Open House for Temporary Lanesborough Police Station

By Brian RhodesPrint Story | Email Story

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — An open house for the temporary police station at 545 South Main Street is planned for Saturday, Nov. 12, from noon to 2 p.m., allowing residents to explore the new space. 

 

The Police Station Building Committee briefly discussed the event at its meeting on Wednesday. Committee Chair Kristen Tool said the event won't be extravagant, but it will allow those interested to familiarize themselves with the building. 

 

"There will be a free food buffet for everybody. Really it's just going to be open doors, big stickers for the kids. Pretty simple," she said. "... And Representative Paul Mark will be joining us for the open house." 

 

While the committee intended to have the event closer to the opening of the temporary station in August, the group decided to postpone so it would not conflict with the beginning of the school year. Tool said she would work on creating a flyer for the event

 

In other business, the committee also discussed a recent $150,000 gift from the Baker Hill Road District to be used to purchase land for a combined police and ambulance building. Tool reiterated that this gift needs to be accepted by the town. 

 

"That is still an item that will have to go to town vote to accept that money," she said. "So, one of our items on the next Select Board meeting is going to be to get them to actually schedule a special meeting." 

 

  • Tool said she is working on updating the committee's page on the town website, in preparation for a planned redesign. 

 

"I have edited our page a little bit so that it's updated, and then maybe next week we can discuss more about what we want to include on there," she said. "It might be nice to have little bullet points on the financial progress we've made, just so it's easy for people to see that information without having to read through all of our minutes." 

 

  • The board met in executive session with state Rep. John Barrett III to discuss the progress the board has made since it began and its next steps. The group had also planned to again meet with Architect Brian Humes of Jacumsci & Humes Architects, but decided to wait until its next meeting. 

 


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Lanesborough Elm Tree Named Largest in State

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — King Elmer is living up to his name, now deemed the largest American Elm in the state.

Jim Neureuther, chair of the Tree and Forrest Committee, happily reported this to the Select Board on Monday.  The Department of Conservation and Recreation released an updated Champion Trees list on May 4 with the town's over 100-foot tall elm at the top.

"It's official, King Elmer is the largest American Elm tree in Massachusetts," Neureuther said.

Located at the corner of Route 7 and Summer St., the king is believed to be over 250 years old and is 107 feet tall with an average canopy spread of 95.5 feet.  It scored 331.88 points with the state based on a 201-inch circumference, which is a 64-inch diameter (5'4 through the middle of the tree.)

King Elmer dethroned the former champion elm in Old Deerfield Village that has been cut down.  In 2019, Neureuther traveled to Franklin County to see it only to find a stump, prompting him to submit the Lanesborough tree's official measurements.

He thought, "Wait a minute, we're moving up the ranks now."

The second-place elm scored 320 points, giving King Elmer a lead in the race barring the loss of a limb.

Earlier this year, the town was notified by the Arbor Day Foundation that it had been recognized as Tree City USA for 2023, a long-held designation.  

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