Appalachian Mountain Club will no longer manage Bascom Lodge

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The Appalachian Mountain Club will no longer manage Bascom Lodge and the Visitors’ Center on Mount Greylock, the state’s highest mountain, ending an arrangement of 15 years, an AMC spokesman said this week. “The AMC is basically moving out of the Berkshires,” said John Brennan, AMC manager at Bascom Lodge Monday. The decision to end the arrangement was voted by the AMC board in Boston last week, said Brennan. “We’ve been here 15 years,” said Brennan. The decision, he said, was prompted by lodge’s need for extensive repairs — totalling about $1 million. “Bascom Lodge needs a tremendous amount of work, a new septic system, a new water system. Right now, the waste is trucked out,” he said. “We’ve had a contractual arrangement with DEM to manage Bascom Lodge and in exchange we provide programs,” said Brennan. He is one of six full-time AMC staffers at Mount Greylock, where seasonal employees number about 30. “We have programs that will run through April,” he said. “We’re not leaving here until May 31.” AMC spokesman Hal Lacroix in the Boston office said, “We’re sending a letter to DEM this week notifying them that we’re going to discontinue our management of the Visitors Center and Bascom Lodge. “We’re looking for some other offices in the area,” he said. “We intend to continue our full commitment to our conservation and trails program out here,” he said. “Our maintaining the trails will not change at all. We have a trained staff that are experts at trail maintenance, and we have very active volunteer membership. “But whether we’ll still be leading hikes remains to be seen.” “We have an extensive program, and [its future] is still to be determined.” The lodge is closed for the winter, but, Lacroix noted, “we’ve led workshops out of the lodge.” The lodge is a popular stopover for through-hikers. The workshops and hikes attract both visitors and local residents. And the berry brunches in season are regular sell-out attractions. Said Lacroix, “The key thing is that we’re not going to be operating the lodge with overnights and food service, and we’ll be out of managing the visitors’ center. “It’s an environmental issue, really, on top of the summit. DEM is mandated by the state to upgrade its water and waste disposal system. They need to deal with it. It’s been identified for quite a while, that the septic system was failing.” “After April we don’t have any plans to operate out of the lodge. The workshop and education program is undergoing changes. The specific situation is related to environmental issues,” he said. “Elsewhere, the club is thriving.” The Appalachian Mountain Club has 87,000 members nationwide, 32,000 of them in Massachusetts. The club maintains 350 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut and New Hampshire, and has 1,400 miles of trail, some of it in the Berkshires. Douglas Poland, DEM regional supervisor of forests and parks, referred inquiries to state Director of Forests and Parks Todd Fredericks in Boston, who could not be reached for comment. Poland said only that the AMC and DEM planned to make a joint release about the change.
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North Adams Property Owners to See Tax Rates Fall, Bills Rise

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council on Tuesday voted to maintain the split tax shift, resulting in a drop in the residential and commercial tax rates. 
 
However, higher property values also mean about a $222 higher tax bill.
 
The vote was unanimous with Councilor Deanna Morrow absent. 
 
Mayor Jennifer Macksey recommended keeping a 1.715 shift to the commercial side, the same as last year. This sets the residential rate at $16.71 per $1,000 property valuation, down 43 cents, and the commercial/industrial to $35.22, down $1.12.
 
This is the lowest property tax rate since 2015, when it was $16.69.
 
"My job as the assessor is to assess based on full and fair cash value in an open market, willing buyer, willing seller, arms-length sales," said City Assessor Jessica Lincourt. "So every year, I have to do a sales analysis of everything that comes in."
 
All that documentation also has to be reviewed by the state Department of Revenue. 
 
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