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Volunteers pass out "I voted" stickers to voters on Tuesday morning at Williamstown Elementary School.

Mount Greylock Voters Re-Elect Greene, Miller to School Committee

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Voters in the Mount Greylock Regional School District Tuesday returned Carrie Greene and Steven Miller to the School Committee in the only contested local election on the ballot.
 
Lanesborough's and Williamstown's electorate ensured that the School Committee will have the same composition for at least another two years by choosing the two incumbents over challenger Christine Enderle in a three-way race for two seats on the seven-person committee.
 
Greene was the top vote-getter with 2,661 votes in the two-town district. Miller was second with 1,736. Enderle was third with 1,465.
 
All three Lanesborough residents on the School Committee stood for re-election on Tuesday in uncontested races. Christine Conry, Curtis Elfenbein and Ursula Maloy each were returned to the committee.
 
Greene, Miller and Enderle were running for two of the four seats designated for residents of Williamstown.
 
Miller was at Williamstown Elementary School on Tuesday evening to await the results and said that he looks forward to continuing his work to bring transparency to the School Committee's activities and increase engagement with members of the public.
 
"One of the things we've done is we now have agenda requests [for committee members] at the end of every meeting, so that makes it a lot easier to have things discussed," Miller said. "One of the things I want to keep working on is to have the meeting packets made available more in advance so that people are able to see what's going to be discussed at the meetings and decide whether they want to go or not."
 
Miller also committed to pushing for a continued role for the School Committee's subcommittees in providing a conduit for public input.
 
"One of the things I've been very happy about is in some of our subcommittees, we've been able to have a lot of interactions with people from the community," Miller said. "For example, when John Skavlem was chair of the fields committee, and I was chair of the education subcommittee, we had people speaking whenever appropriate.
 
"That's easier to do at the subcommittee level than the full committee level."
 
Williamstown saw 2,823 voters turn out for the mid-term election, which is more than the 2,500 voters who might be expected for the cycle, according to Town Clerk Nicole Beverly.
 
"It was a good day," she said as the balloting wound down on Tuesday. "A busy day, but a good day."
 
Fifty-six percent of the town's 5,009 registered voters voted either in person on Tuesday, in person at town hall during the early voting period or by mail.
 
Beverly said there were 178 in-person voters during the early voting period. She said she mailed out 1,267 mail-in ballots and had received, as of midday Monday, 1,185, a 94 percent return rate.

Tags: election 2022,   

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Companion Corner: Max at Second Chance

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

Max still loves to play fetch even though his eyesight is reduced. 

ARLINGTON, Vt. — There is a dog at Second Chance Animal Shelter whose blindness doesn't stop him from wanting to play fetch with his new family.

iBerkshire's Companion Corner is a weekly series spotlighting an animal in our local shelters that is ready to find a home.

Max is a 3-year-old border collie has been patiently waiting at the shelter since January 2023.

Lead canine care technician Alaura Lasher introduced us to him.

"He is a mostly blind dog, so we're looking for someone who is willing to work with him and his blindness, he actually does really well, even though he can't see for the most part," she said. 

Max was given to the shelter after his previous owner was not able to care for his special needs. His new owner will have to be able to care for him and make sure his eyes are checked every six months.

"He has degenerative retinal atrophy. He had a surgery for this a year ago. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to gain much eyesight back from that, and we're just monitoring him for glaucoma. He would need someone who is ready to take him to the ophthalmologist every six months," said Lasher. "He gets checkups every six months just to make sure he hasn't developed glaucoma yet and nothing is worsening with his eyes."

It is suggested he goes to a home with older children who can understand his condition as well as no other pets, and a safe place for him to run free without worry of getting lost. Especially to play his favorite game of fetch.

"We do suggest a home with no other animals, just because with his blindness, it's a little hard for him to know how to interact with them. We also suggest a home with a fenced in yard again, because he loves to play fetch. He will play fetch for as long as you will let him, and he does amazing at it, even though he doesn't have the best eyes," Lasher said.

Max is on an eye-drop schedule that will need to be followed.

"He does require multiple eye drops a day, so someone would have to be ready and willing to kind of stick to his eye med schedule and be able to administer those daily," she said.

Max has shown signs of reactivity to strangers and animals and would do great if his next family could work with him in socializing. 

"He's a very smart dog. He's very intelligent. I think he would do really well with some basic training. Since he's very toy driven, that would definitely kind of help him in his learning and training process."

If you think Max might be the boy for you, reach out to Second Chance Animal Shelter and learn more about him on the website.

Second Chance Animal Shelter is open Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. It is located at 1779 VT Route 7A. Contact the shelter at 802-375-2898 or info@2ndchanceanimalcenter.org.

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