Milne Library Hosts a Community Eco-Fair in Honor Climate Preparedness Week

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -—On Sunday, Sept. 21st from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. the Milne Public Library will host an outdoor, Community Eco-Fair, to raise awareness about changing climate in honor of Climate Preparedness Week and to celebrate the many Berkshire groups working towards social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

Because September is also National Preparedness Month, staff will provide guidance on making "Go Bags," to prepare attendees for weather-related disasters, with the help of the Williamstown Police and Fire Departments and the Central-Western Massachusetts Red Cross.

Attendees can also learn more about initiatives in Williamstown, including Energize Williamstown, the Town's Net Zero Plan, and the sustainable features of the new Fire Department building and The Williams College Museum of Art.

There will also Food, live music, lawn games, a bouncy house and a seed bomb craft table. 

Stop by and meet these local organizations:

  • Energize Williamstown/COOL Committee

  • Williamstown Garden Club

  • HooRWA

  • Rural Lands

  • Purple Valley Trails

  • Berkshire Grown

  • Second Chance Composting

  • Coral Crochet Project

  • The Plant Connector

  • Menstrual Justice Initiative

  • Williams College Zilkha Center

  • Williams College Museum of Art

  • Bee Friendly Williamstown

  • Remedy Hall

  • ABC Clothing Store

  • Buy Nothing Williamstown

  • Goodwill

  • The Tamarack Hollow Nature and Cultural Center

  • Williamstown Police and Fire Depts.

  • Central-Western Massachusetts Red Cross

  • Milne Public Library: "Go Bag" guidance

  • Milne Public Library: The Thingdom (Library of Things)

  • Milne Public Library: Seed bomb-making for kids

In case of bad weather, the event will take place inside the library.

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Planners Finalizing Draft of New Subdivision Bylaw

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave its final direction to the consultants hired to help the panel rewrite the town's subdivision control bylaw.
 
The town's contract with Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning, which is funded by a state grant, expires on June 30, and the consultant is set to deliver a draft document in early July.
 
Last Tuesday, the board reviewed the latest progress from the consultant and considered some of the points discussed at its final, lengthy, video conference with Dodson and Flinker and its team on May 26.
 
Ultimately, plans to take the final draft and make any last decisions before presenting it to the town for a public hearing and adoption by the Planning Board later this year. Its goal has been to make the subdivision bylaw easier to navigate and more contemporary in order to encourage economic development.
 
At Tuesday's regular monthly meeting, Planning Board Chair Kenneth Kuttner told his colleagues he felt a lot of the issues were resolved at the May 26 session, including the development of a regulatory regime that ties infrastructure requirements to the size of a proposed development.
 
He also said he thought Dodson and Flinker's proposed language properly distinguishes between proposed developments in the town's core and those proposed in its rural residential districts.
 
"The thing they suggested, which I thought was interesting, was the 'payment in lieu of' for things like sidewalks in the rural area," Kuttner said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, WilliNet. "So we could keep the sidewalk in the subdivision areas but require in the rural areas, payment in lieu of, which, as he said, would put the urban and rural development on an equal footing in terms of development cost.
 
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