The Planning Board had a frank and often tense discussion with outgoing Selectboard Chairman Sean Stanton over which board should be the special permit-granting authority for marijuana establishments.
If voters approve the Great Barrington bylaw, indoor cultivation of marijuana of the sort envisioned in the mills will be permitted by-right in the light industrial zone that covers much of Housatonic.
In addition to the trucks and the transfer station activities, there are reports of race cars gunning their engines on the O'Brien property on the weekends.
"I think Great Barrington needs to have a more robust business community than it currently does. Great Barrington needs to become that small town that, besides great food and culture, is also a very interesting place to set up your business and that's the missing piece."
-- Tim Newman, WiredWest spokesperson who would move his business to Great Barrington if affordable high-speed communications were available
In his letter to the editor, Aaron Thier writes: "I do not accept the proposition that spurious aesthetic concerns justify limiting, even to a small extent, our capacity to generate clean energy."
Inspector Edwin May did his job by interpreting what was available on the books. He treated Kearsarge’s project, which is to generate power at discounted rates for three central Massachusetts municipalities, as “light industrial” and so not allowed on the land the company planned to lease from farmer Bob Coons.
Among the usual farm stressors, lowered milk prices prevented farmer Bob Coons from expanding the cowherd, leaving him to look for new ways to survive and leasing 20 of his roughly 200 acres, mostly wetlands, being his only shot at staying on the land his family has farmed since the 1950s.
“Until last week the school did not understand the location, the size, or the timing of the project. We’re just attempting to collect as much information as possible to share with our families, hear their concerns, and work with Kearsarge Energy to bring about a solution.
-- Tom Sternal, president of the board of trustees at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School
The entire area around Lake Mansfield is a delicate ecosystem surrounded by homes on a hill from which storm water and sediment run into the lake. Simply repaving the road won’t solve any of this, and town officials say such a measure will simply increase car speeds.
Rose will discuss the life of the Berkshires' Mum Bett -- who later changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman -- the first black enslaved person to gain her freedom in a court of law based on the principle of general equality.
