Lee — The Select Board took action on March 5 to finalize the town’s current and new express bus stops, relocating the Town Hall/park Main Street stop to the front of the Lee Library, at the two parking spaces after the entrance to Franklin Street. Additionally, the Railroad Street bus stop will be eliminated and moved from the back of Hyde Place to the front of the building. The existing Mobil gas station bus stop ridership will transition to the new Hyde Place stop.
For the past few meetings, the Select Board has mulled the placement of the stops after representatives of the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA) originally approached town officials desiring to add a bus twice a day—morning and evening—for downtown commuters in addition to the existing bus stop that serves the general ridership hourly. With that stop now proposed to serve residents all day, the BRTA sought a site in front of Zabian’s Jewelers that would have taken away a coveted parking spot on Main Street in front of the store.
Currently, the bus route on the south side stops at the Mobil gas station, across from the Locker Room restaurant, with the north side bus stop aligned in front of the park, or parking lot, near Town Hall.
During the Select Board’s March 5 meeting, BRTA Administrator Robert Malnati, accompanied by General Manager Rauley Caine, approached the group advocating for the need for two new bus stops in each direction to be across the street from each other for the ease of passengers in finding the other bus stop.
Overall, Lee bus ridership has increased from 17,622 riders average year over year in 2022 and 2023 to an estimated 30,000-plus riders for 2024, with the town’s three downtown stops—Mobil gas station, Railroad Street, and Town Hall/Main Street northbound—accounting for about 15 percent of that average, Malnati said. “So, in a short few years, we’ve increased ridership,” he said.
Having a visible bus stop has impacted the ridership flow, Malnati said, reasoning that those spots are “in a place where the general public will know, ‘this is where I would stand if I wanted to take the bus.’” Without a designated bus stop, Caine said the bus can pick up any riders on Main Street who flag down the vehicle.
A February 28 letter from Zabian’s Jewelers owner Mohamed Zabian to BRTA stated that the positioning of a bus stop in front of 19 Main Street would be “detrimental” to his businesses as well as to tenants in the building occupying 15, 17, and 19 Main Street. Instead, he recommended a location across from the Lee Library to “not negatively affect the local businesses along Main Street.”
Additionally, a representative of Kelly Funeral Home at 3 Main Street offered a letter received by town officials also opposing the 19 Main Street proposed site.
The Select Board’s decision came down to two alternatives, with member Sean Regnier being the first to nix Alternative One’s Center Main Street, with its new outbound site on the west side, about 85 feet south of the crosswalk at Park Place. That option would remove one non-metered parking space. Alternative Two entailed relocating the inbound stop to Center Main Street, 35 feet north of the crosswalk at the library, and adding a new outbound stop on the west side of the street, opposite the library. Although this alternative involved relocating two parking spaces and removing three non-metered spaces in front of Hyde Place, members opted for this scenario.
“It is interesting to have the bus stops there (on Main Street, by the library), but we lose more parking as a town,” Regnier said of the second proposal. “Is that something we should weigh?”
The change also takes the Railroad Street bus stop in back of Hyde Place and moves that stop to the front of Hyde Place.
“I think you’d have the same riders if you were in front of the Hyde [Place] building as you would if were across from them on Railroad Street,” Bailey said. “It’s kind of a wash.” He said the second proposal wouldn’t take away parking spaces from any downtown businesses, with Regnier adding that the library has its own parking lot.
The Select Board and BRTA representatives discussed adding a shelter to the new bus stops, but that accessory will be determined by the agency in the future.
At the meeting, the Select Board also:
- Approved an agreement for shared administrative assistant services with Lee, Lenox, and Great Barrington for its building department, with Regnier recused;
- Approved a hawker/peddler license for food truck Charlie’s Bistro Bus;
- Approved one-day Sunday Entertainment License and Wine and Malt licenses for Jeff Jam, to be held May 26, from noon to 5 p.m.;
- Approved a waiver of inspection fees for First Congregational Church, with Bailey recused;
- Approved Patrick Rooney, alternate member of the Board of Public Works, as the group’s full-time member following the retirement of member Bob Artini, with a call to residents for a new alternate member;
- Announced the recipients of the 2024 Road Toll Lottery, a program that allows the organizations to collect donations on Main Street, with those winners including Lee Lady Wildcats Lacrosse team, Lee High School Boys Baseball, Sons and Daughters of Italy, Lee Middle and High School bands, and Knights of Columbus;
- Agreed to meet with the local eighth grade classes following the students submitting ideas to improve the town;
- Announced (Regnier) that a hearing on the proposed Master Plan will be held on April 6 in the school auditorium at 1 p.m., with a notice to be posted on the Lee website;
- Announced (Town Administrator Christopher Brittain) that the first of two payments, in the amount of $168,000, was approved for the Eagle Mill District;
- Announced (Brittain) that a mural will be created as part of a national 50-state mural program that will be sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce to be installed in the third week in July at 57 Main Street; and
- Announced that the Upland Disposal Facility’s Final Design Plan and Operations, Monitoring, and Maintenance Plan for the Housatonic Rest of River remediation project was released and will be posted on the town website, with a possible public meeting to follow. A paper copy of the release will be at town hall.
