Planners OK Motorcycle Club, New Bank SignBy Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
07:49PM / Monday, January 09, 2012 | |
 Planners Paul Hopkins and Joanne DeRose were absent on Monday. |
Temporary signs are going up on the newly merged Adams Co-operative and South Adams savings banks. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A local motorcycle club got the go-ahead to create a clubhouse on Union Street after pledging to fix the parking lot.
The Doppelgangers' permit hearing had been continued by the Planning Board last month over concerns that the building and parking lot, owned by Charles "Rusty" Ransford, did not comply with building codes or city ordinances.
On Monday, club leaders Tim Dunne and Robert Donnelly said they cleaned up some of the area and patched potholes in the back of 76 Union St., where they hoped to locate their club. They also had submitted a plan for painting and repairs and said Ransford had agreed to work with them to fix the parking lot.
"We're going to have to remove some 'icebergs,'" said Tim Dunne, referring to boulders in the unpaved lot, and have a local contractor level it. "We're trying to to get this going without causing a ginormic [sic] cost to ourselves."
Planner Wayne Wilkinson said the board and applicants had talked about different surfaces but no plan on what would be used and when it would be completed had been submitted.
"I have no problem with the applicants ... but the city ordinance is the city ordinance," he said, adding the board should have it writing "we should put this material down here at such and such a time."
In response to queries from the board, Building Inspector William Meranti said aggregate or the current gray gravel surface could pass muster. "Installed correctly, packed correctly, it's a good hard surface," he said.
After discussion with Ransford and the club members, the board voted on conditions including the plans for painting and other building be completed by June and that the "parking lot will be completed with compacted gray, gravel by July 9."
In other business:
► An application of Jeremy and Dawn Broadwell for a special permit to install a sign at 184 East Main St. was continued at the Broadwells' request because they were unable to attend.
►Temporary signage for Adams Co-operative Bank on Eagle Street, noting its new moniker of Adams Community Bank, was approved. The vinyl signs will be used until permanent signs are ready. The bank recently merged with South Adams Savings Bank.
► Meranti reported that Mohawk Auto Sales had come into compliance within a few days after fines were instituted. A so-called sawmill on the property was not part of the business, he said, but used by the owner's father to cut wood for his hobbies.
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