Williamstown Town Meeting Honors Civic Leaders, Protects Vulnerable Residents
Thomas Sheldon listens as Moderator Elisabeth Goodman reads the citation honoring his late wife, Ginny.
Retired Fire Chief Craig Pedercini earned the municipal employee of the year award from the local chapter of League of Women Voters. Select Board member Jane Patton was recognized by one of her colleagues on the occasion of her final meeting in the post. And Virginia Sheldon received the town's top honor for volunteerism.
Sheldon, who died in October, was known to many as a leader of the Friends of the Milne Public Library, a volunteer organization that raises money to support programs, technology upgrades and the professional development of staff at the library.
For years, she was one of the main organizers of the Friends' popular April used book sale at Williamstown Elementary School, and she was one of the driving forces behind its successor, Chapter Two Books on Spring Street.
In the citation for her recognition with the Scarborough-Salomon-Flynt Community Service Award, the retired school counselor's work as a mentor and tutor at North Adams' former Conte Middle School also was mentioned.
"Everyone feels the loss of Ginny's positive attitude," Town Moderator Elisabeth Goodman said in reading the citation. "She found real ways to make a lasting difference. This is our way of showing her light is still with us, and we are grateful."
Accepting the award for his late wife was former Select Board chair, current Affordable Housing Trust member and 2020 Scarborough-Salomon-Flynt honoree Tom Sheldon.
"When I was fortunate enough to receive the award a few years ago, I noted in my remarks there were people in the community who played roles that were highly visible and recognized, and I observed there were those who operated behind the scenes … with little or no public awareness," Sheldon said. "I cited Ginny as a prime example at that time. So there's a little more balance in the universe tonight."
Tom Sheldon witnessed first hand the countless hours his wife spent all year round working for the town's library on a volunteer basis, hours that included organizing the reception and sorting of used books, coordinating the volunteer army that staged the two-day sale each spring and, later, managing a "staff" of volunteers that has made the year-round used book store a staple on Spring Street.
"She never sought or wanted recognition," Tom said. "If she were here tonight, she would focus on her fellow volunteers and the importance of community service. The rewards, for her, were intrinsic in the work."
Patton was present to hear her service to the town recognized.
Jeffrey Johnson took a moment at the outset of the meeting to mark Patton's four three-year terms on the Select Board and gave her flowers as a personal thank you.
He noted that Patton served as chair of the board during one of the most turbulent years in recent memory, 2020, when Williamstown dealt with the twin challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and a lawsuit that exposed issues in the town's Police Department and, ultimately, led to the resignations of the town manager and police chief.
At the same time, a national focus on systemic racism in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota led to a local conversation that produced the town's Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity, on which Patton served in its first incarnation.
Johnson was a community member on that first iteration of the DIRE Committee, where he met Patton and was inspired to run for the Select Board himself. He described Patton as a mentor to him during his first year on the body.
"I have walked in these shoes myself for only four years," Johnson said. "It takes true commitment and sacrifice, which can't be measured in monetary value.
"Personally, I truly appreciate all your support. You were there every step of the way for me to make sure I understood these processes. As you sit there for the last time, I hope you know and appreciate that your efforts have made a real difference in our community."
There was a small difference in this year's "Town Employee of the Year" award, as the League of Women Voters' Anne Skinner explained on Thursday evening. For 2025, the group bent its own rules and honored an employee who serves not the town, per se, but the Williamstown Fire District, which is a separate municipal entity with its own taxing authority outside of town government.
Craig Pedercini's 37 years of service to the district — the last 22 as chief — made him an obvious "outside the box" selection for the annual recognition.
Skinner mentioned the years of personal sacrifice that any first responder makes as well as the transformations in the town's fire service, most notably the current construction of a new station on Main Street to replace the cramped, out-of-date facility on Water Street.
"Most important might be the numbers we can never know — how many of our homes and places of business are still standing, how many of us are uninjured or even alive because of your steady, decades-long focus on keeping fires from starting and ably putting them out when they do," Skinner said. "Our gratitude is equally immeasurable."
While most of Thursday's meeting focused on local affairs like the fiscal year 2026 budget and new ordinances, the town's legislative body was presented with opportunities to make statements on national issues.
One of the last articles of the night was an echo of a 2017 measure town meeting passed affirming, "that Federal immigration detainer requests and administrative warrants are not binding on Town officials, while seeking to protect the due process rights of residents without regard to their immigration status."
Moments before, a different article brought by citizens petition clarified that transgender and gender non-conforming people who live in town are equal to members of other groups covered by 2020 town meeting's votes on equity training for town employees and an acceptance of the Berkshire Resources for Integration of Diverse Groups and Education's "Not In Our County" pledge.
Justin Adkins presented that article to the meeting, talking about the history of erasure of trans and gender non-conforming people that is tied to Nazi Germany's destruction of Berlin's Institute for Sexual Research in 1933. And Adkins drew a connection between that atrocity and current events.
"Transgender, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ people are being targeted by federal and state actions stating that the U.S. government will now recognize only two sexes, male and female," he said. "And the federal government is seeking to end gender-affirming care and federal legal recognition of trans people.
"Just [Wednesday] night, 92 years and 16 days after the [Nazis'] book-burning, while we are sleeping, the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' If this is passed by Senate, it would include a ban on gender-affirming medical care from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage for trans people of all ages."
Adkins' resolution, passed by a vote of 197-18, prohibits the use of town resources for, "cooperation, assistance, or provision of information to any individual or out-of-state agency or department in furtherance of restrictions on the provision of gender-affirming healthcare or gender-affirming mental health care sought or performed in the Town of Williamstown and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts;" or the "prevention or detention of persons seeking gender-affirming healthcare or gender-affirming mental health care."
Tags: recognition event, Scarborough Award, town meeting 2025,
