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The Hay Day fair includes old-fashioned games like sack races for the kids.
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Williamstown Historical Museum Hosts Hay Day Fair

By Rebecca DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — "Is everyone having a good time?"

The question came through a bullhorn from Patrick Quinn, a volunteer with the Willilamstown Historical Museum, which on Sunday hosted its second annual Hay Day fair.

The crowd of several hundred people cheered back, but Quinn kept going.

"I can't hear you!" he yelled.

A bigger cheer came from the crowd of families and other visitors who came out to the museum's home on New Ashford Road for an old-fashioned small-town country fair with traditional and colonial games for all ages, like sack races and egg-drop races, craft demonstrations, a bake sale, a 50/50 raffle, a silent auction, pony rides and a petting zoo with baby goats, a cow, chickens and more.

Sarah Currie, the executive director of the Williamstown Historical Museum, said she was thrilled with the large crowd and beautiful day for the fair, which serves as a fundraiser for the museum’s mission of preserving Williamstown’s history.

"I'm astounded and grateful for the turnout," she said. "It was a fabulous, fun family day."

A woman watching her young grandchildren get their faces painted and create spin art echoed that sentiment as she watched their smiles.

"This is a fun fair, isn't it?" she said.


Tags: country fair,   historical museum,   

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Williamstown Housing Trust Commits $80K to Support Cable Mills Phase 3

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust last week agreed in principle to commit $80,000 more in town funds to support the third phase of the Cable Mills housing development on Water Street.
 
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.
 
In 2022, the annual town meeting approved a $400,000 outlay of Community Preservation Act funds to support the third and final phase of the Cable Mills development, which started with the restoration and conversion of the former mill building and continued with the construction of condominiums along the Green River.
 
The town's CPA funds are part of the funding mix because 28 of Phase 3's 54 units (52 percent) will be designated as affordable housing for residents making up to 60 percent of the area median income.
 
Traggorth said he hopes by this August to have shovels in the ground on Phase 3, which has been delayed due to spiraling construction costs that forced the developer to redo the financial plan for the apartment building.
 
He showed the trustees a spreadsheet that demonstrated how the overall cost of the project has gone up by about $6 million from the 2022 budget.
 
"Most of that is driven by construction costs," he said. "Some of it is caused by the increase in interest rates. If it costs us more to borrow, we can't borrow as much."
 
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