Williamstown Election Lines Fill Up

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown voters will have a full selectionion of Selectmen and Elementary School Committee candidates to choose from at the May 12 annual town election.
 
Town Clerk Mary Kennedy said as of Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline, four people had returned nomination papers for the one open seat on the Board of Selectmen, and three people had returned papers for the two spots on the School Committee.
 
Jack Nogueira, who ran unsuccessfully for selectman in 2014, returns to the ballot to seek a three-year seat on the board. He will face competition from Martino Donati, Anne C. O'Connor and Alison O'Grady for the seat currently held by Thomas Sheldon.
 
Chairwoman Valerie Hall and Chris Jones are not standing for re-election on the five-person School Committee. Their spots will be filled by two from the following group of three candidates: Joseph M. Johnson, Catherine Keating and Thomas Loughman.
 
There are five other positions on the ballot, and each has one declared candidate.
 
For the two library trustee positions, Michael Sussman and Karen Kowitz will be on the ballot.
 
The other three positions (with candidate's name in parentheses) are: Planning Board (incumbent Anne McCallum), Housing Authority (Judith Bombardier) and Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional [McCann] School District Committee (incumbent Thomas Mahar).

Tags: election2015,   town elections,   


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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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