The Selectmen are expected to set a special town meeting in December to decide the acquisition of the Spruces Mobile Home Park.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Selectmen on Tuesday will set the stage for an anticipated Dec. 10 special town meeting to decide whether the town should take possession of the Spruces Mobile Home Park.

 

According to an agenda posted Thursday afternoon, the board will discuss the drafts of three warrant articles dealing with the future of the park, which the town plans to acquire from Rochester, N.Y.,-based Morgan Management and close as required by the terms of a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.

 

Article 1 of the draft would authorize the Selectmen to enter into a lease with Morgan Management to operate the park during the mandatory 24-month period required by Massachusetts law after notifying manufactured home park residents of the intent to close a park.

 

Article 2 is a related article that deals with the creation of a revolving fund to allow the town to manage the park during that two-year period.

 

Article 3 as drafted would authorize the Selectmen to acquire the park "by gift, purchase or eminent domain." In this case, the eminent domain language refers to a possible "friendly taking;" the town and Morgan Management have been partners on the FEMA grant from the beginning, and Town Manager Peter Fohlin has consistently characterized his negotiations with Morgan's principal as amicable.

 

In other business, the board will hear a request from the Women's Institute for Housing and Economic Development and Berkshire Housing Development Corp. for $2.6 million of town money to help with the development of affordable housing on a parcel being donated by Williams College.

 

Pittsfield's Berkshire Housing and Boston's Women's Institute are partnered with Williamstown non-profits Higher Ground and the Williamstown Elderly Housing Corp. on a plan to develop affordable housing at the end of Southworth Street, adjacent to the Proprietor's Field senior housing project.

 

The board is meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12, because its regular meeting day, the second Monday of the month, is Veterans Day. The board has two more meetings before the prospective special town meeting: Nov. 25, when it presumably would sign the warrant, and Dec. 9, the evening before the proposed meeting.

 

If the special town meeting is called, it would be the sixth such "special" meeting in town this year, including two special Fire District meetings:

 

♦ Feb. 26, special town meeting was held to remove an outdated deed restriction on one previously town-owned property and an obsolete right of first refusal on another previously town-owned property. The non-controversial measures easily passed.

♦ April 24, a pair of special town meetings were held at Mount Greylock Regional High School on the same night to address the issue of whether to use town-owned open space to develop affordable housing. Voters decided not to decide on any of the issues on the warrant but instead allow more time for study.

♦ Oct. 15, a special Fire District meeting was held to consider the purchase of a Main Street parcel where district officials would like to build a new fire station. The majority of voters favored acquisition, but the measure failed to achieve the two-thirds majority it needed for passage.

♦ Dec. 3, a special Fire District meeting is scheduled to put the same question — with modifications — to the voters.

♦ Dec. 10, the possible special town meeting on the Spruces Mobile Home Park.