Williamstown Fire District's Prudential Committee Elects New Chair

Richard Reynolds was elected the new chairman of the Prudential Committee, replacing John  Notsley.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williamstown Fire District's Prudential Committee on Wednesday elected Richard Reynolds to be its new chairman.

"Richards is the perfect guy for the job," Ed Briggs said of his colleague.

He has big shoes to fill. Outgoing Chair John Notsley has been involved with the district for 50 years and has chaired the panel that governs the district for several years.

Notsley said that while he will continue his role as a member of the five-person committee, it makes sense for him to step aside from the leadership role.

"I'll be out of town for the next six months," Notsley said. "I'll be available by phone, email, computer, etc., etc., but it doesn't bode well for the Prudential Committee to have an 'absentee landlord,' if you will."

Briggs praised Notsley for his long record of dedication to the district.

"As many of you know, John has provided leadership over the years to provide the town and residents a well-trained and well-equipped fire department on a limited budget," Briggs said. "Fortunately, John will remain on the Prudential Committee until his term expires, which is an asset to us."

Reynolds agreed.

"I made it clear when I was talking to John … there's a lot of experience on the committee, and I'm going to need to learn from that experience," he said. "Each of you, to differing degrees and at different times, will hear from me for your advice and counsel."

One piece of business that Notsley hopes to see completed before he leaves town: the start of a search process for the district's owner's project manager for a new fire station.

District Treasurer Corydon Thurston told the committee that he has nearly completed the request for proposals for the OPM and, after review by the Prudential Committee and its newly formed building committee, he wants to get the procurement document posted by mid-November. If the timeline holds up, the district could be interviewing OPM candidates before the end of the year, Thurston said.

Wednesday's agenda covered a wide range of topics, ranging from streetlights to glow sticks.

On the former, the committee learned that it may be offloading some of its responsibilities for maintaining streetlights to the town.

Thurston told the committee that Town Hall continues to study along with the volunteer Carbon Dioxide Lowering (COOL) Committee how to replace the current light fixtures with ones that are energy efficient but also do not create light pollution.

Although the Fire District has jurisdiction over streetlights -- a function that goes back to the days of gas lights -- Thurston said it might make sense to transfer some of that authority to the town.

"They've done some research," he said. "I've continued to support their studies with some analysis of the bills and usage. I think, for the sake of all of the efforts and grant opportunities that might exist for changing the streetlights and switching to LEDs and deciding on a color … it would probably be most appropriate for the town to make those decisions."

Thurston said the district likely would be able to hand off those powers through an intermunicipal agreement with the Select Board.

"It won't require a town meeting or fire district meeting," he said. "We can probably get that done by year end."

As for the existing streetlights, Chief Craig Pedercini told the committee he recently completed his annual inventory. After driving around town, he found 27 lights out.

"That's not too bad," he said. "I've had more in the past."

Pedercini said he hoped to have the out-of-service lights addressed in time for trick-or-treating on Oct. 31.

The Fire District also plans to shed a little more light on the Halloween festivities by distributing glow sticks to the trick-or-treaters. Pedercini said. The children will be able to bend the devices and wear them around their wrists to help provide some visibility and safety during the twilight activity.

Pedercini said firefighters will be at a half-dozen locations in the Cole Avenue and Southworth Street neighborhoods starting at around 5 p.m., ahead of the town's announced 5:30 to 7 p.m. trick-or-treating hours.

In other business on Wednesday, the committee discussed a new training program for recent recruits being offered through the Berkshire County Fire Chiefs Association.

Pedercini said the county chiefs invited a trainer from Hampden County to offer the program, which provides six eight-hour training sessions on weekends. He already has spoken to two recruits about the training, and there might be some Williams College students who work with the local fire service who are interested.

The training, likely to be held at a Central Berkshire location, will start next month, Pedercini said.

"It's going to give them some really good basic training -- fire awareness, fire behavior, [self-contained breathing apparatus], ladders -- basic stuff that we will still train with, but they'll get it as a group with a bunch of other young firemen who probably are on the same level of training," he said. "I'm excited to see that, because if we do that and it works well, we could probably do it again in the spring.

"It's sort of in lieu of doing a Firefighter 1 and 2 [course], and they can certainly take advantage of that, if they'd like to, as well. But that's a big commitment as far as hours, as a lot of our guys already know."

Pedercini said there is money in the district's training budget to cover the cost of the weekend program.

Engineer Mike Noyes told the committee the manufacturer supplying a new tanker truck the district ordered is on track to receive the chassis it ordered by early December, but the district has to rethink the way it monitors assembly of the apparatus.

In the past, representatives from the district have visited suppliers during assembly to monitor construction of new trucks, but with the contractor this time in Ohio, a visit would require anyone making the trip to quarantine for 14 days after their return to Massachusetts.

