Letter: Bilal for Williamstown Select Board

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To the Editor:

I am writing to urge Williamstown voters to elect Bilal Ansari to the Williamstown Select Board on Tuesday, May 10. Dr. Ansari has dedicated himself to a life of service, to helping people resolve difficult situations. He listens intently and responds carefully with compassion. He appeals to our best nature. These are essential skills needed at this moment in our town.

Dr. Ansari does not believe that he alone has the solutions to all of the challenges facing our town. Instead, he wants to hear from those comfortable speaking up and also those who, until now, have not felt comfortable nor heard at all. He believes it will take a village to share concerns and work together to make Williamstown a better place for everyone to live and work and grow. But making that happen takes a special type of skilled leadership.

Bilal Ansari is the candidate blessed with that skilled leadership and a stake in our town's quality of life. He has deep roots in this town: his ancestors lived and worked here. He is committed to an approach based in kindness and inclusion. He is the candidate who can and will help us reach a new, inclusive and more equitable chapter in our town's history.

I ask for your vote on May 10 for Bilal Ansari for the Williamstown Select Board. Thank you.

 

Hugh L Guilderson, Ph.D.
Williamstown, Mass.

 

 

 


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Williamstown Fire District Honors Notsley at Annual Meeting

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — As the town's fire district embarks on a new era, Tuesday it said thank you to a veteran leader who helped make that era possible.
 
At the annual district meeting, the Prudential Committee recognized more than six decades of service by John Notsley, who decided not to run for another term on the elected body.
 
Notsley started as a firefighter in the Fire Department in 1963, following in his father's footsteps.
 
Notsley called the department and the Gale Hose Company his "second home" throughout the 63 years that followed.
 
"When I was 6 years old, I met my first fire chief, Tom Welch, who I'm sure no one here remembers," Notsley said. "Followed by Edward H. McGowan, Gordon Noble, Edward M. McGowan, Craig Pedercini and our current chief, Jeffrey [Dias].
 
"My commitment to the district gave me 13 years as clerk, 42 years on the Prudential Committee and 62 years on the Gale Hose Company, the volunteer arm of the department."
 
For years, Notsley, Ed McGowan and Ed Briggs served as a three-person committee to help manage the department, and in 2006, they began looking at how to replace the Fire Department's aging and cramped home on Water Street. The three eventually expanded the body to five members and, this year, Notsley saw a 20-year project come to fruition with the completion of a new fire station on Main Street.
 
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