WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Work at the new Mount Greylock Regional School will continue through the summer months, the School Committee learned last week.
During a brief early evening open session on Wednesday, Superintendent Kimberley Grady told the committee that the middle-high school will again be an "active work site" after the planned last day of classes on June 24.
The work will include taking care of some items still on the punch list since the school opened for classes in September, but it also includes the replacement of carpet tiles in several areas, including the band room, orchestra room, media center (library), main office, guidance suite and pupil services department.
The cost of the work will be covered by the manufacturer of the carpet tiles involved, Grady said.
Grady indicated that the tile had an odor because of a manufacturing problem.
"We're the first [customer] in North America to have this problem," she said.
While the work can be completed during the summer at no cost to the district, it is an inconvenience.
"We will be breaking apart rooms that we finally put together," Grady said.
In addition to the interior work, laborers will be on site this summer addressing defective sidewalk slabs, including a high-profile spot in front of the main entrance of the school that was the victim of frost heaves in the building's first winter.
In other building project business on Wednesday, the School Committee OK'd the creation of a finance subcommittee of the School Building Committee to increase efficiency during the closeout phase of the $64 million addition/renovation project.
Grady told the committee that the School Building Committee has been having difficulty finding times when it can get a quorum together for a meeting, but there still are bills to be paid.
She said that Williamstown's Hugh Daley and Lanesborough's Steve Wentworth, who served on the School Building Committee's finance working group, have agreed to serve on a subcommittee along with Grady to approve invoices and recommend them for payment.
"We are slowed down with the process," she said. "This will speed it up."
The members of the committee also got some homework. They were tasked with completing their individual evaluations of Grady and returning the forms by June 3 so their responses can be compiled and the full committee can complete its formal review at its June meeting.
In the interim, the School Committee has a third May meeting on the calendar for Thursday, May 23, at 6 p.m.
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Whoa!!! How can Ms. Grady appoint a sub committee of people who are not even on the school committee??? Is This Legal? Then why did we merge school districts and bother to elect a new school Committee? Is anyone in charge???
These are the school committee members, courtesy of the Berkshire Eagle:
Elected to four-year terms in Lanesborough were newcomer Christina Conry and incumbent Regina DiLego in the only contested school committee race. Incumbent Al Terranova won a two-year term uncontested.
In Williamstown, Dan Caplinger and Steven Miller were elected to four-year terms, while Joe Bergeron and newcomer Allison Carter took on two-year terms.
Williamstown Affordable Housing Trust Hears Objections to Summer Street Proposal
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Neighbors concerned about a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week raised the specter of a lawsuit against the town and/or Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity.
"If I'm not mistaken, I think this is kind of a new thing for Williamstown, an affordable housing subdivision of this size that's plunked down in the middle, or the midst of houses in a mature neighborhood," Summer Street resident Christopher Bolton told the Affordable Housing Trust board, reading from a prepared statement, last Wednesday. "I think all of us, the Trust, Habitat, the community, have a vested interest in giving this project the best chance of success that it can have. We all remember subdivisions that have been blocked by neighbors who have become frustrated with the developers and resorted to adversarial legal processes.
"But most of us in the neighborhood would welcome this at the right scale if the Trust and Northern Berkshire Habitat would communicate with us and compromise with us and try to address some of our concerns."
Bolton and other residents of the neighborhood were invited to speak to the board of the trust, which in 2015 purchased the Summer Street lot along with a parcel at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street with the intent of developing new affordable housing on the vacant lots.
Currently, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, which built two homes at the Cole/Maple property, is developing plans to build up to five single-family homes on the 1.75-acre Summer Street lot. Earlier this month, many of the same would-be neighbors raised objections to the scale of the proposed subdivision and its impact on the neighborhood in front of the Planning Board.
The Affordable Housing Trust board heard many of the same arguments at its meeting. It also heard from some voices not heard at the Planning Board session.
And the trustees agreed that the developer needs to engage in a three-way conversation with the abutters and the trust, which still owns the land, to develop a plan that is more acceptable to all parties.
Developer David Traggorth asked the trustees to make the contribution from its coffers to help unlock an additional $5.4 million in state funds for the planned 54-unit apartment building at the south end of the Cable Mills site.
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The donors, who wish to remain anonymous, say the gift reflects their desire to not only support Williams but also President Maud S. Mandel's strategic vision and plan for the college.
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Neighbors of a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week asked the Planning Board to take a critical look at the project, which the residents say is out of scale to the neighborhood. click for more
The Select Board and Planning Board this week clashed over a proposal that would add to the town charter a mechanism to ensure compliance with the foundation of town government. click for more