WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The incoming chair of the Board of Health opened Wednesday morning's meeting by talking about the "great loss being felt on our board."

 

Devan Bartels was unanimously elected by her colleagues to lead the committee after August's passing of longtime chair Dr. Erwin Stuebner.

 

Stuebner, a beloved local physician for over 30 years, served the community in various roles, including the board of the former Village Ambulance Service and the Board of Health.

 

He led the former through its merger with Northern Berkshire EMS in 2018 and the latter through two recent sea changes: the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the retirement of Health Inspector Jeffrey Kennedy after 28 years with the town in 2023.

 

Stuebner was a recipient of the Massachusetts Physician of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Medical Society in 2010 and town's Faith Scarborough Award for Community Service in 2014.

 

Bartels called Stuebner a "pillar of the community."

 

"Not only did he leave very big shoes to fill, but he displayed an ethos of understanding that really careful balance in public health between overreach and lack of attention and care," Bartels said. "We want to move forward with his spirit in mind and approach everything with an even hand, as he did."

 

Before the 5-0 vote to name Bartels chair, she shared that Stuebner, shortly before his death, talked about stepping down this fall and asked Bartels if she would be willing to take the gavel.

 

After the vote, Bartels formally welcomed the two members recently appointed by the town manager to fill the chairs formerly occupied by Stuebner and Ronald Stant. Marzio Gusmaroli and Wendy McWeeny each participated in their first meeting, where the board both "moved forward" as Bartels indicated and looked back at a couple of past enforcement actions.

 

Health Inspector Ruth Russell gave the board updates on the boil water order in effect against the 1896 House Restaurant at 910 Cold Spring Road and the license suspension at the Stay Berkshires Motel at 1146 Cold Spring Road (Route 7).

 

The '6 House Pub has been on the board's radar since 2024, shortly after a December 2023 boil-water order was issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

 

Russell told the board Wednesday that the owners of the restaurants and associated motel continue to work on drilling a new well across Cold Spring Road from the restaurant on the west side of the U.S. highway.

 

In answer to a question from board member James Parkinson, Russell acknowledged that location is one thing that could be delaying the process of approving the well, since a water line would need to run under Route 7 to make it work.

 

She told the board that Mass DEP ordered a September progress report from the owner and that, on Oct. 3, the state agency told her that it had received the report.

 

"The board will be copied on the response," Russell said. "We just haven't received it yet. We're hoping that progress report will be fruitful with knowledge for us.'

 

In the meantime, Russell has another inspection scheduled to make sure the restaurant continues to comply with the boil-water order and conditions set by the BOH in June 2024.

 

As for Stay Berkshires, the board voted in May to suspend its license to operate while the owner addressed building code and electrical issues. That order was violated three months later, Russell reported.

 

"In August, we had some reports of some folks staying, essentially, in the motel," she said. "I did send a letter out to the owner reminding him this property is not to be occupied and advised him that if we became aware again of guests staying fines would be issued.

 

"There haven't been any reports since, which is good."

 

Russell also told the board the owners of Stay Berkshires have pulled permits for the necessary repairs with the town's building department, but the work has not been completed.

 

Another issue carrying over from last spring involves a town meeting vote to ban smoking inside large multifamily housing units (apartment buildings). The ban was proposed to the May meeting via citizens petition, and the Board of Health, which would be responsible for developing an enforcement regime, strongly recommended its passage.

 

Currently, the bylaw OK'd by town meeting is under review by the Attorney General's Office in Boston, which reviews all such town meeting actions. The AGO informed the town it is exercising a 90-day extension of the standard review period; a decision on the validity of the bylaw — believed to be the first of its kind in the commonwealth — is now due on Nov. 8.

 

The attorney general is taking a similar 90-day extension to review a geothermal drilling bylaw advanced by the Planning Board and approved by town meeting in May.

 

New BOH members McWeeny, participating in the meeting via Zoom, and Gusmaroli introduced themselves to the public at Wednesday's meeting, which was telecast and recorded by the town's community access television station, WilliNet.

 

McWeeny also proposed to her colleagues that the board embark on a health needs assessment for the town of 7,500.

 

She suggested that the board should study, "where there may be public health needs — both in terms of education and delivering access to services."

 

McWeeny, a 20-year town resident who has built a career in public health, pointed to a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services and indicated a needs assessment would be helpful in making Williamstown's case if it chose to go after future federal or state grants.

 

She said she has set a meeting with Williams College's chair of public health to talk about how the town could engage students in accumulating some of the data that would go into such a study.

 

Other members of the board were quick to support the idea.

 

Bartels likened it to recent efforts by Town Hall to assess the community's recreation needs and suggested similar town-based surveys could help inform the study.

 

"In my tenure, we have been mostly reactive," Parkinson said. "I like the idea of being proactive rather than just responding to complaints and responding to problems."

 

Bartels referred the board to a recent Community Health Needs Assessment & Improvement Plan in the town of Reading and asked her colleagues to think about how the board could proceed between now and its next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 4 at 9 a.m.