WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday approved one request from Berkshire Gas to install equipment in the town's right-of-way and put off another request pending more information from the utility.

 

Berkshire Gas was before the board looking for an OK to install a telemetering station on Church Street near the elementary school and a regulator station on North Street (Route 7) near the Clark Art Institute's satellite parking lot.

 

A senior engineering technician from Berkshire Gas attended the meeting to speak on behalf of the former request, but no one from the utility attended to support the North Street proposal.

 

"There was supposed to be someone else to talk about the regulator station," Wes Scalise told the board.

 

Town Manager Robert Menicocci and Department of Public Works Director Craig Clough told the board that the proposed 5-foot tall structure generated some safety concerns on the part of Town Hall.

 

"As you come around what is a relatively blind corner, you have a parking lot there during peak time that has a lot of traffic going in and out," Menicocci told the board. "We wanted to get a sense of the size [of the proposed installation] and whether any work was done to analyze what sight lines are like when people are pulling out of that lot."

 

Clough told the board that when he met with Berkshire Gas on the application, he suggested that the regulator station should be installed as far from the curb as possible and, if the Clark was amenable, out of the town's right-of-way entirely if possible.