Lynne Blake Named Local Realtor of the Year

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Lynne Blake

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Lynne Blake, of RCI Real Estate in Williamstown and North Adams, has been chosen the 2005 Berkshire County Realtor of the Year.

Blake is being honored for her commitment to civic-minded leadership in both the Realtor organization and in the Berkshire community. Recipients of this award are nominated and selected by Realtor colleagues throughout Berkshire County.

Blake is most recognized among her peers for her commitment to volunteer service in the leadership of the Realtor organization. She has served since 1995 on the Board of Directors, starting her tenure as a Realtor representative for Northern Berkshire, as Northern Berkshire Council President and in varying leadership roles that lead to her election to the 2005 Presidential position.

She has served with distinction on the Multiple Listing Service Board of Directors as well as on the Finance, Professional Standards, Good Neighbor, Community Service, Orientation and Berkshire Newcomer Magazine Committees in the last year alone. Most recently, Blake was appointed to serve as the Berkshire Realtor representative on the Massachusetts Realtors Board of Directors in Boston.

In her service on the state level, Lynne has been active in meeting with Berkshire legislators on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., advocating for private property rights. Through RCI Real Estate, Blake speaks with high school students about the values of a good financial future, homeownership and the importance of maintaining good credit.

In the Northern Berkshire community, Blake is supporting member of the Friends of North Adams Library and the North Adams Historical Society. She is a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts of the USA where she was presented with the "Thanks Badge," the highest award bestowed upon an adult member. She is a member of the Williamstown and Berkshire Chambers of Commerce.

Blake primarily works out of the RCI Real Estate Williamstown branch on Main Street and makes her home in North Adams with her husband, Ed. They have two grown children and one granddaughter.

As the 2005 Berkshire County Realtor of the Year, Blake will now be competing for the Massachusetts Realtor of the Year title at the Massachusetts Awards Ceremony in September. The following Realtor members from Berkshire County have brought home this state award four times since its inception; the late Ester Quinn (1986), Nancy Kalodner (1988), Debbie Dwyer (1998) and Sherry Street (2001).

The Berkshire County Board of Realtor serves more than 500 real estate professionals throughout the county in their mission to fulfill the American dream of homeownership for our citizens. Services include the compilation of property data, advanced education, professional standards services, and legal, environmental and market information. To find out more about the association go to www.BerkshireRealtors.com.

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Mount Greylock School Committee Takes Another Look at FY27 Budget

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee on Tuesday decided to bring a fiscal year 2027 budget to Thursday's public hearing that maintains level services while seeking double-digit percentage increases in the assessments to each of the district's member towns.
 
The committee knew those increases were coming from a draft budget it saw at its March 3 meeting, but the numbers changed over the last couple of weeks — driving up the anticipated assessment to Williamstown and leading to a slight reduction for the budget hit to Lanesborough.
 
The draft budget in front of the committee on Tuesday includes a 13.61 percent increase in the district's assessment to Williamstown and a 10.99 percent hike for Lanesborough.
 
In real dollars, those assessment increases translate to $2,018,000 and $751,000, respectively versus the FY26 assessment to pay for the current school year.
 
Williamstown's assessment is up 0.9 percent from March 3 to March 14 while Lanesborough's is down 0.8 percent, in part because, per the regional agreement, each town pays the operating cost of its elementary school (and splits the cost of the middle-high school based on enrollment). Some of the increased cost in the last two weeks impacts Williamstown Elementary more than Lanesborough Elementary.
 
Tuesday's draft is likely to be relatively unchanged when the School Committee holds its annual public hearing on the budget on Thursday, the same night the committee likely will vote on the final FY27 budget — and resulting assessments — it will send to each member town's annual town meeting in the spring.
 
Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the committee that the administration and the elected body's Finance subcommittee had been making modest progress on mitigating the assessment increases to both member towns before the district received two gut punches.
 
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