Alumni to Sing with Williams Octet

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WILLIAMSTOWN - The Williams Octet, the college's a cappella group, will feature alumni from the classes of 1942 through 2004 on Homecoming evening. The event will take place in Chapin Hall on Saturday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public. This, the 33rd alumni reunion concert, will feature ensemble pieces as well as performances by small-group octets from every decade. Songs will include old favorites "Love Potion No. 9," "Walk Away Renee" and "Gems of 1913," among others. The octet was founded in 1942 as an all-male a cappella group. Originally an actual octet, the group has expanded over time and the undergraduate group today includes 15 members.
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Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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