WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Five months after it moved into the renovated Mount Greylock Regional School, the district has full access to the building.
Mount Greylock Superintendent Kimberley Grady said Tuesday that the district has received a certificate of occupancy for the middle-high school, an approval that includes use of the school's auditorium.
The auditorium, which along with the gym was one of two public spaces remaining from the old Mount Greylock, has been off-limits to the school because of construction delays.
While the school opened for classes in September under a temporary certificate of occupancy, the auditorium remained closed.
At last week's Mount Greylock School Committee meeting, Grady told the panel that a walk-through with the town's building inspector was scheduled for this week and indicated she was guardedly optimistic about the results.
"I hope to send out great news," she said.
The delay in use of the auditorium forced the school to hold its fall and winter orchestra, band and choral concerts at alternate locations. Williams College offered the use of Chapin Hall for the fall concert; the winter concert was held in Mount Greylock's cafeteria.
Recently, the school decided it once again would hold its spring musical at the college's '62 Center for Performing Arts, where it was lucky enough to stage the play the last couple of years during the addition/renovation project. It was not immediately clear Tuesday afternoon whether the show would be moved back to the middle-high school campus.
While the district built a new three-story academic wing, a new cafeteria, new locker rooms, new offices, new library and other academic spaces, the auditorium and gymnasium were renovated. The district's School Building Committee and School Committee opted for renovations because a newly constructed auditorium or gym would have been smaller than the original according to square-footage specifications of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which is participating in funding the addition/renovation project.
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Williamstown Planners OK Preliminary Habitat Plan
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board on Tuesday agreed in principle to most of the waivers sought by Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity to build five homes on a Summer Street parcel.
But the planners strongly encouraged the non-profit to continue discussions with neighbors to the would-be subdivision to resolve those residents' concerns about the plan.
The developer and the landowner, the town's Affordable Housing Trust, were before the board for the second time seeking an OK for the preliminary subdivision plan. The goal of the preliminary approval process is to allow developers to have a dialogue with the board and stakeholders to identify issues that may come up if and when NBHFH brings a formal subdivision proposal back to the Planning Board.
Habitat has identified 11 potential waivers from the town's subdivision bylaw that it would need to build five single-family homes and a short access road from Summer Street to the new quarter-acre lots on the 1.75-acre lot the trust purchased in 2015.
Most of the waivers were received positively by the planners in a series of non-binding votes.
One, a request for relief from the requirement for granite or concrete monuments at street intersections, was rejected outright on the advice of the town's public works directors.
Another, a request to use open drainage to manage stormwater, received what amounted to a conditional approval by the board. The planners noted DPW Director Craig Clough's comment that while open drainage, per se, is not an issue for his department, he advised that said rain gardens not be included in the right of way, which would transfer ownership and maintenance of said gardens to the town.
Town meeting voters will be asked Monday to approve a request to change state law in a way that will preserve education at Hancock Elementary School. click for more
The Charter Review Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to endorse an amended version of the compliance provision it drafted to be added to the Town Charter. click for more
Developer David Traggorth asked the trustees to make the contribution from its coffers to help unlock an additional $5.4 million in state funds for the planned 54-unit apartment building at the south end of the Cable Mills site.
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