Waterline turmoil swirls on in Williamstown

By Linda CarmanPrint Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN — Voters at this coming Tuesday’s special town meeting will decide whether to extend the town’s waterline out to Mount Greylock Regional High School, with three nonprofit organizations picking up the tab, or, if the measure fails to gain the necessary two-thirds majority, to choke off water to a school that is operating on bottled water and to block a proposed museum and art conservation outpost. Controversy continues to swirl around the project, some of its ripples indicating not-quite-hidden shoals, and the metaphorical assessments of the waterline extension range from gift horse to Trojan horse. The $3.4 million to $4.2 million project has the vigorous and unanimous endorsement of the Selectmen and the Mount Greylock School Committee, but it has met with intense opposition from some, mostly South Williamstown, residents, who say they fear a waterline could spur development along the town’s Route 7 entrance corridor. These opponents asked the board to delay the vote for exhaustive studies of possible development implications. Some of them specifically oppose development plans of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to build Clark Greylock, a $17 million, 40,000-square-foot building designed by internationally acclaimed architect Tadao Ando to house the Williamstown Art Conservation Center plus Clark galleries and classrooms on a parcel known as Phelps Knoll. The two-thirds vote is required to authorize the town to borrow $875,000, which would be repaid by water sales to the Clark, to Northern Berkshire Health Systems for Sweetwood and Sweet Brook and to the high school. The school has been using bottled water for drinking and cooking since April, when state environmental testing discovered its wells were contaminated with perchlorate. The Clark has pledged $1.5 million, with an additional $300,000 if required, while NBHS has pledged $200,000 and the art conservation center $350,000 for the project. Supporters see their challenge as getting out the vote, perhaps a considerable one when voters could be tired — or disheartened — from the just-ended presidential campaign. Some opponents have targeted the Clark, but proponents have countered that the parcel the Clark wants to buy will, without the waterline, be the site of 68 units from the expanding Sweetwood continuing care retirement community. If the waterline were extended, Sweetwood could build its new units on land now reserved for its wells, which would no longer be needed. So, proponents have said, to speak of “preserving” Phelps Knoll is inaccurate. In an ironic twist, the Clark pursued the Phelps Knoll option when an outcry arose about any possibility of building on Stone Hill, an iconic hill behind the Clark’s South Street complex. If the Phelps Knoll option falls through, Stone Hill would once again be the likely site, Clark Director Michael Conforti has said. Thomas J. Branchik, director of the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, said that organization has $350,000 in its building fund, which it is pledging to the Clark. Payment would await trustee approval and completion of the building, Branchik said Tuesday. “No matter what you do in the town of Williamstown, you’re never going to get a consensus,” Branchik said. “Stone Hill was considered sacred, but if it needs to be there, the Clark owns that property. The town is never going to get a deal like this. For those absolutely opposed to developing Phelps Knoll, what would they rather have, a building by Tadao Ando that’s friendly to the site or Sweetwood units?” He added, “If you step away from it and not let passions rule the head, it doesn’t make any sense to oppose it. You’re not going to get a better deal. If anything, the town meeting should be entertaining.” While opponents have been vocal, raising the specter of development fed by the waterline, supporters have noted that a sewer line is more of a trigger for development. The current small-diameter sewer line was installed specifically to ration development and will, supporters say, continue to do so. While South Williamstown residents who oppose the project — and some 70 of them voiced their objections at a recent meeting at the Little Red Schoolhouse, where many signed a petition asking for additional studies — embrace the status quo, some project supporters say the high school’s need for clean drinking water now and fire protection water in the foreseeable future will be laid at the property owners’ doors once the nonprofits withdraw their funding offers. Jill Harris, owner of Berkshire Hills Motel at 1154 Cold Spring Road, said she favors the waterline because, as a small-business owner, she would not welcome an additional tax burden if the town has to shoulder the costs alone, as could happen if the project is defeated. “Getting clean water for the high school is important, and the building is going to need a sprinkler system, but higher taxes will burden small-business owners,” Harris said. “I don’t think a lot of people are talking about the tax burden, and it’s a very important issue. She said that while, “it would really hurt my business if there was a lot of development, such as gas stations and convenience stores, because people come here to see beautiful scenery, I’m not worried about that because of our zoning.” Harris, who is president of the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce, said the board of directors recently voted unanimously to support the waterline. “People need to know that you can’t sit at home in your living room the night of the town meeting and wake up the next morning and say, ‘too bad.’ They’ve got to make it a point to show up,” she advised. Denise Richer, who owns the 1896 Motel with Sue Morrell, said, “We are 100 percent for it [the waterline]. We feel that for all the businesses it would lower fire-protection costs and eliminate the need for water operators for each building. It’s much better for all the businesses along Route 7.” Richer cited the benefit of “having other parties pay for most of this project that the town cannot afford to do on its own.” “I think we’d be fools to pass it up,” she said. A group of parents distributed information about the project to voters voting in the presidential election Tuesday at the school gymnasium, urging attendance at the meeting Nov. 9, at 7 p.m., also in the school gymnasium, and urging approval of the project. Among the waterline’s selling points is that no taxpayer dollars are being requested or authorized for the project. Besides Clark Greylock, Sweetbrook and Sweetwood and the high school, no other property owners will be required to connect to the water line, so no other revenue is assumed. Water costs will not be increased to repay the debt, according to town officials. Property owners along Cold Spring Road may connect to the waterline but will not be required to do so. No betterments will be assessed to the property owners, and no easements will be paid for by the town, under the project’s terms. In its informational material, the Parents Supporting the Water Main Extension wrote that Mount Greylock could not continue with its current wells even if they could be decontaminated, because they are not in compliance with state Department of Environmental Protection requirements. Both are too close to the building, and one is too close to underground fuel tanks. These are now “grandfathered,” but substantial renovations, which will ultimately be required, will mean the regulations must be enforced and new wells drilled. Those same renovations would trigger the installation of a sprinkler system, which the wells lack either volume or pressure to support. That would mean if wells are the school’s water source, a storage tank and pump would be required, similar to the one built at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington at a cost of $750,000. Opponents say the waterline could make development more attractive on more than 70 lots, while supporters opt for a much smaller number. Zoning along Cold Spring Road, where the waterline would run, requires 200 feet of frontage and 2.5-acre lots. Much of that is limited by topography — Hemlock Brook, which runs beside the road, wetlands or steep ledges. Bridges over the stream would require permission from environmental agencies. Also, supporters note, much of the land is protected by conservation or agricultural status. Some lots are developable, but, supporters note, they are developable now, with wells as a water source, so the waterline extension would have little effect. The Planning Board is split on the issue, with some members asking for Town Counsel Joel Bard of Kopelman Paige to undertake a “buildout analysis.” The board was planning to meet last night [Wednesday, Nov. 3] to tackle that question. Waiting in the wings is the town’s relationship with the high school, which some residents have said may change. Williamstown and Lanesboro joined in the regional district more than 40 years ago, and over the years several studies have explored whether to change or expand the district. Students from Hancock and New Ashford now attend Mount Greylock, but on a tuition basis. Lanesboro, Hancock, New Ashford and Richmond are part of a school union, sharing a superintendent, William Ballen, who recently obtained a $15,000 state grant to study district structure. Some Williamstown residents, however, say they would prefer a go-it-alone approach and want the town to revert to having its own high school and own K-12 district. For those who want another tune-up for the Nov. 9 meeting, representatives of the different groups will focus on the waterline extension in an informational meeting tonight, [Thursday, Nov. 4] at 7 in the elementary school cafeteria.
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Senior Golf Series Returns in September

Community submission
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Berkshire County Fall Senior Golf series returns in September with events on five consecutive Wednesdays starting Sept. 18.
 
It is the 22nd year of the series, which is a fund-raiser for junior golf in the county, and it is open to players aged 50 and up.
 
The series will feature two divisions for each event based on the combined ages of the playing partners.
 
Golfers play from the white tees (or equivalent) with participants 70 and over or who have a handicap of more than 9 able to play from the forward tees.
 
Gross and net prices will be available in each division.
 
The cost is $55 per event and includes a round of golf, food and prizes. Carts are available for an additional fee.
 
Golfers should call the pro shop at the course for that week's event no sooner than two weeks before the event to register.
 
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