Letter: Vote Yes on 33, No on 34

To the Editor:

If you can do so safely, please attend Williamstown's annual town meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. (in person only) and stay to vote on proposed marijuana bylaws Article 33 (Limited Indoor) and Article 34 (Widespread Outdoor). The only sensible path forward is YES on 33 and NO (or postpone) 34.

We should not agree to postpone Article 33 until next year's town meeting. We'll need Article 33's insurance in the meantime against the intense development pressures we've already seen big cannabis bring to town.

Tabling Article 33 means we'd automatically revert to our woefully deficient 2017 bylaw with virtually no local zoning control (except ZBA general principles). Applicants can build intrusive 100,000 square-foot operations on 5-acre lots throughout our RR2 neighborhoods, with minimal setbacks. These will change the landscape and quality of life for years.

Since 100 percent of the cannabis for medical and recreational pot sold in Massachusetts must be grown in-state (no crossing of state lines), this is a very high-stakes issue. With annual revenues for growers projected at $2-$5 million per 50,000 square-foot canopy, outside investors are motivated to develop rural Massachusetts communities in ways benefiting few.

The expansive fields near Mount Greylock Regional School are prime spots for big cannabis. Making matters worse, the Mass Cannabis Control Commission recently proposed changing how the 500-foot school buffer zone will be measured, from the school building entrance rather than property line.

Anne Hogeland
Williamstown, Mass.

BHS' New North County Urgent Care Center Opens Tuesday

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
05:44PM / Monday, December 15, 2025

There is a waiting area and reception desk to the right of the Williamstown Medical entrance. 

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Staff and contractors were completing the final touches on Monday to prepare for the opening of Berkshire Health System's new urgent care center. 

 

Robert Shearer, administrative director of urgent care, said the work would be done in time for Berkshire Health Urgent Care North to open Tuesday at 11 a.m. in a wing of Williamstown Medical on Adams Road.  

 

The urgent care center will occupy a suite of rooms off the right side of the entry, with two treatment rooms, offices, amenities, and X-ray room. 

 

"This is a test of the need in the community, the want in the community, to see just how much we need," said Shearer. "One thing that I think Berkshire Health Systems has always been really good at is kind of gauging the need and growing based on what the community tells us. 

 

"And so if we on day one and two and three, find that we're filling this up and maybe exceeding the capacity of the two exam rooms and one provider, then we look to expand it."

 

Hours will be weekdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends from 8 to noon, but the expectation is that the center will "expand those hours pretty quick."

 

BHS has two urgent care centers in Lenox and in Pittsfield. The health system had tried a walk-in center at Williamstown nearly a decade ago but shuttered over low volume of patients.