Goose Pond sits between the southeastern quadrant of Lee below the Mass Pike and the upper reaches of Tyringham, an idyllic rural Berkshire community with just a few hundred residents.
“Goose Pond is a terrific resource. It's a stock trout water, it's heavily fished for smallmouth bass. Ice fishermen in the winter use the facility, and it's just a great natural resource out in the Berkshires," said Terry Smith, Acting Director for the Massachusetts Office of Fishing and Boating Access. The agency oversees around 300 boat and canoe launch sites, shore fishing areas, and recreational fishing piers across the commonwealth.
“We rebuilt the facility back in 2018 which was fisherman access, we did paving improvements, boat ramp improvements at that time, and then as a result of that, there was some other improvements that the community would like to see,” Smith continued.
The new-look Goose Pond will see its offerings upgraded and expanded.
“Now with the added accessibility improvements, it should really serve the community and everyone that uses the facility well," Smith told WAMC. "The facility there is a paved boat ramp that goes down to the water. There's parking for approximately 20 boat trailers and cartop boats along the access roads that are there and defined parking spaces.”
Today’s unveiling is also a memorial for a Lee resident, Evan “Cole” Colbert.
“So, we're really excited to join the community this Friday, involving the dedication for the improvements in the memory of Evan Colbert, a member of the Lee and surrounding community, and celebrate the recent improvements that were made there through some generous donations,” said Smith.
Colbert died in 2019 at just 29 years old.
“The local community raised over $5,000 through this annual hard water fishing derby, ice fishing derby in Evan’s memory," Smith said. "The funds supported the accessibility aspects of the project, in terms of the new floating dock system that's there, accessible sidewalks, it went towards the purchase of granite stone and plaque to honor Evan and his passion for the outdoors, being on the water and fishing and boating at Goose Pond.”
Friends describe Colbert as an avid fisherman and boater.
“He just loved being on the water. Loved having a good time. I mean, I used to go out fishing with him a lot. And, you know, I mean, half the time it's like, all right, fish in the morning, then you just end up hanging out on a lake for the rest of the day. And, yeah, I mean, that was really, kind of what made him click, was just being out in the water," said Austin Consolati of Lee. “Probably by like eighth, ninth grade was when I started hanging out with him a lot. I think, mutual friends. And we did a lot of fishing, and then, especially through high school and beyond, he was I'd say my best friend since then.”
Consolati and other intimates of Colbert still feel his absence vividly more than five years after his death.
“You never meet anybody that that didn't like him," Consolati told WAMC. "He was just such a nice, great dude, and he worked down at the local lumberyard, Dresser-Hull, and a volunteer firefighter at South Lee Fire Department. So, he knew a lot of people. A lot of people liked him.”
Smith hopes the ceremony will serve as a moment of togetherness for a community still mourning Colbert. The nature of his death has not been publicly discussed.
“Evan had a lot of people in the community that that came out and supported the fundraising at the annual memorial ice fishing derby," said Smith. "We'd hope that a lot of those members of the community would come out and join with his family and in his memory, his friends, and there'll be representatives from the town and the state legislature there as we honor his passion for the outdoors and the improvements that everyone out in the community helped make."
For Consolati, just having Colbert’s name attached to the pond he spent his happiest hours at is some kind of comfort.
“Hopefully it's something that people will see positively, and when they see this memorial, that they'll think of him and remember the good times,” he told WAMC.
