image description — 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
10:05AM / Wednesday, March 20, 2024Print Story | Email Story

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.

Tags: missing persons,

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Williamstown Finance Committee Begins FY27 Budget Review

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:49AM / Tuesday, February 24, 2026

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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