image description
image description
Winner Malcolm Moutenot avoids a pedestrian on Spring Street in the home stretch of Saturday's 5-kilometer race.
image description
April Varella is the first woman across the finish line.
image description
Ollie Swabey, 10, finishes second on Saturday.
image description
Jonathan Cluett gets into the spirit of the occasion.
image description
Water Street's Berkshire Fitness Co. helps runners stretch before the race.
image description
Human and canine racers, including eventual winner Malcolm Moutenot, left, take off on Water Street.

Rovers, Runners Hit Streets in Williamstown for Humane Race

iBerkshires.com SportsPrint Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Malcolm Moutenot won the Berkshire Humane Society's 15th annual Humane Race on Saturday morning.
 
Moutenot covered the 5-kilometer course in 18 minutes, 42 seconds, 36 seconds ahead of runner-up Ollie Swabey (19:18).
 
Swabey was one of two 10-year-olds in the top 10. He was joined by Declan Rogers, who placed sixth in 22:34. 
 
The first woman across the finish line was April Varella, who finished in 22:02.
 
Berkshire Running Center clocked 146 official finishers, many of which posted times with their dogs.
 
The event drew hundreds more runners and walkers with canine partners who did not post an official time.
 
The event, a a fund-raiser for the Humane Society, drew considerably more interest than in recent years given the favorable weather and the official timing competition courtesy of Berkshire Running Center.
 
The youngest official finisher, 6-year-old Jackson Baker, running with his mom, Tracy, finished in 44:31.
 
The oldest official finisher was Dr. Eric White, who finished in 100th place in 37:39.
 
More photos of this event can be found here.

Tags: benefit run,   Berkshire Humane Society,   fundraiser,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

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.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories