ADAMS, Mass. — The Traffic Commission had no real concern with the proposed Cumberland Farms on Commercial Street and gave the project its blessing.
The commission unanimously voted Tuesday to recommend the draft layout of the proposed gas station and convenience store that will be built on where Al's Service Center currently sits as well as two other adjacent parcels.
"I have looked at the plans that they have submitted to us and I kind of like their layout," Commission member and Police Chief Richard Tarsa said. "This plan that they have is a pretty good plan and I don't see any issues concerned with traffic."
Cumberland Farms is looking for three variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals and at a meeting earlier this month, the zoning board heard multiple concerns from residents in the surrounding neighborhood.
Traffic-related issues included increased traffic, a bus stop, increased accidents, congestion on Prospect Street and maneuverability of tanker trucks.
Prior to that meeting, the Traffic Commission did not review the plan.
The commission first noted that years ago there were multiple businesses operating in the area. Commissioner Tim Cota, also the Department of Public Works superintendent, said Aldaco had many more workers, the service center was pumping gas, a school was open and a service center was operational.
"We worry about congestion," he said. "Aladco had 200 to 300 more workers. They used to park on Prospect Street and you couldn't get through."
Tarsa said the area is also a low-volume accident area.
"That area does not raise any concerns," he said. "From that point of view, it does not raise any flags."
He added that the layout would actually make the area safer with better lines of sight.
As for issues with the tanker trucks, Cota said the existing Cumberland Farms (located just north on the other side of Commercial) creates far more traffic issues.
The only issue the commissioners saw was a bus stop but they agreed an easy fix would be just to move it somewhere else.
The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold another meeting in July and look at updated plans from Cumberland Farms.
In other business, the commission heard from two Phillips Hill Road residents who said Mullen Moving and Storage customers use the narrow road to reach the back loading dock on the second floor of the Grove Street building and completely block the road.
"It is at a point here where it is just bad," resident Katherine Dick said. "People leave their vehicles there on the dead-end street completely unattended … would any of you like to wait 20 minutes to go home when you get out of work?"
Dick said there are six residents who live on the hill and that idling cars has been a problem for over 10 years. She added that they have made contact with Mullen but nothing has come of it.
She said people who are unloading at the storage building are often confrontational.
"Eighty percent of the time, we run into people that are confrontational or they say wait 10 minutes," she said. "I drive a school bus and I can't tell you how many times kids have been waiting for me because I am not allowed out of my house."
Resident Mathew Davis said when neighbors are trying to pass, they are often cursed at or told to call the police. He added that one person, who had him waiting for over 20 minutes, asked him to help move a piano.
Dick said she was concerned about emergency vehicle access and noted the few minutes it may take for someone to move a vehicle could be life or death.
"I have been taken by the ambulance twice this year for a food allergy and I was unconscious the last one," she said. "So it took five more minutes for them to get to me by that time I would have died."
Davis, a North Adams firefighter, said if an all-call comes through to report to his station, he may not be able to get to the fire as quickly if a vehicle is blocking the path.
He went on to say that he has had tag sales that people have not been able to reach and Dick added that she had a party and one of the attendees was forced to carry his grill up the hill because the road was blocked by someone unloading.
Davis said larger trucks have created large potholes in the small road and have caused damage to a retaining wall.
He added that these trucks often turnaround in their driveways and damage their lawns.
Dick and Davis said they both had called the police but officers often do not get there in time or just tell the driver blocking the road to leave and then head out themselves.
Cota asked if there were other access points into the building and Dick said there are other entrances or people could just walk their items to the dock. She added there is a lift in the building, but it is broken.
Commissioner and Police Officer Gregory Onorato said he has been to calls on Phillips Road and felt something needed to be done.
"It is not a good situation up there at all it is very narrow," he said. "My opinion is that this should not burden the public ... even if you pull tight to the building with a small vehicle, you can't get by."
Davis noted that the other issue was a movable set of stairs that patrons often leave connected to the dock. He said this not only gets in residents' way but snow plows.
He asked if the commission could create a no-loading zone of some kind or force Mullen to fix its lift.
Tarsa said the commissioners cannot force Mullen to fix the lift and that before they make a ruling, he would like to invite Mullen's owners to a meeting.
"This is becoming a problem unfortunately and there is an abuse," he said. "I am concerned that there is no one here from Mullen ... I think we would be hard-pressed to take some action on this now but it has to be addressed."
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A Rare Bird: Koperniak Stands Out in Triple-A
By Frank MurtaughThe Memphis (Tenn.) Flyer
With Major League Baseball’s September roster expansion just around the corner, Berkshire County baseball fans will be watching to see whether 2016 Hoosac Valley High School graduate Matt Koperniak gets the call from the St. Louis Cardinals. Heading into Tuesday night’s action, Koperniak had 125 hits this summer for the Cards’ Triple A affiliate, the Memphis (Tenn.) Redbirds. He is hitting .309 this season with 17 home runs. In his minor league career, he has a .297 batting average with 56 homers after being signed as a free agent by St. Louis out of Trinity College in 2020. This week, sportswriter Frank Murtaugh of the Memphis Flyer profiled Koperniak for that publication. Murtaugh’s story appears here with the Flyer’s permission.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- I’ve interviewed professional baseball players for more than two decades. There are talented players who, honestly, aren’t that interesting away from the diamond. They’re good ballplayers, and baseball is what they know. There are also very interesting baseball players who aren’t all that talented. Now and then, though, you find yourself in the home team’s dugout at AutoZone Park with a very good baseball player who has a very interesting story to share. Like the Memphis Redbirds’ top hitter this season, outfielder Matt Koperniak.
That story? It began on Feb. 8, 1998, when Koperniak was born in London. (Koperniak played for Great Britain in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.) “My dad was in the military,” explains Koperniak. “He was in Italy for a bit, then England. But I have no memories of that time.” Matt and his family moved back to the States — to Adams, Mass. — before his third birthday.
Koperniak played collegiately at Division III Trinity College in Connecticut, part of the New England Small College Athletic Conference. He hit .394 as a junior in 2019, but beating up on the likes of Tufts and Wesleyan doesn’t typically catch the eye of major-league scouts. When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out his senior season, Koperniak received an extra year of eligibility but, having graduated with a degree in biology, he chose to sign as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I’ve always loved baseball,” says Koperniak, “and it’s helped me get places, including a good school. My advisor — agent now — was able to get me into pro ball, so here we are.” He played in a few showcases as well as for the North Adams SteepleCats in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, enough to convince a Cardinal scout he was worth that free agent offer.
The Redbirds hosted Memphis Red Sox Night on Aug. 10, the home team taking the field in commemorative uniforms honoring the Bluff City’s Negro Leagues team of the 1930s and ’40s. Luken Baker (the franchise’s all-time home run leader) and Jordan Walker (the team’s top-ranked prospect) each slammed home runs in a Memphis win over Gwinnett, but by the final out it had become Matt Koperniak Night at AutoZone Park. He drilled a home run, a triple, and a single, falling merely a double shy of hitting for the cycle. It was perfectly Koperniak: Outstanding baseball blended into others’ eye-catching heroics.
“It’s trying to do the little things right,” he emphasizes, “and being a competitor. The Cardinals do a great job of getting us to play well-rounded baseball. Everybody has the same mindset: How can I help win the next game? You gotta stay in attack mode to be productive.”
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