The headlines in the Sept. 17, 1974 edition of the Berkshire Eagle brought news of a delay in the Greylock Glen project in Adams, Massachusetts. The timeline, according to Sen. Adam Hinds, had been pushed back two years to 1976.
"Wouldn't that have been nice," Hinds said on Wednesday, standing with Gov. Charlie Baker and other officials in the town of Adams to celebrate $6.5 million in funding to construct a new 10,000-square-foot Greylock Glen Outdoor Recreation and Nature Center that will finally bring the project to fruition.
The center is slated to be the "hub" for outdoor activity in the northern Berkshires, with access to the Department of Conservation's Mount Greylock State Reservation.
"COVID was a horrible, really difficult, at times tragic period but there are some silver linings from it and one of the silver linings has been the rediscovery of the outdoors," Baker said.
The governor told a story of a phone call with Rep. John Barrett about the project when the former mayor of North Adams "bit my head off."
"We're going to make sure it gets done, period," Baker said, using the opportunity to also highlight the $100 million he has proposed to pour into state parks, trails and outdoor recreation areas with federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.
Barrett called the Greylock Glen project the "single most important economic development project that's going to happen over the next 25 years in the northern Berkshires."
"I've got to correct the story the governor told about me. It was much worse," Barrett said, joking that he would have hung up on himself.
The project is being designed by Maclay Architects and is likely to begin in 2021 with completion anticipated in 2022.
The governor was also joined in western Massachusetts by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides, DCR Commissioner Jim Montgomery, Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, and Adams Town Administrator Jay Green.
