Letter: DeMayo-Wall Running for Planning Board

To the Editor:

Dear Williamstown Voters, My name is Carin DeMayo-Wall and I am running for the Williamstown Planning Board. I ask for your vote on May 10.

I grew up right here in Williamstown. I attended Mount Greylock High School ('89) and Williams College ('93). I originally left to work at the State House in Boston and I returned to Williamstown 10 years ago. Williamstown was, and is, a wonderful place to live and raise a family. I have seen how my hometown has changed and I have a vision for its more inclusive future.

I was moved to run for Planning Board when I witnessed several families, whose kids were in my own child's classroom at Williamstown Elementary School, make the agonizing decision to move away due to a lack of available housing. Through my volunteer work with the Williamstown Food Pantry, I see the stress that the high cost of housing puts on our most vulnerable populations.

We are becoming a town with a "missing middle." Those at the high end, with significant wealth, can afford to buy the scarce market-rate housing. And a few at the low end might find spots within one of our too-few affordable housing developments like Photech and Highland Woods. But we are losing the middle and Williamstown is left impoverished by their absence. How many of us could buy here today? How many MGRHS grads can choose to stay? How many of their teachers can live in the town they teach in? I say too few. We can come together to solve this housing challenge.

Carin DeMayo-Wall
Williamstown, Mass.

Williamstown Fire District Dedicates New Station

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
06:37AM / Sunday, May 31, 2026

Chief Jeffrey Dias recognizes firefighter Alexandra Riggs, who will graduate from Williams College next week. See more photos here.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Massachusetts fire marshal came to town Saturday to congratulate the local Fire District and the taxpayers of Williamstown for the "amazing" station they have built on Main Street.

 

"I travel around the state, and I've seen hundreds of firehouses around the state — some great, some not so great," Fire Marshal Jon Davine told a crowd gathered outside the station for its dedication. "And I think we saw what the previous station here was in Williamstown. I'll tell you, especially in Western Massachusetts, we have a really big problem with deteriorating firehouses throughout Western Mass. These buildings are collapsing around our firefighters.

 

"And, as the marshal, it's my job to advocate for the departments for more funding. We've been working with our state reps and local reps and the fire chiefs association, trying to come up with different funding streams, so that we can help these departments build new stations, do better, safer stations, so that they have the equipment and the building they deserve to do their job safely."

 

The chair of the Prudential Committee, which governs the Fire District, and the chief of the department both thanked Williamstown residents for the 2023 special district meeting vote that paved the way for the station that went into operation earlier this year.

 

"It's an honor and a privilege to join you today as we celebrate this grand opening of the new firehouse," Chief Jeffrey Dias said. "This facility is so much more than a building that houses fire trucks. It stands as a symbol of our community's commitment to safety, preparedness and public service. It's a place where our members will maintain our equipment. They will learn about our craft. They'll share meals and, yes, from time to time, they're going to share sorrow.

 

"This isn't a fire station. This is a firehouse. And people have heard me say this a million times already. And it houses the very best second family that one could imagine."

 

Dias was joined at the podium set up in the parking lot for the noon ceremony by Prudential Committee Chair David Moresi, state Rep. John Barrett III and the the Rev. William F. Cyr, who gave an invocation.