Clarksburg Cautious on Accepting Briggsville Water Grants
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town has hired a new accountant and received funds to continue work on Middle Road, but it's taking cautious steps regarding grants for the Briggsville Water District.
Much of Monday's discussion revolved around grants for the Briggsville Water District. The district has a state Rural Development grant of $140,000 to be used as a 25 percent match to a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant of more than $400,000 toward upgrading and repairing the independent public water system.
The district has been struggling for years to update its infrastructure and prepare for future needs. The town is the custodian of the grants and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is facilitating the project.
The problem is the district can't access the funds until the town signs off on accepting them. Select Board members were concerned about the town being on the hook for bills that would put it into deficit spending.
Town Treasurer Kelly Haskins was concerned about the reimbursement process, since bills would be coming in that the town might have to pay out prior to grants funds being received.
"It just will run in a deficit, which you're not supposed to do either, because you will not have the grant funds yet, right?" she said, and Boucher responded, "That's the problem."
"We can't appropriate money to carry a grant, OK? That's what it comes down to," said Boucher. "So we need to protect ourselves and the taxpayer."
Boucher had an agreement between the town and the water district that was reviewed by the town's legal counsel but the board wanted more concrete assurances in it.
Clebe Scott, representing the district, pointed out the agreement said the district and the town would "consult" on the payments. Andrews, however, said, "consult" wasn't a solution.
"My concern is if a bill comes in for work already completed, for some reason, grant money doesn't come through — I've heard more stories from the grants that take extremely long periods of time to come in — we can't be putting out our taxpayers, right?" said Chair Daniel Haskins.
Mary Giron, also on the district committee, said it does have funds in an account and can borrow up to $250,000. Scott said the town had worked with the district before when it was first established in 1980.
"We really want to work together. I'm not against working together. I'm just making sure we're not going to agree to something that's going to, you know, hurt the town, or cost the town a significant amount of money," said Haskins. "We didn't sign up for that."
Boucher said he would bring the agreement back to legal counsel with the board's concerns and have copies ready for both sides to review.
Giron cautioned that the district could lose the grants because of delays.
"If this doesn't happen, and we lose these grants, and this infrastructure is not taken care of, it's going to be on the town of Clarksburg," she said. "There's 69 homes and businesses, including Town Hall, that are in the Briggsville Water District, and if it falls apart, and there's no more us, and there's no one, who's it going to fall to?"
The Select Board interviewed two candidates to fill the vacant town accountant post and voted to offer the job to Lynne Lemanski.
Lemanski lives in Cheshire and is a certified public accountant. She's worked in both the private sector and in municipal government with several county towns, and is familiar with the town's accounting software SoftWrite.
"I have been in town accounting for probably since 2003 and I've also had other accounting positions. I'm actually a CPA, and have done governmental auditing, that's how I kind of got dragged into town accounting," she said. "And I just love, I really like town accounting."
She said she enjoys working with small towns because "they're just more personable. It's less stressful in a small town."
That said, Lemanski pointed to various times of the year when the job can take up more time like budget season and getting free cash certified. She said she can pretty much do everything on the recapitulation except for the assessor part.
The board also interviewed Amber Holland of Readsboro, Vt., and were impressed with her experience and the number of positions she was able to handle in that small town. However, they felt Lemanski's experience in Massachusetts financial reporting and her familiarity with the software would make her the best fit.
The board voted unanimously to offer her the post as a salaried position, with Town Administrator Ronald Boucher to work out the details. Lemanski will split her time remotely and in the office beginning Dec. 29.
• Boucher updated the board on the $1 million MassWorks grant the town received. This was announced with the other fiscal year 2026 grants the first week of November; Boucher said he and Select Board member Colton Andrews attended the event with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll in Monson.
The funds will be used for paving and some culverts from the Four Corners to the North Adams city line.
• The board voted to reduce Town Clerk Marilyn Gomeau's hours to 12 per week at her request, from 8 to 2 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
"I don't think 16 hours is necessary, number one, and two is, I got the office where it needs to be, and I can certainly get what I need to be done," she said, adding she would like to speak with Haskins and Boucher privately about elections.
Tags: Briggsville, federal grants, FEMA, state grant, water district,
