Great Barrington — During the Selectboard’s Monday, August 8 meeting, business owners delivered their concerns about the Berkshire Busk! series of events.
Back at its meeting on April 11, the board approved a request from organizers to close Railroad Street to traffic on both Friday and Saturday nights from 6 to 10 p.m., from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
“As you probably recall, that is later than when we closed the street or narrowed it in previous years,” Town Manager Mark Pruhenski told the board. “But it was an attempt to find a time that would work for both merchants and restaurant owners on Railroad Street. From time to time, I have received complaints about [event] setup happening on Railroad Street starting as early as 4 p.m., or 4:35 p.m. for some nights.”
Michael Marcus, who owns Bizen Gourmet Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar on 17 Railroad St., asked the board for permission to allow Railroad Street restaurants to set up for Busk events earlier than 6 p.m.
“Before I start, I wanted to express our gratitude to the town and board for opening up this new approach for restaurants,” Marcus said. “It’s completely changed our ability to serve the public. The problem is that restaurants have a completely different agenda than the other businesses on Railroad Street. Merchants, shop owners, and retailers have a different timetables [for setting up for the Busk events]. Our goal is to be able to function as an outdoor and indoor restaurant in a viable way without the situation regressing into complete chaos.”
Marcus said that his restaurant opens at 5 p.m., and “that means our staff is invested in doing their work inside the restaurant, greeting and seating customers, and taking their food orders [and] going on to deliver the food.”
“You can imagine how much effort it takes to just serve the people that are inside the restaurant,” he said. “When the street opens at 6 p.m., our staff is depleted. We’re basically setting up Railroad Street as another restaurant, which puts a lot of pressure on everybody.”
Marcus said that the staff of other restaurants on Railroad Street are facing similar challenges in setting up for the Berkshire Busk! event.
However, Paula Friedman, who told the board that she is associated with Bernay Fine Art, said she is against allowing restaurants to set up earlier.
The art gallery is located at 296 Main St., which is on the corner of Main and Railroad Streets.
Friedman said that the back door to the gallery is at Railroad Street. She said that procedures leading up to the event have scared away customers from the gallery.
“We’ve had a lot of issues this past month with Friday and Saturday nights,” Friedman said. “I’ve spoken to [Berkshire Busk! Director Eugene Carr] about the issues with the Busk, including people out on the street at 4:30 p.m., warning people that their cars are going to be towed. He’s agreed to try to not do that. I’ve spoken to the police who have been there at 5:30 p.m. with their sirens flashing. I think 6 p.m. was the agreed upon time so that we can stay open and have people park on Railroad Street to come into our establishments. It’s getting to the point where, at 4:30 p.m., barely anybody is parking on Railroad Street because they see people setting up tables, and [people associated with the Busk] are warning them that they will be towed. This is not what we agreed to, and it is really hurting our businesses.”
Friedman added that the gallery and other businesses rely on parking on Railroad Street and “I don’t think this is fair [to set up] at 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. It’s really been upsetting to business owners.”
Police Chief Paul Sorti weighed in and said that he believes the 6 p.m. set-up time for restaurants should be adhered to.
“When we had these meetings about it, my biggest concern was, obviously, the safety of the pedestrians and the diners in the downtown area,” Chief Sorti said. “That’s why we came up with this plan. To try to keep people safe, I prefer not to have people setting up stuff in the roadway.”
Select Board member Garfield Reed agreed with Chief Sorti.
“I think we should leave it as it is,” Reed said. “I’m sorry if [Marcus] does not have enough staff, but that’s not anyone’s problem but your own. Six o’clock was the time that was agreed to.”
“I feel that we should keep it as is for the rest of [the series],” Selectboard member Eric Gabriel said. “After the season ends, we should then have the restaurants and the store owners get back together to see if they can work out a deal then. But changing things halfway—three-quarters of the way through doesn’t seem exactly like a good idea to me.”
Eventually, the board decided not to vote on the request made by Marcus and let the current rules of Busk events and Railroad Street stand.
When contacted, Festival Director Carr said he had no comment for this story.
