Williams College Hosting Oceans Symposium

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Throughout the spring semester, the Williams College Center for Environmental Studies, biology department, political science department, maritime studies program, and lecture committee will sponsor a symposium on oceans.

The goal of this interdisciplinary symposium is to raise awareness about current environmental issues associated with the oceans and its inhabitants and about the challenges associated with human stewardship of the oceans.

The seven lectures in this series will occur on Feb. 17, Feb. 21, Feb. 27, March 6, April 10, April 17, and April 24. The first lecture will take place at 2:30 p.m. in Wege Auditorium, Thompson Chemistry. The remaining lectures will all take place at 7 p.m. in Thompson Biology, Room 112. All events are free and open to the public.

On Friday, Feb. 17, at 2:30 p.m., Catherine Robinson Hall, professor in the Williams-Mystic Program, will present the first lecture of the series. Her talk is titled "Disaster-Driven Ocean Policy in the United States: Gulf Oil Spill Not Big Enough?"

The second lecture, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m., is titled "Boulder Ideas: Storm Waves Can Move Megagravel on Cliff Tops of the Aran Islands, Ireland." Professor of geosciences Ronadh Cox will deliver the lecture.

On Monday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer at The New Yorker, will lead a discussion following a showing of the film A Sea Change, Imagine a World without Fish.


Scott Doney, professor in marine chemistry and geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will present a talk on Tuesday, March 6, at 7 p.m., titled "Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Ocean Acidification."

On Tuesday, April 10, at 7 p.m., Christine Walley, associate professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will give a lecture titled "Rethinking People and Parks (Once Again): Reflections on Ocean Environments from Tanzania's Mafia Island Marine Park."

D.G. Webster, assistant professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College, will present a talk on Tuesday, April 17, at 7 p.m., titled "Bluewater Thresholds: Understanding the Resilience of Global Fisheries Governance."

The final lecture in the series will take place on Tuesday, April 24, at 7 p.m. James Carlton, professor of biology and director of the Williams-Mystic Program, will deliver a lecture titled "Invasions in the Sea: The History, Science, and Policy of Adding Species to Marine Communities."
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Williamstown Housing Trust Commits $80K to Support Cable Mills Phase 3

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust last week agreed in principle to commit $80,000 more in town funds to support the third phase of the Cable Mills housing development on Water Street.
 
Developer David Traggorth asked the trustees to make the contribution from its coffers to help unlock an additional $5.4 million in state funds for the planned 54-unit apartment building at the south end of the Cable Mills site.
 
In 2022, the annual town meeting approved a $400,000 outlay of Community Preservation Act funds to support the third and final phase of the Cable Mills development, which started with the restoration and conversion of the former mill building and continued with the construction of condominiums along the Green River.
 
The town's CPA funds are part of the funding mix because 28 of Phase 3's 54 units (52 percent) will be designated as affordable housing for residents making up to 60 percent of the area median income.
 
Traggorth said he hopes by this August to have shovels in the ground on Phase 3, which has been delayed due to spiraling construction costs that forced the developer to redo the financial plan for the apartment building.
 
He showed the trustees a spreadsheet that demonstrated how the overall cost of the project has gone up by about $6 million from the 2022 budget.
 
"Most of that is driven by construction costs," he said. "Some of it is caused by the increase in interest rates. If it costs us more to borrow, we can't borrow as much."
 
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