Great Barrington — A public hearing on the fate of the town’s “visitor booth” building continued during the selectboard meeting on Monday, July 11.
The building is located at 362 Main Street and back in February, the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce submitted a special permit application to take down the existing visitors booth.
In a letter to the board, Chamber Executive Director Betsy Andrus wrote that the chamber wishes to construct “a true visitor center.”
“To serve the Southern Berkshires better, we feel it is time to create a more user-friendly structure,” Andrus wrote. “Putting all the chamber does under one roof, including information for visitors and locals, business office, and storage, will enable us to serve our community and visitors seven days a week.”
According to Andrus, the structure was originally built in 1970 and upgraded in 1981.
“The structure is very basic, shed-like, and was laid out for a different format of doing business,” Andrus wrote. “The structure itself is suffering from many issues, the most serious of which is a rotted back sill which is allowing water to come into the booth during heavy rain. The size of the windows makes it hard to see in, deterring visitors and the existing public space allows for about five feet for the average visitor to stand in and is not COVID friendly. Upgrading the public space to be ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant and more spacious will allow for a more inclusive and safer interaction for all.”
The plans include taking down and rebuilding the visitor’s booth, expanding the footprint of the location to 10 feet by 12 feet, and adding a second floor to house the chamber’s office.
In late March, Andrus wrote to the board that it would be necessary to construct a frost wall foundation under the entire new structure for adequate support of the second floor.
“We would like to revise our request slightly to include this foundation and to consider the current structure’s proximity to the east side sidewalk,” Andrus wrote. “If the structure is left at this location, the town’s sidewalk would be destroyed in the process of digging the trenches for the new foundation. Because of this, we would ask to move the entire structure west by five feet and, if granted, to then move the entrance door back to the front of the building, swapping the door for one of the windows.”
A hearing on the chamber’s plans for the building was held at the selectboard meeting in April and was continued to the meeting on July 11.
At the meeting, Andrus addressed several ideas and suggestions from the public that were given for the building, including the possibility of a public restroom at the location.
Andrus said that the chamber approached the town two years ago about a public restroom at the location, but that the previous selectboard rejected the offer.
“One year ago, the town voted at the annual town meeting to appropriate funds to build a public restroom on the back of Town Hall,” Andrus said. “We feel that the public restroom situation has been addressed by the town and it is probably not something that we would be doing. I guess I would just look for help and guidance to figure out how we can move this project forward.”
Before members of the board asked questions, Selectman Garfield Reed asked Chairman Stephen Bannon if he needed to recuse himself from any discussion because “I work very closely with Betsy.”
“We all work with Betsy,” Bannon said in response. “That’s firmly your call, and it’s not something I can give you advice on, Garfield.”
At the beginning of the discussion, Selectman Leigh Davis said that her main concern is that the chamber did not have an architect involved with the design of the new building.
Davis said that she reached out to Stockbridge based architect and chamber member Pamela Sandler, who joined in the Zoom meeting to discuss the proposed project.
“Betsy, you’ve done an amazing job without the help of architects,” Sandler said. “I drive by that building every single day, and I feel that it’s a very important building to the town because it’s one of the first things people see when they come in.”
Sandler suggested that the chamber put out a request for proposal for architects before proceeding with the project.
“There’s a lot of new local people who’ve moved to the area who are architects who all have fresh and different ideas,” Sandler said.
Chairman Bannon proceeded to make a motion to table the special permit application for Andrus to develop plans for the building proceeding.
The board unanimously voted to approve Bannon’s motion to continue the public hearing to the board’s meeting on Monday, September 19.
Click here for the PDF file of special permit application, courtesy of the Town of Great Barrington
