By LISA SPEAR
Recorder Staff
MONTAGUE — An ice cream destination in town, the Country Creemee, received notice that its lease will not be renewed and the business owners are scrambling to look for a new place to set up shop before spring.
The property on Millers Falls Road, next to the Turners Falls Airport, will be used for extra parking for the property owner, plastics manufacturing company Hillside Plastics.
After 23 years of serving ice cream on warm summer nights, Creemee owners received 30 days notice to vacate the property.
The company, best known locally for its maple syrup containers, needs extra parking before a major building expansion, which will add 30,000 square feet to its Millers Falls Road headquarters, said President Peter Haas. This expansion allows the company to invest in the local economy and create new jobs, said Haas. “The idea is to grow and expand.”
There are hopes for the Creemee to find a new location close to the old one for the upcoming season opening in April. Until then, the proprietors have to remove their equipment from the Creemee building.
“We don’t know where we are going to put it. It’s devastating,” said Robyn Mason, co-owner of the Creemee. She would often work 10-hour days, seven days a week, to run the shop. She said customers often approach her in the off-season, asking when the business will reopen in the spring.
Some customers would come every day for hot dogs and beans, while others would sit outside in the sun all day and watch the planes fly overhead from the airport across the street. Even pilots, after landing their planes, would walk over to the Creemee for a frozen snack.
On hot summer nights, cars would line up around the side of the Creemee building and park down the street on the side of the road.
“Anyone who would come would say it was the best soft serve they ever had,” said co-owner Cynthia Ahearn, 75, who retired last year from working at the Creemee for about 13 years.
Sports teams and school children would regularly stop by. The owners said they watched babies grow into adults from the window of the Creemee. Groups of motorcycle and classic car enthusiasts would also gather outside.
The owners hope to keep these traditions alive if they can find a new location in time for the ice cream season, which spans from April to October.
Said Mason, “It’s kind of late to start from scratch.” She said that if the Creemee does not reopen, about 11 people will be out of a summer job.
You can reach Lisa Spear at: lspear@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280