Adams Selectmen Slapped With Open Meeting Violation

04:01PM / Tuesday, March 28, 2023Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen was found to have violated Open Meeting Law by failing to post its Dec. 14, 2022, meeting in its designated place at Town Hall.

The complaint was made to the town by Catherine Foster on Jan. 7 about the meeting not being posted corrected and also that it was insufficient because the date and time stamp were illegible.

The Dec. 14 meeting was when the board voted to accept Shared Estates' bid to develop the Greylock Glen campground.

Governmental meetings must be posted at least 48 hours in advance; this does not include Saturdays and Sundays. The notices also must be "conspicuously visible" to the public at all hours.

Or, the municipality may adopt its website as the official method of notice posting.

The meeting had been posted at the Police Station, which is open 24 hours, and on the town's website but the Attorney General's office noted that the Town Hall is designated as the official posting site.

"The town of Adams has not adopted the municipal website as an alternative notice posting method; there, the official notice posting location for meeting of Adams public bodies is the Adams Town Building located at 8 Park Street," wrote Mary L. Nguyen, assistant attorney general.

She ordered to the Board of Selectmen's "immediate and future compliance" with Open Meeting Law and cautioned that board that "a determination by our office of a similar violation in the future may be considered evidence of intent to violate the Open Meeting Law."

Tags: open meeting complaint,

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North Berkshire School Study Encouraging Stakeholders to Take Survey

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
07:22AM / Saturday, October 03, 2026

CHESHIRE, Mass. — The consultants behind the education study for North Berkshire are hoping for solid responses to its recently released survey.

The survey, released last week, can be found here.

"Our goal is somewhere between 5 and 10 percent overall survey responses, which is somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 responses," project manager Jake Eberwein told the steering committee for the North Berkshire Educational Sustainability Study at Wednesday's meeting at Hoosac Valley High School.

This is the next phase of the study of secondary education in North County being undertaken through state funding and conducted by Berkshire Educational Consulting Group, Berk12.

"Our first phase was project awareness, and that was really our you know attempt to meet the school committees, select boards, and we wrapped that up this past Monday in Williamstown," Berk12 researcher Brendan Sheran said. "And certainly, we'll be doing more of that going back out probably in the midyear or springtime. But in terms of info gathering, really, the data collection — that's where we are now."

The community survey was launched through sharing on social media, the group's stakeholder list, the press, and the district partners, which are distributing it to educators, parents and students. The window is expected to close on Friday, Oct. 9, but Sheran said they can be flexible with the date.

The survey takes about seven to 10 minutes and is open to those in the Hoosac Valley Regional and Mount Greylock Regional school districts and in North Adams, Clarksburg, Florida and Savoy.

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