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Clarksburg Motorcyclist Killed in Thursday Night Collision

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A Clarksburg man died Friday after being involved in a motorcycle collision on Thursday night. This is the third fatality involving a motorcycle this spring and the fourth with injuries.
 
Peter Anderson, 54, of Clarksburg died in early Friday morning, according to the district attorney's office.
 
Anderson was riding eastbound on Main Street just before midnight when he traveled off the road and struck a telephone pole. The accident reportedly happened near the Colonial Shopping Plaza. He was taken to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield where he later succumbed to his injuries.
 
Williamstown Police, the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Berkshire District Attorney's Office, the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, and State Police Crime Scene Services responded to the scene.
 
The collision remains under investigation. 
 
A Cheshire man was killed April 19 when his motorcycle collided with a car near Walmart in North Adams and a Pittsfield teenager died April 24 when his motorcycle hit a guardrail. 
 
 

Tags: fatal,   motorcycles,   MVI,   

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Williamstown Finance Committee Begins FY27 Budget Review

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Finance Committee last week began its review of an "unexciting" fiscal year 2027 budget while continuing to monitor an unappealing trend line that could see the town facing a Proposition 2 1/2 override as soon as FY29.
 
Town meeting will have the levy capacity to approve the FY27 budget as drafted and presented by the town manager on Wednesday, partly because the spending plan for the year that begins on July 1 includes just one noteworthy increase in discretionary municipal spending.
 
As drafted, the FY27 budget would result in a projected 7.69 percent in the property tax levy from the current fiscal year — pending the final numbers from the town's largest cost center, the Mount Greylock Regional School District, which will not finalize its assessments to its member towns until March 19.
 
The town hall side of spending is up by about 2.8 percent in the proposed budget. Most of that is attributable to cost-of-living increases for current employees and fixed costs, like the town's contribution for employees' health insurance.
 
"The one thing I would say is apologies for bringing a boring budget forward that doesn't have a lot of excitement," Town Manager Robert Menicocci told the Finance Committee. "But with this audience, it's, 'Hey, we brought something really exciting to you guys. The growth is modest given all the pressures that are out there.'
 
"We're maintaining services as we know them. I think that's really strong news given the pressures that are out there. There's no erosion of services. There's no erosion of staff. We haven't had to go through a cut exercise. Still, that's at the expense of relying on the taxpayer to pay more taxes this upcoming year."
 
Finance Director David Fierro Jr. told the Fin Comm that most of the increases in expenses are because of the town's negotiated cost-of-living adjustments. He also included an estimated 9 percent increase in the assessment from Mount Greylock and a 10 percent increase in the much smaller assessment from the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Technical School).
 
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