Letter: Williamstown Planning Board Proposals

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Wednesday, June 08, 2022Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

How many citizens voted at the last town election? How many will vote at the town meeting? Town meeting is quaint AND irrevocably broken.

A holistic approach to town zoning is far preferable. Selectively passing one or two of the failed Planning Board's proposed zoning changes amounts to spot zoning. All related articles should be tabled or voted down.

Here is something to consider if you think the GR proposals, at minimum, are harmless. If you own land that can be divided into two or more now buildable parcels, guess what? Your property taxes will be jacked up because now, your property is "more valuable!" Voila!

These ill-thought out zoning changes have actually sucked the life out of any new real ideas as to how to create affordable housing in "The Village Beautiful." Sadly, instead, all our energy has been wasted on debating these ill-advised Planning Board proposals!

Ken Swiatek
Williamstown, Mass.

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Local Authorities Responding to State's Action on Kratom

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
10:43AM / Tuesday, August 18, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health on Monday began a discussion about regulating the sale of kratom products in town.

The board's monthly meeting came four days after the governor's office in Boston announced that the commonwealth temporarily will designate kratom, also known by its chemical name and marketed with the term "7-OH" as a Schedule I drug, greatly restricting its sale in Massachusetts as of Aug. 28.

The board already was meeting virtually with the director of South County's Tri-Town Health Department on a different matter. Jim Wilusz stayed on the conference call to discuss the implications of Gov. Maura Healey's Thursday announcement on 7-OH, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has called potentially "The Next Wave of the Opioid Epidemic."

Wilusz said he already was working on draft regulations for Tri-Town based, in part, on an ordinance enacted by Northampton before Gov. Maura Healey's announcement. But in the wake of the announcement and the classification of kratom as a Schedule I drug, he might have to change the language of the proposed ordinance.

Healey's emergency order of Aug. 14 is intended to "give local boards of health and other municipal officials additional authority to take enforcement action against retailers selling kratom products," according to a news release announcing the move.

"I was actually hoping they were going to pass a statewide ban on this thing," Wilusz said. "This goes into effect Aug. 28, so effective the 28th, they can't have kratom in the entire state on their shelves with a one-year [period] to give not only boards of health but, possibly, the Legislature, time to enact regulation.

"I don't know if the intent is to work on a statewide Department of Public Health regulation, which would be ideal, where you would have uniformity across the entire state. It does authorize the boards of health to enact local regulations."

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