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A crew works on the third wall on the new Habitat for Humanity home on Cole Avenue and Maple Street in Williamstown on Friday morning.
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Volunteers Needed for Williamstown Habitat House

By Rebecca DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Around a dozen volunteers were continuing the process of raising walls Friday morning on the first of two new houses being built by Habitat for Humanity in Williamstown — the organization's first home in five years.

But more volunteers are always needed.

The home under construction is at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street. Habitat officials hope the first home, on the Cole Avenue side of the lot, will be framed out before the winter weather sets in.

Volunteers on Friday were working on the third wall, and work was scheduled to be done soon on cutting the curb on Cole Avenue to allow for the driveway to be situated.

Ground was broken on the house in July. Meghan Gleason, Neil DeCarolis and their four boys — Cameron, Caleb, Christian and Connor — hope to move in next summer.



Crews are typically out on site on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon.

When this first house is complete, work will begin on the second on the other side of the lot.

Potential volunteers can show up on the site or call the Habitat office at 413-664-4440.

 


Tags: habitat for humanity,   

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Williamstown Planners OK Preliminary Habitat Plan

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board on Tuesday agreed in principle to most of the waivers sought by Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity to build five homes on a Summer Street parcel.
 
But the planners strongly encouraged the non-profit to continue discussions with neighbors to the would-be subdivision to resolve those residents' concerns about the plan.
 
The developer and the landowner, the town's Affordable Housing Trust, were before the board for the second time seeking an OK for the preliminary subdivision plan. The goal of the preliminary approval process is to allow developers to have a dialogue with the board and stakeholders to identify issues that may come up if and when NBHFH brings a formal subdivision proposal back to the Planning Board.
 
Habitat has identified 11 potential waivers from the town's subdivision bylaw that it would need to build five single-family homes and a short access road from Summer Street to the new quarter-acre lots on the 1.75-acre lot the trust purchased in 2015.
 
Most of the waivers were received positively by the planners in a series of non-binding votes.
 
One, a request for relief from the requirement for granite or concrete monuments at street intersections, was rejected outright on the advice of the town's public works directors.
 
Another, a request to use open drainage to manage stormwater, received what amounted to a conditional approval by the board. The planners noted DPW Director Craig Clough's comment that while open drainage, per se, is not an issue for his department, he advised that said rain gardens not be included in the right of way, which would transfer ownership and maintenance of said gardens to the town.
 
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