Letter: Vote No on Article 13 at Dalton Town Meeting

To the Editor:

On May 5, the voters of the Town of Dalton will be asked to vote on 31 Articles at the annual Town Meeting. I encourage all voters attending to vote "No" on Article 13.

Article 13 reads:

To the voters who originally voted on May 1, 2017, annual town meeting your vote meant nothing, if it can be changed so easily. So, if voters vote for something at the upcoming town meeting, someone could petition for a special town meeting and rescind that voting result. Doesn't hardly seem right.

The intent of changing the original vote is to the use the site to erect a new ridiculous 13,000 square foot, ten million plus dollar police station. Which the Town doesn’t mention in the text of Article 13. There are more viable alternate plans for a new police station that would cost far less and make a lot more sense.

Why would the town build a police station in the middle of a residential area anyways? If I were a resident in the area I would be outraged.

Why would the town give up six building lots? How much money will the Town lose by not selling these lots, not to mention the tax revenue that could be collected. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? I don’t know why the Town has not developed the building lots like it was supposed to. It’s been eight years since the vote in 2017.

Keep in mind, regardless of what the site will be used for, the site will require millions of dollars to address the repair and upgrade of the Walker Brook culvert system that runs under the site. So, you can add that to the cost of a new police station.

Unfortunately, if you are eligible voter in the Town of Dalton and are not able or do not attend annual town meeting you will not be able to vote on this important article or any other article in the warrant. The town gets to pick your pocket and decide things that affect you without the your vote. This voter discrimination really needs to stop. After all this is the 21st century not the 18th. Of the 4,500 plus registered voters, the town meetings historically are attended by less the 200 voters. Two hundred voters is not 2/3 of 4,500 voters. Why should 200 voters be able to decide the fate of the other 4,300 voters?

I hope the voters attending the May 5 Dalton annual town meeting will vote a resounding "NO" on Article 13.

Bruce Lester
Dalton, Mass. 

North Adams Becomes a Purple Heart Community

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Veterans Service Officer Kurtis Durocher, a Purple Heart recipient, tells his own story of how he was wounded in Iraq.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City leaders last week held a ceremony marking the city as a Purple Heart Community to honor local military service members wounded or killed in combat.

 

"This designation is much more than a sign that will stand at the entrances to our city," said Kurtis Durocher, Northern Berkshire veterans service officer at City Hall on Friday. "It is a lasting commitment and a promise to this community. We'll never forget the sacrifices made by those who are wounded or killed while serving our nation. It is a public declaration of the courage and sacrifices of combat wounded. Veterans will always have a place of honor here in North Adams."

 

As a Purple Heart Community, North Adams will place signs throughout the city acknowledging the designation. The city will also hold a ceremony every Aug. 7 on National Purple Heart Day.

 

During the inaugural ceremony, Durocher said he was asked by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to find a keynote speaker for the event, preferably a Purple Heart recipient. But he was unable to find someone willing to speak. With the date approaching, he decided to tell his own story.

 

"I don't like standing up and telling my own personal story ... But I realized, in my position as a VSO, I get so many ... children of veterans who will say, 'I didn't know anything about my father until after he passed because he just didn't talk about it,'" Durocher said. "... I have been that way until I've gotten into this position, and so, now, I try to tell my story as much as I can when it is brought to me."

 

Durocher served in the Army for 20 years and retired as a master sergeant. On Friday, he recalled a time early in his career while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On Sept. 12, 2003, his squad was conducting a patrol on Route Irish in Baghdad. He was serving as a gunner on an LMTV when it was struck by a 155-millimeter artillery shell. He said the explosive had been hidden behind a guardrail and detonated using nothing more than a washing machine timer.

 

"In an instant, everything changed. The blast knocked me unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I instinctively was removing my helmet," he said. "Almost immediately my training took over. We had been taught repeatedly that attacks like this were often followed by a secondary attack or an ambush. I quickly put my helmet back on and began searching for my machine gun."