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An image of missing person Fae Morgana Barbone provided by the Williamstown Police Department.

Authorities Search in Williamstown for Missing Eastern Mass Resident

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Police are asking anyone with information about a missing eastern Massachusetts resident to contact the dispatch center at 413-458-5733.
 
On Tuesday morning, Williamstown Police received a report of a suspicious vehicle parked near the end of Berlin Road, a hiking area near the New York State Line, according to a news release from the WPD on Wednesday.
 
Police determined the vehicle was registered to Fae Morgana Barbone, a missing person from the Abington/Hanson area on the South Shore, the release said. 
 
"This person had been reported as missing several days earlier with unconfirmed sightings in North Adams and the Carolinas and a confirmed interaction with law enforcement in the state of Maine," WPD said.
 
Williamstown Police used its K-9 unit and drone surveillance to search the area, they said.
 
As of 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, the search continued.
 
Williamstown Police asked the public to avoid the area at the end of Berlin Road so as not to interfere with authorities.
 
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Barbone was reported missing to Abington Police. Her car, a black 2019 Ford Festiva coupe with license plate 259TB, was reported on a street in Augusta, Maine, on March 7. She was caught on security camera footage at an ATM on March 6.
 
Barbone is described as 40 years old and white, standing 6-foot-2 with brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a light blue denim jacket, purple sweat shirt, black leggings and brown shoes. There is a peace sign tattoo on the back of her neck. 
 
The search team included the New York and Massachusetts State Police, Massachusetts Environmental Police and the New York Environmental Conservation Police, according to the news release. The WPD wanted to make local residents aware of the increased presence of the outside agencies during the search.

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Williamstown Fin Comm Hears from Police Department, Library

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Police Chief Michael Ziemba last week explained to the Finance Committee why an additional full-time officer needs to be added to the fiscal year 2027 budget.
 
The 13 officers in the Williamstown Police Department are insufficient to maintain the department's minimal threshold of two officers on patrol per shift without employing overtime and relying on the chief and the WPD's one detective to cover patrol shifts if an officer is sick or using personal time, Ziemba explained.
 
Some of that coverage was provided in the past by part-time officers, but that option was taken away by the commonwealth's 2020 police reform act.
 
"We lost two part-timers a couple of years ago," Ziemba told the Fin Comm. "They were part-time officers, but they also worked the desk. So between the desk and the cruiser shifts, they were working 40 hours a week, the two of them. We lost them to police reform.
 
"We have seen that we're struggling to cover shifts voluntarily now. We're starting to order people to cover time-off requests. … We don't have the flexibility when somebody goes out for a surgery or sickness or maternity leave to cover that without overtime. An additional position, I believe, would alleviate that."
 
Ziemba bolstered his case by benchmarking the force against like-sized communities in Berkshire County.
 
Adams, for example, has 19 full-time officers and handled 9,241 calls last year with a population just less than 8,000 and a coverage area of 23 square miles, Ziemba said. By comparison, Williamstown has 13 officers, handled 15,000 calls for service, has a population of about 8,000 (including staff and students at Williams College) and covers 46.9 square miles.
 
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