Williamstown Firefighters to Receive Raise

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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The Prudential Committee on Wednesday approved a raise for the town's call firefighters.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The board that governs the town's fire district on Wednesday voted unanimously to give a modest raise to its chief, his officers and the town's call volunteer firefighters.
 
The Prudential Committee will spend the next month hammering out details of the district's fiscal 2015 budget in anticipation of the May 27 annual Fire District meeting.
 
On Wednesday, it got the process started, acting on a motion from Chairman John Notsley to increase wages, including those of the firefighters, who had not seen an increase in five years.
 
Although not full-time or even part-time employees, Williamstown firefighters receive a stipend of $15 per hour for the time they spend responding to calls. Notsley recommended raising that figure to $16 per hour, and the other two members of the committee agreed.
 
Chief Craig Pedercini is in line for a 2 percent salary increase, and his engineers, who have not seen an increase in eight years, would receive $250 more per year, according to Notsley's motion.
 
"The engineers have been doing a fantastic job, as well as the men," said Notsley, who participated in the meeting via speaker phone. "They have their auto expenses and all the other expenses they're not reimbursed for."
 
And, he noted, the call volunteer firefighters are a bargain for the town.
 
"You couldn't hire one full-time fireman in Western Mass for what we pay per year," Notsley said.
 
In FY14, the district budgeted $56,500 to pay its firefighters.
 
In other business on Wednesday, the Prudential Committee discussed improvements to the department's communications system and establishing a regular replacement schedule for firefighter's equipment (coat, pants, boots and helmets), which national standards say should be replaced at least once every 10 years.
 
The committee — which is responsible for the town's street lights — also granted the request of a town resident and agreed to pursue installation of a light at the intersection of Woodcock Road and Cold Spring Road (Route 7).
 
"It's a dark area," committee member Ed McGowan said after evaluating the intersection in response to a resident's letter. "I think we need it there."

Tags: firefighter,   fiscal 2015,   prudential committee,   wages,   

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Williamstown Select Board Awards ARPA Funds to Remedy Hall

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday allocated $20,000 in COVID-19-era relief funds to help a non-profit born of the pandemic era that seeks to provide relief to residents in need.
 
On a unanimous vote, the board voted to grant the American Rescue Plan Act money to support Remedy Hall, a resource center that provides "basic life necessities" and emotional support to "individuals and families experiencing great hardship."
 
The board of the non-profit approached the Select Board with a request for $12,000 in ARPA Funds to help cover some of the relief agency's startup costs, including the purchase of a vehicle to pick up donations and deliver items to clients, storage rental space and insurance.
 
The board estimates that the cost of operating Remedy Hall in its second year — including some one-time expenses — at just north of $31,500. But as board members explained on Monday night, some sources of funding are not available to Remedy Hall now but will be in the future.
 
"With the [Williamstown] Community Chest, you have to be in existence four or five years before you can qualify for funding," Carolyn Greene told the Select Board. "The same goes for state agencies that would typically be the ones to fund social service agencies.
 
"ARPA made sense because [Remedy Hall] is very much post-COVID in terms of the needs of the town becoming more evident."
 
In a seven-page letter to the town requesting the funds, the Remedy Hall board wrote that, "need is ubiquitous and we are unveiling that truth daily."
 
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