Mt. Greylock Building Committee Votes Down Overflow Parking Proposal
iBerkshires.com reports an evenly divided Mount Greylock Regional School Building Committee last week decided not to spend time and money looking at the creation of overflow parking on the north side of the new middle-high school.
At issue was a patch of land currently occupied by trailers related to the $64 million building project. As construction winds down, construction manager Turner Construction plans to remove the trailers and return the land to its natural state.
Over the years, there have been occasional discussions about whether that land -- currently covered by gravel -- could be kept as an alternative parking area for special events, especially since the newly constructed main lot at the school has less parking capacity than its previous lot.
The first real test of the new parking lot happened to coincide with Wednesday's meeting of the School Building Committee, which was forced to meet off-site at Williamstown Elementary School because of anticipated high demand for parking.
As anticipated, the lot was overtaxed after the school scheduled a cross country meet (with four visiting schools), a boys soccer game and a volleyball match in roughly the same time window.
SBC member Richard Cohen of Lanesborough noted that on his drive to Wednesday's meeting, he saw families parking and getting out of their cars on the side of Route 7.
Cohen had raised the issue of an auxiliary parking lot as recently as the committee's September meeting
Mount Greylock Principal Mary MacDonald, a voting member of the panel, agreed with Cohen.
After co-Chairwoman Paula Consolini clarified that a vote against Cohen's motion was a vote to go forward with landscaping the area at issue, the committee voted 4-4-1, and the motion died.
The next meeting of the School Building Committee is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 5:30 at the middle-high school.