image description
Last year's Food Fair hosted more than 200 students.
image description
New and returning students, along with the community, will have a chance to sample a variety of menus.

Williams Hosts Food Fair to Promote Spring Street

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story
Williams College students will sampling Spring Street's fare on Sunday and Williamstown residents are invited to join them.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Spring Street's merchants are rolling out the red carpet to welcome the town's newest batch of temporary residents ... and renew acquaintances with everyone else.
 
Williams College will hold its second annual Spring Street Food Fair on Sunday from 4 to 7:30 p.m. to give its incoming freshman class a chance to sample some of what Williamstown's downtown has to offer.
 
The school ran the event on a smaller scale last year, inviting just about 225 students to participate.
 
This year, the entire class of 2018 will be involved, along with their advisers and the student-athletes who are in town to practice for fall sports.
 
"The class is approximately 550," said Katharine Levering, an assistant to the dean. "And then you have the JAs [junior advisers]. ... For the student count, we're looking at close to 900. And of course, we opened it up to the wider community as well. I think we're planning for close to 1,300."
 
Organizers do not expect that entire number to swamp Spring Street when the clock strikes 4.
 
"We have the first-year students and JAs arriving by waves," Levering said. "They'll be arriving at a staggered time period. We're hoping the community trickles in throughout the evening."
 
Participating restaurants this year include: Lickety Split, Tunnel City Coffee, Spring Street Market and Cafe, Thai Garden, Spice Root, Papa Charlie's, Purple Pub, Pera, Tony Sombrero's and Subway. The event also will feature non-food offerings from merchants Where'd You Get That, Nature's Closet, Hart's Pharmacy, Images Cinema, MoCA by Design, Mad Macs, School for Style and the Williams Shop.
 
"The chamber is thrilled that Williams is continuing to build upon last year's success with the Food Fair," Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jennifer Civello said. "Local restaurants and merchants are always eager to find new ways to attract incoming students and their families. The Food Fair is the perfect way to for businesses to showcase their items, while capitalizing on the possibility of creating customers for the next four years and beyond. 
 
"It is the hope that these students who get a preview of what's happening on Spring Street will then share the news with their parents. And this year, Williams College hopes to include the local population in sampling this preview. This presents an opportunity for area residents to try menu options without fully committing to the expense of an evening out in a still-recovering economy — something that local businesses are very aware of as they experience the pinch with the downturn of the economy."
 
Levering said the college sees the event as a positive for its students as well as the local economy.
 
"We wanted to have an opportunity to orient them to life here on campus and build into that an opportunity to orient them to the larger community," she said.
 
For now, at least, that "larger community" is limited to the merchants on Spring Street. Levering said the organizers may expand the event down the road to include vendors from other parts of town.
 
"It's been an ongoing discussion for us," she said. "Last year, was the first year we hosted it, and the conversation came up again this year, and I imagine it will next year. One question is: Can we sustainably expand this to other merchants in town, and, if so, how do we draw the line about who is here and who is not here? How much physical space can we find around the Spring Street area? Would it be first-come, first served? Would it be members of the Chamber of Commerce?"
 
Students on college meal plans who attend the fair will be issued $10 in "Eph Bucks," which they can spend at participating merchants during the event. The merchants will then redeem that script for real money later in the week. Members of the public are welcome to come and spend real dollars.
 
The students will be required to use the reusable water bottles they receive at orientation and reusable containers for food.
 
In addition to opening up the evening to more students and the inviting the general public this year, the college has added live entertainment to the mix.
 
"New for this year, we have Misty Blues," Levering said. "They always draw a big crowd. It's always a good time. They'll be on the brick patio in front of the Purple Pub.
 
"We're really excited to have them."

Tags: food fair,   spring street,   Williams College,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories