St. John’s Episcopal Church, Noontime Concert Series

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St. John’s Episcopal Church in Williamstown will kick off its annual Noontime Concert Series on Monday, July 6 with a program of vocal music of classical and contemporary composers. Featured performers are New York-based baritone Avery Griffin and pianist Scott Bailey.

The concert will begin at noon and end by 12:45. Audience members are welcome to bring a bag. Admission is free, but donations to help offset expenses are accepted. Audience members are welcome to bring a bag lunch.

Avery Griffin is a freelance singer who performs regularly with both New York- and Boston-based groups including the Trinity Choir at Trinity Church, Wall Street; the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys; the NotaRiotous ensemble of the Boston Microtonal Society. He teaches theory annually at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He is the recipient of several awards including the Harold Zulalian Scholarship and the Ellalou Dimmock scholarship from Boston University. His most recent local performance was with Roomful of Teeth at Mass MoCA.

Pianist Scott Bailey is the director of choral activities at Bay Path College, and an adjunct professor of music at Westfield State College and private instructor of piano and accompanist at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He is the music director at the First Congregational Church of North Adams, United Church of Christ, and is coordinator of their North County Music Series, a concert series featuring local and emerging musicians from Berkshire County and beyond.


The concert series will continue on Mondays from July 13 - August 20. Featured performers include the Trio Café Budapest; the St.  John’s Youth Band; trombonist Will Lang; Loadbang, a contemporary ensemble from New York City; violist Nick Revel; violinist Emily Kalish.

Updated information can be found at  www.saintjohnswilliamstown.org..

St. John’s is located at 35 Park Street and is wheelchair-accessible.
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Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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