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Selectwoman Jane Patton conducts Tuesday's meeting.

Williamstown Selectmen Asked to Adopt Hospital Resolution

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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Jean Vankin asks the Board of Selectmen to adopt a resolution on hospital service in North Adams.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Two residents on Tuesday asked the Board of Selectmen to adopt a resolution urging Berkshire Health Systems and state officials to return full hospital services to the site of the former North Adams Regional Hospital.
 
Jean Vankin and Martin Greenstein urged the town to join a number of other North County communities in adopting the resolution, which was adopted by the North Adams City Council on Tuesday.
 
"Since the last time I appeared before you, all the towns surrounding North Adams except Williamstown have signed the resolution," Vankin told the board.
 
She said that the recently released Stroudwater report that said a full-service hospital would be possible only if the North Adams facility received Critical Access designation. A report filed by the unions representing the former NARH employees said that the hospital failed because of debt.
 
"I'm not a union person ... the financial statement done by the unions feels that without debt, the hospital would be in the black," Vankin said. "What is needed is a push from Northern Berkshire, including the formal support of our elected bodies, to make sure we don't fall through the cracks once again.
 
"We need a hospital as much, if not more, than South County," she added, referring to Great Barrington's Fairview Hospital, which is a federally designated Critical Access facility.
 
Greenstein also seized on the "Critical Access" recommendation in the Stroudwater report.
 
"In 2011, North Adams Regional Hospital attempted that and was refused, and the federal government government has gotten tighter and tighter," he said. "Our elected officials, as well as appointed high level officials, including [Health and Human Services Secretary John] Polanowicz, said it's really going to be difficult to get that designation."
 
Critical Access hospitals have fewer than 25 inpatient beds and receive compensation from Medicare based on their actual costs instead of fixed reimbursement rates.
 
Select Board Chairwoman Jane Patton, who ran Tuesday's meeting in place of absent Chairman Ronald Turbin, thanked Vankin and Greenstein but said she wanted the resolution to be considered by the full board, which is expected to be in attendance at its Oct. 27 meeting.
 
Likewise, the board at the Oct. 27 meeting may return to another public issue raised by a couple of town residents on Tuesday. Thomas Hyde and Wendy Penner each spoke to the board about Question 2 on the upcoming Nov. 4 election ballot.
 
The public question would broaden the state's bottle deposit law to include five-cent deposits on water bottles, iced tea bottles and sports drink bottles.
 
Hyde, the president of the Hoosic River Watershed Association, told the board the expanded deposit law would cut down on pollution. Penner of the town's COOL (Carbon Dioxide Lowering) Committee, told the committee that expanded bottle law will save communities money by cutting down on the amount of litter that needs to be removed from drains.
 

Thomas Hyde addresses the Board of Selectmen about the bottle bill on the November election ballot.

Town Manager Peter Fohlin advised the board that he was not certain whether town boards could take a position one way or the other on ballot questions. But he indicated he would have time to get an answer to that question before the next meeting, eight days before the November election.
 
The board did OK a project schedule for the Highland Woods senior housing development. The developers promised to provide a schedule for the town's review when they received town funding for the project earlier this year. According to the schedule, early construction and site work is to take place until Nov. 1. A connecting road from Southworth already is under construction.
 
The project is expected to be substantially completed between Dec. 31, 2015 and Jan. 31, 2016, with a certificate of occupancy obtained between Jan. 15 and Feb. 15, 2016. The developers hope to hold an lottery for prospective occupants in September 2015 and to begin signing leases as early as Nov. 1, 2015.
 
According to the schedule submitted on Tuesday, all those dates are contingent on the project receiving a final funding commitment from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. In late June, the Highland Woods project was one of several projects the DHCD approved for funding, but the final commitment letter is still in the works.
 
Meanwhile, Fohlin reported on Tuesday that 34 of the 66 households that remained in the Spruces Mobile Home Park earlier this year have moved out of the park. To date, seven residents have remained in the town. An additional six have identified their future housing. And 60 of the 66 residents have met with Trish Smith, the relocation advisory agent hired by the town with proceeds from the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant obtained to close the flood-prone park in the wake of 2011's Tropical Storm Irene.
 
In other business on Tuesday, the Selectmen approved the transfer of the alcohol license for the Williams Inn to BillTown, LLC, a corporate entity created by Main Street Hospitality Group. Main Street is the Stockbridge, Mass.,-based firm that manages the Williams Inn on behalf of owner Williams College.
 
The board also returned to its continuing discussion of economic development. Selectmen Hugh Daley and Andrew Hogeland, who have been taking the lead on the issue since their election in May, presented their colleagues with a 14-page draft of a plan to "create a culture of economic development."
 
Daley and Hogeland explained that they want the full board to review the draft and discuss it point-by-point in the near future.
 
"The next step would be a series of public meetings with folks like the Chamber of Commerce," Hogeland said. "But first we want to make sure the Select Board has a chance to provide input on the next version of the document."
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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.
 
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