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A storage area at the Northside Hotel was damaged in the Monday morning accident.

Slick Conditions Blamed for Town Truck's Slide Into Hotel Structure

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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The truck slid down the small incline and into the building. 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The first snowfall of the season in Williamstown got the winter driving season going with a bang on Monday morning when a town vehicle collided with one of Town Hall's neighbors.
 
No one was injured in the early morning low-speed collision of a town truck that appears to have slipped off the driveway that wraps around the municipal building, down a small incline and into a storage structure adjacent to the Northside Motel.
 
Town Manager Jason Hoch said the incident happened before his arrival at Town Hall just after 8 a.m.
 
He was not able to provide many details late Monday morning as he awaited a report from the Williamstown Police Department. He said it was likely the town would be submitting an insurance claim arising out of the accident.
 
He also noted that there were slick conditions throughout town on Monday morning and that the first freeze and snowfall often can be problematic.
 
"There isn't even that residual salt [from previous saltings] to help prevent icing," Hoch noted.
 
Hoch said the vehicle in question was on the road doing water inspections. The area it appears to have slipped from is in the northwest corner of the Town Hall property, which remains well shaded. Hoch said Monday morning he was not sure whether the stretch was salted before or after the accident.
 
The owner of the motel was not immediately available for comment.

Tags: motor vehicle accident,   

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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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