With No Races to Decide, a Light Turnout in Williamstown Town Election

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — All four candidates on the town election ballot easily won election on Tuesday in a light day of polling at the elementary school.
 
In a town with about 5,000 registered voters, 438 ballots were cast in an election with no contested races, a turnout rate of about 8.6 percent.
 
Incumbent Select Board member Jeffrey Johnson received 408 votes for a second three-year term on the body.
 
Anna Halpin-Healy was returned to the library board of trustees for another three years with 419 votes.
 
Laila Boucher was re-elected for another three years as one of the town's two representatives on the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Tech) board with 412 votes.
 
And newcomer Samantha Page was elected to a five-year seat on the five-person Planning Board with 406 votes, according to acting Town Clerk Tom Webb.
 
Webb, with eight votes, was the winner of a write-in vote for a five-year term on the town's Housing Authority. Fifty ballots were submitted with write-ins for the spot, which had no names on the ballot.
 
Webb said Wednesday afternoon that about 300 of the 438 votes cast came in by mail, about 68 percent of the total.
 
Last year, when there four candidates running for two seats on the Select Board, just shy of 1,000 ballots were returned.

Tags: election 2024,   town elections,   


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Lanesborough Officials Review Schools' Budgets

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff

Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron, left, addresses the Lanesborough Select Board and Finance Committee as School Committee member Curtis Elfenbein looks at the projection of a slide in the district's budget presentation.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Town officials Monday appeared generally receptive to the fiscal year 2027 spending plans for the two public school districts that serve the town.
 
Superintendents from the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Technical School) and Mount Greylock Regional School District presented their respective FY27 budgets to a joint meeting of the town's Finance Committee and Select Board.
 
Both districts are sending significantly higher assessments for approval at Lanesborough's annual town meeting in June.
 
McCann Tech, which constituted a $317,109 expenditure for the town in the current fiscal year, is seeking $463,978 for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 even though the school's operating budget is up just 3.2 percent year to year.
 
The 46 percent increase in Lanesborough's share of McCann Tech's budget is is due to two factors: a rise in enrollment of town residents at the vocational school from 20 in 2025 to 29 in this school year and a capital assessment for the first round of payments — for interest only — for a roof and window replacement project on the North Adams campus.
 
The Mount Greylock assessment, a much larger component of Lanesborough's property tax bill, is up 10.99 percent from FY26 to FY27, from $6.8 million to $7.6 million.
 
Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron gave a budget presentation similar to one he has delivered twice to the district's School Committee and again last month to the Williamstown Finance Committee, explaining that while the FY27 budget maintains level services to students with a net reduction of three positions, a series of factors are driving much larger assessments to Mount Greylock's two member towns.
 
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