from the Great Barrington Fire District—the town’s larger water system, serving more than 4,000 residents—to pay for a new ultraviolet-light disinfection system and fund a project to interconnect with Housatonic Water Works that would serve as an emergency backup-water source. Without grant funding, the water-district’s residents will bear the project costs through debt service they approved last year that will be paid via tax assessments levied on the water-district’s customers.
And finally, there was a three-hundred-thousand-dollar request for UPP funds to repair the roof and install fire-safety equipment at the historic Cove Bowling Alley complex, owned by Egremont real-estate developer Craig Barnum. Last May, The Cove received a fifty-thousand-dollar grant of community-preservation funds from the town, approved by voters, to apply toward that scope-of-work. Barnum’s One Stop application highlighted some unique features of his property and the business there, particularly “the demographic makeup of the community surrounding The Cove.” He described it as “individuals and families from various cultural, socioeconomic, and age groups, in particular a fast-growing Latino segment.”
None of the three received grant awards.
Construction of the pedestrian walkway at 343 Main Street will be complete later this summer. The town’s grant application promised it will provide “an attractive, accessible, pedestrian-friendly public recreation asset.”
Bill Shein is editor of The Argus.
Have thoughts? Submit a letter to the editor.
Image captions
Image 1An historic image of the Housatonic School included in a grant application. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts)
Image 2The Berkshire Heights water tank of the Great Barrington Fire District water system. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
An historic image of the Housatonic School included in a grant application. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts)
An historic image of the Housatonic School included in a grant application. (Commonwealth of Massachusetts)
The Berkshire Heights water tank of the Great Barrington Fire District water system. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
The Berkshire Heights water tank of the Great Barrington Fire District water system. (Bill Shein/Berkshire Argus)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
--“A Tale of Two Cities,” Book One, Chapter One
Built with Shorthand
