WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — It was a relatively uneventful meeting to cap a year that was anything but uneventful.

 

The Williamstown Fire District held its annual meeting on Tuesday, and the dozen or so voters in attendance passed all items on the nine-article warrant unanimously and without discussion.

 

The discussion was reserved for everything that happened in the Fire Department since the 2020 meeting.

 

The department successfully navigated the COVID-19 pandemic without any of its members contracting the disease, acquired the department's first tanker truck, learned that one of its longest serving members is retiring from active service, helped put out a racetrack fire in neighboring Pownal, Vt., that garnered headlines around the region, battled three house fires in as many days around Christmas and took giant steps toward the goal of building a new fire station on Main Street.

 

And then the real action began.

 

"We've been busy the last week or so," Chief Craig Pedercini told the meeting and the audience looking in on the town's community access television station, Willinet.

 

Just 11 days before the meeting, the department received a call about a brush fire on East Mountain. After four days of active fighting involving personnel from 23 departments around the region, that fire, which burned 947 acres, was brought to within 95 percent control. Pedercini told the meeting on Tuesday that the Department of Conservation and Recreation still was monitoring the last remnants of the blaze that spread into North Adams and Clarksburg, but it may have been officially declared extinguished by the time Tuesday's gathering at Williamstown Elementary School got under way.

 

Pedercini did not have much time to check in with DCR officials on Tuesday. At 10:30, the Williamstown Fire Department was called out to provide mutual aid to the city of North Adams to the blaze at the George Apkin & Sons scrap yard.

 

"I got back to town about an hour ago," a clearly fatigued chief told the meeting.

 

Fortunately for him, there was no need to field questions from the voters who approved the district's fiscal year 2022 spending plan. The bulk of the warrant concerned the district's operating budget of $480,849, a decrease of 3 percent from FY21's $495,865 caused largely by the elimination of street lighting, an expense that shifts over to the Town of Williamstown starting July 1.

 

Overall, the district, a separate taxing authority apart from town government, will spend 10.6 percent more in the year ahead than it did in FY21 because of a couple of big ticket items: $80,000 toward the "design fund" that will help move the fire station building project forward and an additional $10,000 ($60,000 total) for the district's stabilization fund, which is used to pay for apparatuses like the recently acquired tanker truck.

 

The 10.6 percent increase in total spending will result in an estimated 6 cents per $1,000 valuation on local property tax bills. A homeowner with a $200,000 home would pay an additional $12 in property tax if that estimate holds up.

 

Another accomplishment of the last 12 months was the creation of the district's Building Committee, and its chair, Elaine Neely, was on hand Tuesday to give a report on the progress it has made, most notably finding an owner's project manager to help guide the district in its effort to replace the cramped, aging Water Street facility.

 

Neely said Colliers International, the firm chosen to provide OPM services to the district, is developing a building budget, drafting a request for qualifications for a building architect and working with a grant writer to help the district find potential funding streams for the new station.

 

The chair of the five-person Prudential Committee, the district's equivalent of the town's Select Board, told the meeting that the district has earned about $50,000 in grants in FY20 and is pursuing up to $690,000 in grants to fund a new truck. Richard Reynolds also said that the WFD is looking into state and federal grants to support the building project.

 

Reynolds and Pedercini called out the town for supporting its firefighters during four days of fighting the East Mountain fire.

 

"We have seen a wealth of support — institutions, small businesses, individuals, our partner communities," Reynolds said.

 

"It's nice to have that resource," Pedercini said. "People pouring in with food and drink. It made my job easier. Instead of figuring out how to feed 100 people, I just had to figure how to get them up the mountain."

 

Pedercini said that over the course of four days, an average of 78 firefighters per day were involved with the East Mountain fire — representing 3,300 hours of labor.

 

He thanked all the departments from surrounding communities as well as the DCR, the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, the State Police and the Massachusetts National Guard.

 

"They gave us the resources we need to make the event short — four days is not so bad," Pedercini said. "We thought it would go on longer."

 

Prior to the annual meeting on Tuesday, the district held its annual election, where David Moresi was re-elected to serve on the Prudential Committee, and Lindsay Neathawk was elected to fill the seat being vacated by Ed McGowan.

 

Fellow longtime Prudential Committee member John Notsley presented McGowan with a plaque in recognition of his service to the district — as a firefighter and chief for 50 years followed by 18 years on the committee.

 

"It's been an honor to see Ed's dedication to the fire service," Notsley said. "And I hope others follow in his footsteps."

 

District Moderator Paul Harsch picked up on that theme.

 

"One thing that has impressed me is the humility with which the men and women in the fire department serve," Harsch said toward the close of the 50-minute meeting. "They're not in there for the glory. They're in there to serve and to do their part for the community."

 

Harsch then closed by encouraging anyone else interested in providing that kind of service to reach out to Pedercini.