For Stockbridge walkers, a new resting spot will soon be in place. On November 7, the Stockbridge Select Board unanimously approved a bench to be dedicated by the family of Franklin Ripley on Elm Street, in his memory, and to be placed on a grassy patch opposite the Stockbridge Public Library wall.
“Mr. Ripley was an icon to this town,” said Select Board member Ernest “Chuck” Cardillo said. “I miss not seeing him out there on the streets. It’s a very sad event, and I think this will be great. I’m 100 percent behind it.”
Ripley, 72, was the victim of a hit-and-run incident on Route 102 in Stockbridge early on the morning of September 28. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and Samantha Paige, 36, of West Stockbridge was arraigned in Southern Berkshire District Court for the alleged incident on October 1, charged with Leaving the Scene of a Personal Injury Resulting in Death.
Signage debate
Following the Select Board’s February approval of directional signage to be put in place by the Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce, residents voiced concern over the new markers. Select Board Chair Jamie Minacci prefaced the discussion with confirmation that the Select Board made the decision in an open meeting after a prior session spent reviewing the signs to be installed. “But I understand the optics, people have feelings and have changed their mind,” she said. “That’s OK, but I just want to say that we did follow procedure, and the Chamber of Commerce did their job.”
Planning Board Chair Kate Fletcher, speaking in her own capacity and not representing the group, showed a slide depicting what she described as “some redundancy” in the placement of the Old Town Hall/cemetery sign. “You don’t need those signs if you’re going to keep the new municipal sign,” she said.
Resident Denny Alsop said he was riding his bicycle in the dedicated bike path recently and, although he was dressed in bright yellow, a car cut right in front of him at that intersection, nearly wiping him out. “I think that kind of sign is inappropriate in that kind of an area,” he said. “That’s a very intensely used area, and when the cars are about 50 or 100 feet this side of where this new sign is, they start to accelerate into that corner. It’s like, ‘OK, we’re off Main Street. Now we can gun it for those good folks on Church Street.’ They really do, they take off right there.”
Alsop questioned whether the driver was distracted trying to read the signs and said the priority for the signage in the area should be safety. “It should be about how vehicles are able to perceive what’s coming at them,” he said, asking for the sign to be moved elsewhere.
Other citizens spoke in favor of relocating the sign further from the intersection, giving drivers more time to decide their route and also stated that the breadth of surrounding trees in summer makes the sign difficult to read.
According to Minacci, the cost to move each sign is $3,200, advocating the group be “judicious” in their decision.
Town Administrator Michael Canales said the signs don’t impact vehicular sightlines.
Board member Patrick White said he and Canales discussed moving the Gould Meadows sign, 110B Interlaken Road, to near the entrance by Kripalu. Speakers also pushed to relocate the sign, advocating to preserve “the pristine view” that exists at the entrance into town and finding the signs hard to read while on the road.
Ron Brouker, who chairs the Conservation Commission and is a founding member of the committee responsible for restoring Gould Meadows, said adding the town signs had been in the works for years but he was taken aback by the proposal moving forward. “If you drive into town, there’s a sign,” he said. “You have to stop to read it and it’s not a good intersection to stop at because most people don’t know where they’re going down that direction anyways.”
Brouker said that much time and effort has been put into improving the view in that spot, “and now there’s a sign there.” “I think it’s just a detriment to what we’ve done so far,” he said of the sign.
Referring to Minacci’s statement that the Select Board offered “due process” to discuss the signage before making a final decision, Tom Stokes pushed back, saying “people didn’t know about it.” He cited members of the Conservation Commission and the Gould Meadows Restoration Committee who were in the dark about the measure, especially since the former owns the deed to the property. Stokes pointed out that the sign blocks the view of a bench memorializing Mary Flynn, a longtime teacher and the first woman to serve on the town’s Select Board, and admonished the dais for not seeking the reaction of the Conservation Commission and others before adding the signage.
Fletcher queried whether the extra new signage was necessary given the proliferation of GPS systems.
Resident Doug Goody said the signs are for the benefit of the community, serving as cultural signs for nonprofit entities that hire employees from town. To make them larger and more readable would mean the signs would become “really obnoxious,” he said. “I think the selectmen just need to do whatever is appropriate to protect all interests,” Goody said. “And if it has to be moved, I think moving great. But the bottom line is this is also important for the town to have these cultural attractions protected.”
Regarding the directional sign on the Main Street triangle of land near St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 29 Main Street, speakers addressed a regulation that the tract should not include any other signage or commemoration other than the existing monument. On August 15, resident Jorja Marsden approached the dais, requesting the group relocate the signs erected in front of the Civil War Monument as the site serves to honor Stockbridge soldiers who died in the Civil War.
Post-pandemic decision
White said the decision to add signage was made at a time when the nonprofit organizations were under “tremendous pressure” to survive following the pandemic, with their futures uncertain.
“I understand everything that’s been said today about the aesthetics of these signs, but I would just encourage you that, from my perspective sitting in one of these chairs, that the help of these organizations coming out of the pandemic was the most important thing to me, not whether or not the font needed to be a little bigger or not whether or not there should have been three slots instead of eight slots and, frankly, not in terms of where [or] what kind of view [they were] blocking,” he said.
Should one or more of those nonprofits go under, White cautioned, their assets—that include land and properties in town—would be auctioned off, not knowing who the buyers would be or what the tracts would be developed into. “These are really serious concerns,” he said, asking for a break now in better times.
Minacci said she was unaware that the relevant committees weren’t contacted about the signs and applauded the Chamber of Commerce for their action.
Cardillo said he “would like to step back” from deciding on the signs that evening, offering instead to meet with the Chamber of Commerce and review the options presented at the session. Canales said he would present recommendations based on the feedback at the meeting when the agenda item is taken up again after the holidays.
“I think that there are solutions out there that we can do, and I don’t want to rush [it],” Cardillo said.
At the meeting, the Select Board also:
- Approved a special permit for 12 Larrywaug Cross Road, covering a two-story home to serve as the property owners’ residence until a main home is built, with the build to be constructed in the same footprint as an existing nonconforming garage provided a deed restriction is placed on the property such that the new structure could only be used as a year-round rental if rented but not as a short-term rental;
- Approved, following a National Grid Pole hearing, to install on Larrywaug Cross Road for new service at 12 Larrywaug Cross, provided no trees are taken down;
- Approved, following a National Grid Pole Hearing, to move two poles on South Hill Road to allow the poles to be more accessible for maintenance, placing them closer to the road;
- Appointed three members to the Stockbridge Mohican Commission; and
- Approved appointing Stockbridge Fire Chief Vincent Garofoli as joint Stockbridge/West Stockbridge fire chief for the remainder of fiscal year 2025, with the West Stockbridge Select Board having made the identical approval at the group’s last meeting. Due to the late hour, the Select Board deferred an update on its fire and emergency medical services until the next session.
