Electricity, Law Enforcement, Fests on Williamstown Board's Plate
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The Selectmen are working on the town meeting warrant.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Not all of the Selectmen's efforts Monday night were directed toward questions of open space and subsidized housing.
Some of its energy was spent on, well, energy.
A pair of power-related issues squeezed their way onto an agenda that would have been ambitious even if one of the issues addressed was not the most contentious question in town politics.
One of the energy issues is designed to save residents some money, and the other to help save the planet. And, unlike the questions dealing with conserved land, each of the power-related questions passed without much debate.
The measure likely to have a direct impact on local consumers was a followup to a move approved last year at town meeting, at which voters decided to authorize the board to seek an aggregate electrical load for all town consumers.
On Monday night, the panel agreed to sign on for for a multitown request for proposals spearheaded by the city of North Adams. The RFP will seek to find a power provider who can provide an aggregate supply for residents in 10 different Berkshire County communities from Williamstown to Great Barrington.
Town Manager Peter Fohlin told the Selectmen that a new energy contract likely would not go into effect until November.
In a separate agenda item, the board voted to sign a letter on behalf of the town asking Gov. Deval Patrick to strengthen the commonwealth's initiatives to promote solar energy.
Other than the conserved land, the issue that generated the most discussion was the town's quest for a new police station.
Even though there were no voices raised in opposition to the plan, Police Sgt. Scott McGowan made a lengthy and convincing case for the replacement of the aging facility the town's police force currently occupies inside Town Hall.
McGowan told the board and the audience both in the room and on WilliNet that the town, for all its beauty, is not immune to serious crimes, including rape, pedophilia and drug trafficking. And he retold stories of police investigations that were jeopardized by the limitations of the town's police station itself.
"We have come dangerously close and unnecessarily close to losing cases [because of] that facility," McGowan said. "We support Mr. Fohlin unequivocably. ... It needs to happen, and it needs happen now."
Fohlin raised the need for a new police station at the board's March 11 meeting. He did so again on Monday, informing the panel that he had drafted a warrant article for May's town meeting seeking $160,000 for engineering studies and architecture work on a new station.
Since Fohlin felt it practical to identify a potential site in the warrant article, he named location at the corner of North Street (U.S. Route 7) and Main Street (State Route 2).
"The two primary reasons I suggest this site were, No. 1, when people are in distress looking for the police station, it shouldn't be hidden," he said. "It should be visible, in a readily recognizable location. That describes that corner.
"No. 2, it would not take any property off the tax rolls. It's owned by Williams College, and I don't think the college will ever put anything there that would generate revenue on the tax rolls."
Fohlin detailed a number of alternative sites that he, Public Works Director Tim Kaiser, former chiefs of police and current Chief Kyle Johnson have considered over the years. There actually is one site Fohlin finds to be ideal in all respects but one: It would require taking a valuable piece of land off the property tax rolls.
"The (former) Agway (on Main Street), without a doubt, is my favorite site," Fohlin said. "It has fabulous sight lines, easy access to Route 2, visibility. But I still have a dream there will someday be an exciting taxpaying business there. As little commercial real estate as we have in tough, we shouldn't be taking commercial land off the tax rolls. That's my opinion."
Although no one in the room disputed the need for a new police station, Finance Committee member Andrew Hogeland did ask that the town consider cooperating with the fire district on a combined emergency services facility.
Based on his preliminary research, Hogeland said communities that have built dual-purpose buildings have realized savings on the order of 15 to 20 percent.
Fohlin said the Prudential Commttee, a separate governmental body that oversees the fire department, would have to contact the Selectmen if the fire district was interested in cooperating on a station. But Fohlin offered that in his opinion it would be more practical to have both the town's police and fire departments under one political umbrella before they ever thought about cohabitating.
"I'm not on a power trip," Fohlin said. "I won't live to see the day (the Prudential Committee is dissolved). I just can't support (cohabitation) when I know the governance issues that prevail."
Another possible article moving toward the warrant for the May 21 annual town meeting is a "festivals" bylaw. The proposal stems from an incident last summer involving a planned motorcycle rally in a quiet rural neighborhood that highlighted the possible need for such a bylaw in town.
Fohlin showed the Selectmen a bylaw enacted by another Massachusetts community that could serve as a model for Williamstown, and said he would have a more specific warrant article drafted for the board's consideration at its April 8 meeting.
Tags: energy costs, festival bylaw, police station,
