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A portion of Green River Road (Route 43) set for rehabilitation by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Williamstown Con Comm OKs Route 43 Paving Project

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Conservation Commission on Thursday gave the green light for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to improve a 2.3-mile stretch of Route 43 in South Williamstown.
 
The portion of the highway in question, known as Green River Road, runs along the river from Five Corners intersection with Route 7 north and east to Hopper Road.
 
MassDOT is looking to preserve and rehabilitate pavement, install pavement milling mulch in 2-foot wide strips on each side of the road, replace and repair guard rails, resurface four existing pull-off areas and remove drainage system sediment.
 
Among other things, the roadwork will address the potholes in the roadway, a particular problem during winter storms.
 
The Con Comm approval was needed because the work will be conducted because of its proximity to the water resource area.
 
The MassDOT work plan was reviewed by the Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, which advised the local commission that sufficient care would be taken to preserve the resource.
 
"Based on a review of the information that was provided and the information that is currently contained in our database, the Division has determined that this project, as currently proposed, will not adversely affect the actual Resource Area Habitat of state-protected rare wildlife species," Fisheries and Wildlife Assistant Director Everose Schlüter told the Con Comm in a letter dated March 4.
 
At Thursday's meeting — held on the Zoom video conferencing platform because of the closure of Town Hall out of concern for the COVID-19 pandemic — the commissioners ordered one alteration to the plan laid out by MassDOT.
 
Based on the Con Comm's comments at an earlier hearing on MassDOT's Notice of Intent, the agency had specified native vegetation it would plant along the project in order to enhance existing forested areas and provide "slope stability, shading and erosion" control to protect the river.
 
On Thursday, Commissioner Henry Art, an emerita professor of environmental studies and biology at Williams College, suggested that the state choose different species to plant.
 
"I appreciate the fact that these are relatively native species," Art said. "But I would suggest that we not have white oak or redbud on the list.
 
"The other ones are just fine. White oak is more of an upland species that really likes dry soils. Redbud isn't quite ready for this region yet. It probably works fine in eastern Mass, but we're a little far north. Even with climate change coming our way, I think it's a little premature to be planting that."
 
A representative from MassDOT who participated in the hearing meeting assented, and the five commissioners in attendance voted unanimously to approve the order of conditions with Art's suggested change.
 
The order will remain in place for three years, meaning that the MassDOT will not need to come back to the Conservation Commission for review if the road work begins during that time.
 
In other business on Thursday, the Con Comm also OKed a plan by Oblong Road resident Daniel Holland to relocate utility poles on Berlin Road.
 
Holland was before the commission to seek a negative determination of applicability of the Wetlands Protection Act because the work is planned in the buffer zone for Berlin Brook.
 
The commissioners voted unanimously that the work could proceed under the town's standard set of conditions, including that erosion controls be in place during the work.
 
The Con Comm also Thursday continued three public hearings until its April meeting, including a MassDOT Notice of Intent related to the bike path planned from North Street (Route 7) to Main Street (Route 2) and an NOI for a perimeter fence project at North Adams' Harriman & West Airport that has property extending into Williamstown.

Tags: conservation commission,   MassDOT,   paving,   

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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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