Williamstown Selectmen to Ask Volunteers to Serve on Economic Panel
 The Selectmen held a workshop meeting with Town Manager Peter Fohlin on Monday morning during with they discussed creating an economic development committee. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen on Monday morning moved a little closer to creating a committee to look at economic development in the Village Beautiful.
The board held a work session at the Williams Inn, where it reviewed a list of about 32 potential committee members that individual members of the board submitted.
At the end of about two hours of discussion, selectmen decided to formally ask about half the people on that list to participate on the committee, with the hope that at least half of those asked will be able to serve.
Much of the discussion on Monday centered around whether individual candidates would have the time and/or inclination to serve on a town committee. On more than one occasion, an individual member of the board suggested that a given candidate might be too busy to commit.
But in the end, none of those candidates were ruled out on that basis. Instead, the members of the board chose to take the optimistic tack of asking the people they wanted — regardless of the prospect the answer will be, "Yes."
The board already has two preliminary commitments to serve on the committee. Williams College Vice President for Finance Fred Puddester and North Adams entrepreneurship consultant Jeffrey Thomas each has expressed an interest in joining the ad hoc committee.
Both Puddester and Thomas already serve on standing town committees — the board of the Affordable Housing Trust and the Community Preservation Committee, respectively.
And two members of the board, Andrew Hogeland and Hugh Daley, who have been spearheading the board's recent efforts on economic development, each are interested in serving on the Economic Development Committee.
As discussed on Monday, the new committee would meet twice monthly and be charged with developing an economic development plan for the town in six to 12 months. The meeting schedule could be flexible, and the board discussed the possibility of the larger committee breaking down into smaller task groups.
The Selectmen did not settle on a final number for the size of the committee, but it discussed a group of about nine, including the four — Thomas, Puddester and the two selectmen — already in the "yes" column. If the board receives more affirmative responses than it can use from the first round of invitations, it plans to ask anyone not on the committee to serve on an advisory panel to the committee.
The potential candidates include a lawyer, a physician, a realtor, a couple of academics, several entrepreneurs, and a number of people who already have built small businesses in Williamstown. The board wants to have at least one representative from each of the town's two largest institutions — Williams College and the Clark Art Institute. And it wants the committee to represent several different demographic groups.
Individual members of the board volunteered to approach candidates one-on-one to ask for a commitment to serve on the committee. The board hopes to have a slate of candidates to vote on as soon as its Dec. 8 meeting.
In other business on Monday morning, the board revisited the process of creating a town flag. It decided to ask Juliana Haubrich, one of the people who submitted a design reviewed at the Nov. 24 meeting, to work with the group of volunteers who pitched an initial concept to the BOS earlier this year.
Chairman Ronald Turbin said Haubrich had expressed a willingness to collaborate with the committee on a design that might incorporate elements of several of the submissions. Three designs submitted by pupils at Williamstown Elementary School will be recognized by the board with certificates of appreciation from the town, the board decided.
Tags: economic development, town flag,
