Milne Library Sets Program for Lincoln, Martin Luther King Day

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Milne Public Library will celebrate Abraham Lincoln's 200th and Martin Luther King's 80th birthdays on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 7 with the story of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Words can change the course of history and people's lives. In the case of the Emancipation Proclamation, perhaps no other words in American history changed so many lives so dramatically. It was not the most eloquent document that Lincoln wrote but many believe it was the most courageous. To this day, the document has conflicting historical and interpretive facets.

What was Lincoln's real intention? Did it really free millions of slaves? Robert Campanile will present historians' opinions and other perspectives of the words that so passionately moved the hearts and souls of a nation in the midst of a Civil War.

For further information, contact Pat McLeod, library director at 413-458-5369 or pmcleod@williamstown.net.
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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The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.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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