WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The age-old tension between individual liberties and the common good will be in play when residents convene for the annual town meeting on Thursday evening at Mount Greylock Regional School.

 

Two articles on the 32-item meeting warrant seek to clarify that balance in one way or another.

 

One, a proposal generated by the town's Planning Board, would set a limit on the number of days a residence can be utilized as a short-term rental, commonly referred to by the trade name Airbnb.

 

Another, on the warrant via citizens petition, would prohibit smoking tobacco products in multifamily dwelling units (apartments) with more than four units per structure.

 

Those are two of the articles that have generated significant discussion at the board and committee level in the months leading up to the annual meeting, where all the town's registered voters have the right to vote up and down on everything from the town budget to whether geothermal wells that use "chemical heat transfer fluids" should be heavily regulated in the town's Water Resource Districts.

 

One fiscal item that tends not to get a lot of attention in most years has been the focus of strong protest in the last few weeks leading to the warrant's publication.

 

Article 6, a seemingly routine measure that would authorize the budget for solid waste disposal at the Hoosac Water Quality District, appears on the warrant with a 2-3 vote by the Select Board against adoption.