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No Hazards Identified in Air Testing at Mount Greylock School

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — School officials say no health risks have been identified at Mount Greylock Regional School. 
 
The school was closed Friday to allow engineers to check the heating and air conditioning system after a number of complaints about an odor in the new academic wing.
 
Superintendent Kimberley Grady, in an email to the school community on Friday evening, said the building was inspected by a team of licensed professionals that included the town's health inspector and the plumbing engineer for the project.  
 
"They assessed the rooftop units, venting and roof stacks for the three-floor Academic Wing in response to concerns regarding the presence of a 'sewage' smell," she wrote.
 
Eco-Genesis, an environmental engineering company contracted to complete air quality screenings, used an LEL ("lower explosive limit") device for screening methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and oxygen.  
 
Their testing revealed no traces of methane, hydrogen sulfide or carbon monoxide, Grady wrote, and the oxygen readings were within the normal limit at 20.9.  As an extra precaution, the school district requested lab-based tests to be conducted using SUMMA canisters — a type of stainless steel container for doing air sampling. Results from these tests should be available Friday, Feb. 21, before the school reopens from the February vacation week.
 
The academic wing will remain closed during the vacation week to continue testing. Other sections of the school building (specifically the gym, cafeteria and auditorium) will be opened for activities. The individual basketball contests, the Berkshire Country Classic and the Mathias J. Bartels Scholarship fundraiser will continue at the school as planned.
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Smoking Ban, Airbnb Limits Put to Williamstown Town Meeting Members

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The age-old tension between individual liberties and the common good will be in play when residents convene for the annual town meeting on Thursday evening at Mount Greylock Regional School.
 
Two articles on the 32-item meeting warrant seek to clarify that balance in one way or another.
 
One, a proposal generated by the town's Planning Board, would set a limit on the number of days a residence can be utilized as a short-term rental, commonly referred to by the trade name Airbnb.
 
Another, on the warrant via citizens petition, would prohibit smoking tobacco products in multifamily dwelling units (apartments) with more than four units per structure.
 
Those are two of the articles that have generated significant discussion at the board and committee level in the months leading up to the annual meeting, where all the town's registered voters have the right to vote up and down on everything from the town budget to whether geothermal wells that use "chemical heat transfer fluids" should be heavily regulated in the town's Water Resource Districts.
 
One fiscal item that tends not to get a lot of attention in most years has been the focus of strong protest in the last few weeks leading to the warrant's publication.
 
Article 6, a seemingly routine measure that would authorize the budget for solid waste disposal at the Hoosac Water Quality District, appears on the warrant with a 2-3 vote by the Select Board against adoption.
 
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