Clarksburg Welcomes Reserve Officers, Hears From Ed Task Force
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Town officials welcomed Clarksburg's two newest police officers on Wednesday night.
Kevin Stant and Samantha Haines were confirmed by the Select Board as reserve patrol officers for the rest of the 2017 fiscal year.
Chief Michael Williams introduced the officers, whom he said had completed the reserve intermittent officer training course. They also successfully passed the interview process and background check.
"I believe both candidates would make good officers on this department," he wrote in his letter to the Select Board.
Stant has been employed by the North Adams Ambulance Service and as a dispatcher with the North Adams Police Department, and was a volunteer with the Pownal (Vt.) Rescue Squad. He earned a degree from Western New England University and works at Carbone Auto Group in Bennington, Vt.
Haines has prior experience in law enforcement from her studies at Westfield State University, where she worked as a student security officer. She also was an intern with the Chicopee Police Department. She is currently employed as a supervisor with the Key Program, which assists troubled youth.
The Select Board also spoke with Doug McNally, who was representing the Berkshire Education Task Force. McNally, a Windsor selectman and former principal of Taconic High School, had earlier in the week been in Cheshire. He and other task force members are filling in town and school official across the county about the results of a recent report commissioned by the group.
He reviewed the findings, with the major points being a continuing drop in enrollment and rising costs that are pinching towns and impinging on school district's ability to provide quality education.
"The bottom line is there's going to be no silver bullet with a solution to the problem," he said. "What the task force is trying to do is keep communities focused on is quality education that's sustainable."
The advisory body hopes to have recommendations for school districts by next summer on ways to collaborate or consolidate. Greater state education aid will also be a critical factor — one the group has impressed upon Gov. Charlie Baker.
"The issue that we hammered him on is the present model .... that says if you have declining enrollment that we will hold harmless on Chapter 70," McNally said. "It doesn't do us any good. We're dying."
Town Administrator Carl McKinney thought there has to be more standardization between the New England states and New York "so we're all on the same page," and more access to shared services, giving the Northern Berkshire School Union as an example that's "worked swimmingly."
"I think that if you look at almost like a Northern Tier, I think that there is a synergy between the smaller communities of northwestern Massachusetts that probably would not gel as well as with some of the larger metropolitan areas," he said, suggesting that the smaller towns could band together.
McNally agreed that it's no so much small as "teeny tiny" districts.
"You talk about small communities we're talking tiny communities," he said. "My community would fit in a large high-rise apartment building in Boston."
But while the task force isn't necessarily calling for school closures, Select Board member William Schrade didn't see how school closings would not happen.
"You're saying we're not calling for schools to close, down the road some schools are going to close," he said. "It's just not sustainable."
In other business, McKinney reported that the town's application for Green Communities designation and grant funding was submitted.
• The board set a policy for using town credit cards, with a 90-day review, and approved $1,000 one-time stipend to compensate Williams for stepping in as interim town treasurer and information technology technician after the departure of the town treasurer.
• The board also discussed the poor conditions on a section of West Road and the use of cones and barrels at that area to warn motorists. There are only three houses beyond that section in Clarksburg but Stamford, Vt., residents have to use the road to access Risky Ranch and Klondike roads. McKinney said the town had other costly road priorities that have to be dealt with before it turn to West Road.
Tags: appointments, education task force, police,
