Lanesborough Board Mulling 'Residents Only' Sign at Beach

Lally Beach lies at the end of a narrow residential street. 

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — A town resident wants signage at the public beach to encourage more orderly usage. 

Michael Lally, who resides on Sunrise Street, said he has taken care of the Pontoosuc Lake beach for years and wants to know why the sign stipulating that it is for town residents only is no more.

The Lanesborough Lally Public Beach is located at the end of Sunrise Street and he's calling for "residents only," "closes at dusk" and "no smoking" signage.

From Lally's observation, about 80 percent of beachgoers are not from Lanesborough.

"Every town has 'Town Residents Only' [at their beach]," he said to the Select Board on Monday.

"We used to have that in Lanesborough also and the sign has disappeared and I want to know why it has disappeared and I want to know what the problem is with having that sign put back up."

While the board members said they heard his frustration, they also want to make sure the signage won't be "toothless."

"Let's do it right because your request is a reasonable one," Select Board member Michael Murphy said, adding that he appreciates all that Lally does and wants to see what can be done to accommodate his request.

Select Board member Timothy Sorrell, the former police chief, could not remember any such a sign being there in his 30 years with the town but was informed that there was one about 15 years ago. He pointed out that the beach just got a "swim at your own risk" sign.

"I think one of our issues is, I feel your pain, we have nobody to enforce 'Lanesborough residents only,'" Sorrell said.

"Plus, right wrong, or indifferent, with all the Airbnbs, we can have somebody saying, 'I'm staying in an Airbnb and they told me that I can use the beach,' so I don't know how we go about doing something like this."

Lally said he would like signage to support police officers' enforcement when they arrive at the beach for undesirables but Murphy said it is up to the police to determine whether people need to leave or not. The board also said it is unfair to imply that "undesirables" are only in other communities, to which Lally agreed.

"A sign with no real authority isn't going to give the Police Department any authority to do anything either," Sorrell said.

Murphy, who grew up in Pittsfield, pointed out that there are no signs limiting the beaches there to residents, and people from surrounding communities are encouraged to use them.

Lally said it is different because Pittsfield is a city and parking is minimal for the town's small beach, which lies in a very residential area.

 "They have adequate parking. We don't have adequate parking," he added. "There's a big difference."

Lenox Class of 2024 'a Really Good Bunch of Kids'

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
08:43PM / Sunday, June 09, 2024

Valedictorian Genevieve Collins tells her classmates that they have had a bountiful harvest in what they had experienced at Lenox Memorial. See more photos here. 

LENOX, Mass. — The Lenox Memorial High School class of 2024 will be remembered as "a really good bunch of kids."

 

Superintendent William Collins said they earned the label early on — it's followed them from kindergarten through high school. 

 

"There was something special about the chemistry and history of individuals comprising the class of 2024," he told the family and friends in the Shed at Tanglewood for graduation ceremonies. I need not remind you that this is a class that began high school during the pandemic, a fate undeserved by anyone. It is a testament to their resiliency. They not only returned to in-person instruction but they made up the lost time. They've done a lot."

 

Collins called the 61 graduates on the Tanglewood stage "doers, achievers and accomplishers, highly intelligent and exceedingly kind."

 

He noted that the pursuit of happiness was held as equal to life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence. And rarely is the shortest line between two points the fastest road to happiness. A study on common factors of happiness, he said, found that rather than material wealth, "having a happy, connected friends for a wide social network, we are more likely to bring about enduring happiness."

 

"Circuitous routes are the best routes, serendipity by its very nature lives where we don't expect a pleasant surprises lie waiting unseen and unforeseen around the next bend on paths that we've never expected or intended to do," he said. 

 

Don't be afraid to ask for help, Collins said, make friends, or a friend. Know that Lenox Memorial is a better place because of the class, he said, "we know that you will carry a piece of us with you whether you stay in Lenox or travel halfway around the globe."