Adams Special Town Meeting to Take Up Memorial School Development

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
05:09AM / Monday, December 02, 2024Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — Town meeting members will decide nine articles at a special town meeting next week, including the disposition of the 72-year-old Memorial Building.

It will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 6 p.m. at the Memorial Building, a former school building.

Mackin Construction Co. Inc. of Greenfield plans to invest $11 million to build out 20 or more one- and two-bedroom apartments in the three-story classroom wing that parallels Columbia Street.

Article 5 on the special town meeting warrant would authorize the Selectmen to sell the school to Michael Mackin for $50,000 and negotiate a 20-year lease with options to renew for a portion of the building that includes the gym and auditorium. The town has long planned to move the Council on Aging on the building and to continue to use it as a voting and meeting location.

The former Adams Memorial Middle School was built in 1952 as a high school and was later an elementary school. It was closed in 2009 because of budgetary and building issues and reopened for a year during the renovation of Hoosac Valley High School.

The article was one of only two that were not held for further discussion or comment by the Selectmen at their meeting Nov. 20. The other was Article 6, a 10-year special tax assessment for the Adams Theater.

Theater owner Yina Moore plans to invest $1.5 million in completing the Park Street theater for year-round use by 2026.

The exemption the first year would be 100 percent, followed by two years each of 75 percent, 50 and 25, and then 10 and 5 percent for the final years. The total value is estimated at $204,000.

Both were recommended by the Board of Selectmen, the first unanimously and the latter with one no vote and one abstention.

Article 1 on the warrant is perhaps the simplest. It asks town meeting members to approve a change in definition for an accessory building or use as being "subordinate or incidental" to the primary building or use, and being on the same lot or under common ownership on an adjacent lot.

Article 2 is more expansive in replacing the current home occupations bylaw; it makes some occupations by-right to streamline applications but also extends the Zoning Board of Appeals' ability to consider factors such as neighborhood character.

Article 3 and 4 deal with establishing a stormwater bylaw and in imposing liens on those who violate their stormwater permits. Selectman Joseph Nowak was the lone no vote when the bylaw was first presented and again on recommending it to town meeting. He believed it too complex and difficult to understand and did not see how it would address climate change. He also voted no on giving the town the authority to place liens on scofflaws.

Article 7 sets the expenditure limit on the Greylock Glen revolving fund at $50,000. The fund was established by town meeting in June. The fund is replenished through rental fees and can be used for maintenance and upkeep. Nowak abstained from voting.

Article 8 authorizes the board to enter into a solar power purchase agreement for the Greylock Glen. Solect Energy will build, operate and maintain the system for 25 years, at which time the town can purchase the array, extend the contract or have it removed.

Article 9 is a citizen's petition for the town to present a home-rule petition to the Legislature to create a Greylock Glen commission. A commission has always been part of the planning for the glen but previous bills have died in committee.

The Selectmen and the town administration has pushed through the development and officials say a commission will be in place once the outdoor center and proposed campground begin bringing in revenue.

Selectwoman Christine Hoyt held the article for discussion, saying the language was out of date.

"I agree that we should have a Greylock Glen commission, but the language that is stated here is over five years old from a time period before we had a building, before we had things in place," she said. "I am actually concerned about some of the language that is listed here in the way that things progressed in the last five years."

Nowak asked what was specific about the language that had her concerned. Hoyt said she wanted to speak to the town's attorney before clarifying her concerns but she would bring those to the special town meeting.

The citizen's petition did not require a vote to be placed on the warrant.

Tags: Greylock Glen, memorial building, special town meeting, tax exemption,

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Structure Fire in Adams Closes Schools, Calls in Mutual Aid

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
09:43AM / Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Fire Chief John Pansecchi, in white, talks strategy on Wednesday.

ADAMS, Mass. — At least eight fire companies responded to a Wednesday morning a structure fire in the old MacDermid Graphics building.

Firefighters and responders from Cheshire, Dalton, Hinsdale, Lanesborough, Lee, Savoy, North Adams, Pittsfield, Williamstown. Hinsdale also sent its rehab bus and Northern Berkshire EMS was on the scene with its rehab trailer.

The fire was reported at about 7:30 a.m. and black smoke could be seen looming over the old mill building at 10 Harmony St. Harmony and Prospect streets were closed to traffic.

The Adams Police Department posted on Facebook that Hoosac Valley Elementary School and Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School classes were cancelled for Wednesday. The schools are located not far from the structure.

Their post also reads, "Children on the bus already for Hoosac Valley Elementary School will be brought to the middle school gym at Hoosac Valley High School."

"BArT was already in session and will be evacuating to the Adams Visitor Center."

Fire Chief John Pansecchi said firefighters are approaching the blaze by pouring water at it from every angle.

"We have a fire in the building, looks like we have a lot of fire in the building and we're trying to get to it," he said. "Places have already collapsed prior to the fire, place that have collapsed since the fire, so not a lot of activity inside the building."

The mill, the former W.R. Grace, is made up of a number two- and three-story structures covering about 236,749 square feet. The fire was located in a long building toward the back of the property that runs alongside the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. The roof was fully engulfed in flames and collapsed in on itself around by 8 a.m.

Trucks from Williamstown were being situated in the Russell Field parking lot and firefighters were trying to find a location where they could attack the blaze from the trail.

Pansecchi said the building is supposed to be vacant.

"I was working when the call came in," he said. "My guys did a great job getting set up putting some hose lines and being prepared and got some plans put together when I got here to extend that and that's what were looking at."

The cause of the blaze is unknown at this time but the state fire marshal was on the scene.

Pansecchi said firefighters are providing observations from the outside and the North Adams drone has been deployed to determine the extent of the blaze. The buildings are large and unsafe in most cases to enter.

"We're making good progress but we're not at a point I'd call it contained," he said. "There's already places that have caved in prior to this."

He's been joined by fire chiefs from the various departments, who have been aiding the attack from different fronts.

"It's a really big help [having them] because you've got so much going on fighting a fire you don't think of the other things," the Adams chief said. "They start making suggestions."

Some of the structures on the complex date to 1881, when Renfrew Manufacturing built to produce jacquard textiles. It was the last asset of the company, and its machines and inventory were stripped out in 1927.

The mill's had various owners and periods of vacancy over the last century, but was probably best known as W.R. Grace, a specialty chemical company that bought it as part of the acquisition of Dewey & Almy Chemical in the mid-1950s.

MacDermid took it over in 1999 but closed the plant three years later, putting 86 people out of work.

The property has been vacant since and was purchased by 10 Harmony Street LLC for $53,500 in 2019, according the online assessor's records. Principal of the LLC is listed as John D. Duquette Jr.

Staff writers and photographers Breanna Steele, Jack Guerino, Tammy Daniels and Marty Alvarez contributed to this article.

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