"We could certainly do a Zoom meeting and do something with all the officers," Pedercini said, noting that the virtual process would allow the district to get even more eyes on the assembly. "That may not be a bad thing. The down side is when you're out there looking, you tend to look where you want to look and not where they want to point the camera."

Thurston suggested that the district ask the manufacturer to send regular images during assembly as the truck is built. He said he had the chance to stop by a Connecticut truck manufacturer on a regular basis and check in on the construction of a different apparatus.

"That was helpful because you could pick up a couple of things during construction and call it out before it became a bigger issue, Thurston said

Puppets Teach Resilience at Lanesborough Elementary School

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:30PM / Monday, April 27, 2026

The kids learned from puppets Ollie and a hermit crab.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Vermont Family Network's Puppets in Education visited the elementary school recently to teach kids about being resilient.

Puppets in Education has been engaging with young students with interactive puppets for 45 years.  

The group partnered again with Bedard Brothers Chevrolet, which sponsored the visit. 

Classes filtered through the music class Thursday to learn about how to be resilient and kind, deal with change and anxiety, and more.

"This program is this beautiful blending of other programs we have, which is our anxiety program, our bullying prevention and friendship program, but is teaching children the power of yet and how to be able to feel empowered and strong when times are challenging and tough," said program manager Sarah Vogelsang-Card.

The kids got to engage with a "bounce back" song, move around, and listen to a hermit crab deal with the change of needing a new shell.

"A crab that is too small or too big for its shell, so trying to problem solve, having a plan A, B and C, because it's a really tough time," Vogelsang-Card said. "It's like moving, it's like divorce of parents, it's changing schools. It's things that children would be going through, even on a day to day basis, that are just things they need to be resilient, that they feel strong and they feel empowered to be able to make these choices for themselves."

The resiliency program is new and formatted little differently to each of the age groups.

"For the older kids. We age it up a bit, so we talk about harassment and bullying and even setting the scene with the beach is a little bit different kind of language, something that they feel like they can buy into," she said. "For the younger kids, it's a little bit more playful, and we don't touch about harassment. We just talk about making friends and being kind. So that's where we're learning as we're growing this program, is to find the different kinds of messaging that's appropriate for each development level."

This programming affirms themes that are already being discussed in the elementary school, said school psychologist Christy Viall. She thinks this is a fun way for the children to continue learning. 

"We have programs here at the school called community building, and that's really good. So they go through all of these strategies already," she said. "But having that repetition is really important, and finding it in a different way, like the puppets coming in and sharing it with them is a fun way that they can really connect to, I think, and it might, get in a little more deeply for them.

Vogelsang-Card said its another space for them to be safe and discuss what's going on in their life. Some children are afraid because maybe their parents are getting divorced, or they're being bullied, but with the puppets, they might open up and disclose what's bothering them because they feel safe, even in a larger crowd. 

"When we do sexual abuse awareness that program alone, over five years, we had 87 disclosures of abuse that were followed up and reported," she said. "And children feel safe with the puppets. It makes them feel valued, heard, and we hope that in our short time that we're together, that they at least leave knowing that they're not alone."

Bedard Brothers also gave the school five new puppets to use. Viall said the puppets are a great help for the students in her classroom, especially in the younger grades. 

"Every year, I've been giving the puppets to the students. And I also have a few of the puppets in my classroom, and the students use them in small groups to practice out the strategies with each other, which is really helpful," she said. "Sometimes the older students, like sixth graders, will put on a puppet show. They'll come up with a whole theme and a whole little situation, and they'll act it out with the strategies for the younger students. It's really cute, they've done it with kindergarteners, and the kids really like it."

Vogelsang-Card said there are 130 schools in Vermont that are on the waiting list for them to come in. Lanesborough Elementary has been the only Massachusetts school they have visited, thanks to Bedard Brothers. 

"These programs are so critical and life-changing for children in such a short amount of time, and we are the only program in the United States that does what we do, which is create this content in this enjoyable, fun, engaging way with oftentimes difficult subjects," she said. "Vermont is our home base, but we would love to be able to bring this to more schools, and we can't do this without the support of community, business funders or donors, and it really makes a difference for children."

The fourth-grade students were the first class to engage with the puppets and a lot of them really connected with the show.

"I learned to never give-up and if you have to move houses, be nervous, but it still helps," said William Larios.

"I learned to always add the word 'yet' at the end," said Sierra Kellogg, because even if she can't do something now, she will be able to at some point.

Samuel Casucci was struck by what one of the puppets talked about. "He said some people make fun of him if he dresses different, come from different place, brings home lunch, it doesn't matter," Samuel continued. "We're all kind of the same. We're all kind of different, like we have different hairstyles, different clothes. We're all the same because we're all human."

"I learned how to be more positive about myself and like, say, I can't do this yet, it's positive and helpful," said Liam Flaherty.

The students got to take home stickers at the end of the day with contact information of the organization.