Town Clerk Mary Kennedy, left, swears in newly elected Selectwoman Anne O'Connor.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — It was a split decision for business at the annual town meeting on Tuesday.
While some are concerned the newly minted bans on plastic bags and polytyrene packaging will hurt business in the Village Beautiful, business development was boosted by four bylaw changes overwhelmingly approved by the 324 voters in attendance.
After the bag bylaw, the issue that generated the most debate was a series of three proposals from the town's Sign Commission. At the board's suggestion, the town OK'd a single small illuminated "open" sign in storefronts, "sandwich board" signs on a store's property throughout the town and year round and display flags or banners not more than 18 square feet that read "Open," "Sale" or "Welcome."
Gordon Squire, who served on the Sign Commission from 1993 to 2003, spoke from the floor of town meeting to argue against all three of the proposed changes.
"It's important that this community preserve the quality aspects of life and not become like the Jersey Shore area, Coney Island or parts of the West, where all sorts of things are fighting for your attention," Squire said.
"This is advertising. This is hawking your wares. We don't need to become Coney Island. Vote no."
The current chairman of the Sign Commission, who introduced the measures, said the proposals were generated from concerns raised by business owners.
"Many businesses come to us and say that when they're open people will come in and get all the way to the back and ask, 'Are you open?' " Tim Hamilton said. "Obviously, a little more signage is needed."
All three sign bylaw changes passed by a voice vote. There appeared to be about one to two dozen voices raised to one or all of the proposed changes.
Another bylaw that likely will impact business development concerns parking. The Planning Board sought and approved the town's assent to remove a requirement for off-street parking for businesses in the Village Business District.
The proposed change puts all of the district on a par with Spring Street, where the requirement was lifted in recent years.
Two members of the Planning Board revisited the debate on the floor of town meeting.
Amy Jeschawitz argued that the bylaw change is premature, opens a "can of worms" and will push parking out to other areas, presumably neighborhoods that abut the Village Business District.
Jeschawitz said the town first must find a comprehensive parking solution that takes into account the current lack of adequate parking on Spring Street during peak times.
Jeschawitz was joined in opposition to the bylaw change by Water Street business owner Amy Bryan, who was concerned that her business, Amy's Cottage, would be negatively impacted by new businesses on the street that do not need to provide off-street parking.
"There is a horrible parking problem on the top of Water Street," Bryan said. "I only have four spots in front of my store. That's just not enough."
Planning Board member Ann McCallum said the bylaw change anticipates a proposal currently before state officials to redesign Water Street (Route 43), lowering the speed limit, adding sidewalks and creating on-street parking.
"The idea is to make it seem more like a shopping street there, which is what our hope is it will become and still be," McCallum said.
Gordon Squire votes against one of three changes to the town's sign bylaw that he opposed during debate at the meeting.
McCallum said the off-street parking requirement hampered the start of new businesses on Water Street.
"This is a business development issue," she told town meeting. "It has been brought to our attention and to the Building Department that various people have wanted to establish businesses on Water Street, and lots there are small. The parking requirements are onerous.
"In almost every occasion, there is no room to accommodate the parking on site, so the business fails before it even starts."
The parking plan also passed by voice vote, with Town Moderator Adam Filson ruling there easily was the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
Bryan, who spoke in favor of the sign bylaws before they were approved, also spoke out against the bag bylaw — a vote that went against her.
She made it clear that she was in favor of the spirit of the bylaw but said that, as written, it created Draconian penalties that could be meted out to businesses unfairly.
While the bag bylaw's proponents argue that the bylaw is designed to change consumers' behavior. Critics worry that it will do just that: driving those consumers to businesses in towns that do not have the bylaw.
"It is a dangerous assumption that volume will stay the same if you keep increasing prices," Selectmen Hugh Daley said when arguing against the bag bylaw.
In the end, the bylaw passed, along with a couple of other "green" measures: a new bylaw governing the installation of ground-mounted solar arrays and a resolution opposing the proposed Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline, which is currently slated to pass through other Berkshire County towns.
Both those proposals passed overwhelmingly, as did all three school budgets put before the voters: the Williamstown Elementary, Mount Greylock Regional School and Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Tech).
As always, annual town meeting featured a pair of awards.
The League of Women Voters bestowed its annual Town Employee of the Year Award. While it normally recognizes a relatively unsung employee, this year's choice was recently retired Town Manager Peter Fohlin, who, though still a town resident, characteristically avoided the limelight by skipping the meeting.
League President Anne Skinner praised Fohlin, noting that "to list all he did for the town in the last 15 years would take until tomorrow."
The town's Faith Scarborough Award for volunteerism was given to former moderator and current member of the Affordable Housing Trust Stanley Parese, who was recognized for, among other things, his service to youth baseball, the Rotary Club and the town's public access television station, WilliNet.
Parese said he was humbled to be among the recipients of the award and noted that his wife shared equal credit for any service he may have provided the town. Parese also injected a note of levity to the meeting by sharing this insight into town government.
"If it's 6:45 on a Tuesday night and you've worked a long day and you have a toddler who doesn't want to go to bed and a sink full of dirty dishes ... hopping in the car and going to that 7 p.m. board meeting looks like a very good option," Parese said, adding, after the laughter died down, "The point is, it's a family effort.
"The second secret of community service is that community service is incredibly rewarding. It is always time consuming, sometimes hard, sometimes frustrating, sometimes worse than thankless in that you can get blamed for trying to do a good deed. But with all that, it is still rewarding.
"When you engage in community service, you get to be a part of that which holds us together. It's been a privilege and a pleasure as a family in some small way to have participated."
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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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Manary talked to the Fin Comm about the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program, which, he said, funds anywhere from 50 to 75 percent of construction costs.
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Taylor Garabedian scored a team-high 22 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Abby Scialabba scored 16 points for the ‘Canes, who got 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists from Ashlyn Lesure. click for more
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