Williamstown Selectmen to Hire Consultant for Town Manager Search

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen decided on Thursday to engage a head hunter to find the new town manager.
 
The board held a retreat to discuss its plans to replace Peter Fohlin, who announced his retirement this month.
 
"We decided we would use an outside recruiting firm," Chairman Ronald Turbin said on Saturday. "There are three we're considering. We're going to ask them for proposals.
 
"I think this is too big a job to do it on our own, and I think we need some professional assistance."
 
Turbin said Williams College has offered to help fund the search. The college made a similar offer to the Mount Greylock Regional School District to help its search for a new superintendent.
 
At Monday's regular Board of Selectmen meeting, the panel plans to name a town manager search committee, Turbin said.
 
The BOS and the committee will have Fohlin available as a resource.
 
"I’m sure he'll give us his guidance, but generally, it's better we work on our own," Turbin said. "Peter will assist where he can where it’s appropriate."

Tags: search committee,   town administrator,   

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Williams Seeking Town Approval for New Indoor Practice Facility

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave Williams College the first approval it needs to build a 55,000-square foot indoor athletic facility on the north side of its campus.
 
Over the strenuous objection of a Southworth Street resident, the board found that the college's plan for a "multipurpose recreation center" or MRC off Stetson Road has adequate on-site parking to accommodate its use as an indoor practice facility to replace Towne Field House, which has been out of commission since last spring and was demolished this winter.
 
The college plans a pre-engineered metal that includes a 200-meter track ringing several tennis courts, storage for teams, restrooms, showers and a training room. The athletic surface also would be used as winter practice space for the school's softball and baseball teams, who, like tennis and indoor track, used to use the field house off Latham Street.
 
Since the planned structure is in the watershed of Eph's Pond, the college will be before the Conservation Commission with the project.
 
It also will be before the Zoning Board of Appeals, on Thursday, for a Development Plan Review and relief from the town bylaw limiting buildings to 35 feet in height. The new structure is designed to have a maximum height of 53 1/2 feet and an average roof height of 47 feet.
 
The additional height is needed for two reasons: to meet the NCAA requirement for clearance above center court on a competitive tennis surface (35 feet) and to include, on one side, a climbing wall, an element also lost when Towne Field House was razed.
 
The Planning Board had a few issues to resolve at its March 12 meeting. The most heavily discussed involved the parking determination for a use not listed in the town's zoning bylaws and a decision on whether access from town roads to the building site in the middle of Williams' campus was "functionally equivalent" to the access that would be required under the town's subdivision rules and regulations.
 
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