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Williamstown Select Board Weighs Potential Enforcement for Future Alcohol Violations

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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Select Board member Andrew Hogeland and Jane Patton on Monday. Patton, who has a background in hospitality, says local servers take the alcohol checks very seriously.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A pair of failed alcohol compliance checks had the Select Board on Monday thinking about what steps it should take if the businesses in question slip up again.
 
On July 28, the Police Department conducted compliance checks at 23 of the town's 30 licensed venues in conjunction with the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition.
 
Of the businesses checked, two — the Williams Inn and Casa Lina — served beer to a 19-year-old woman who entered the establishments in the company of a plainclothes police officer, according to a memo from Police Chief Kyle Johnson.
 
The board decided to authorize Town Manager Jason Hoch to send a letter to the businesses that failed to notify them of the board's concern and its intention to take action if one of the establishments is found in violation again in the next 12 months.
 
At a minimum, the board, acting in its capacity as the town's license-granting authority, will bring license holders in for an appearance before the body. And the four members of the board attending Monday's meeting appeared to agree that some sort of license suspension for a second offense likely would be appropriate.
 
But the board stopped short of implementing a policy mandating license suspension for second offenders.
 
Select Board member Jeffrey Thomas moved that the board notify the purveyors that they would face "at least a one-day suspension" for a second offense. But that motion died without a second.
 
Andrew Hogeland recommended that, instead, the town's letter notify the businesses in question that if there is a second offense, "We'll ask you to come in in person and we'll decide what to do, which could include … suspension."
 
Hoch advised the board that it should avoid locking itself into a specific term for prospective suspensions.
 
"If there are other incidents, I'd want the board to retain its full authority," Hoch said. "You may wish to have a different, stronger response."
 
Or, there may be extenuating circumstances for either the first or second offense, as were referenced in the case of one of the violations cited in Monday's meeting.
 
At both the establishments with July violations, the servers indicated they recognized the plainclothes officer who accompanied the minor. One of the servers told Johnson that she knew the officer to, in fact, be a police officer, Johnson reported.
 
Both the establishments sent the Select Board letters in advance of Monday's meeting.
 
The president of the Waterford Hotel Group, which manages the Williams Inn on behalf of Williams College, told the board that, "This violation is a matter we take very seriously.
 
"All associates have been reviewed for Training for Intervention Procedures ["TIPS"] training and certification," Waterford's Michael Heaton wrote in a letter dated Aug. 7. "Any associate who is not TIPS trained and certified will complete the training within the next seven days following the incident. Only associates that are TIPS trained and certified will be scheduled and able to serve alcohol."
 
Casa Lina manager Jose Carlos Huasaquiche wrote that, "We are very saddened about the unfortunate incident that took place at our restaurant."
 
TIPS, or Training for Intervention Procedures, is an educational program for alcohol servers.
 
"We have taken serious steps to avoid such an incident in the future," Huasaquiche wrote. "The team members who don't have TIPS certification were asked to be certified within the next couple of weeks, or else they will no longer be working with us.
 
"It has been our policy and will continue to be our policy [that] we will ID everyone who will be consuming alcohol at Casa Lina."
 
Select Board member Jane Patton, who has professional experience in the hospitality field in town, said that she has talked to colleagues in the field about the compliance checks and the gravity with which the board treats failed checks.
 
"I'm confident everyone takes this very, very seriously," Patton said. "We have so few issues for a college town, and part of it is that we've been so adamant over the years how seriously we take things."
 
In other business on Monday evening, the Select Board approved a seasonal wine and malt liquor license for Hot Tomatoes at 100 Water St., which plans to start allowing alcohol consumption in a "three-season pavilion" it has erected at the rear of its property along the Green River.
 
"You'll be able to walk in, purchase your win or malt and be able to walk out and enjoy the picnic tables by the river," Hot Tomatoes manager Matt England told the board.
 
"Everyone will be TIPS trained, including myself."
 
Hoch's administrative assistant, Debra Turnbull, who staffs the Select Board, informed board members that England has secured single-day licenses to serve in the past and has never had any issues.
 
Patton used the opportunity to remind England about the importance of complying with the law, including some aspects of particular note in the college town.
 
"The TIPS training thing is really, really critical and just making sure folks are not being overserved and knowing what to do if they are overserved," Patton said. "Massachusetts has some pretty strong rules. If it's not a Massachusetts driver's license, you're supposed to have a second form of ID, and a your Williams ID can't be used because your birthdate isn't on there."
 
The board vote 4-0 to approve the seasonal license, which will allow Hot Tomatoes to serve from April 1 to Dec. 31.

Tags: alcohol violation,   license board,   

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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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