Library Board Only Race in Williamstown Election

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Voters in May will have one contested election on the ballot.
 
Four candidates have had their nomination papers certified for two available three-year seats on the Milne Public Library Board of Trustees in a race that voters will sort out when they go to the polls on Tuesday, May 12.
 
Janet Curran, Martin Mitsoff, Kathleen Schultze and Michael Sussman — all potential newcomers to the seven-person board — have been certified as candidates for the two open seats on the library's governing body.
 
Those two positions along with five other local government posts will be on the ballot for the annual town election.
 
For the Select Board, only incumbents Stephanie Boyd and Shana Dixon submitted papers to be returned to their three-year seats.
 
A third seat on the five-person board also is on the ballot. Newcomer Nathaniel Budington submitted papers to run for the final year on an unexpired term vacated by Jeffrey Johnson.
 
Two other candidates are running unopposed to retain their seats after Tuesday's deadline to submit nomination papers expired. Stephen Dew is running for another five-year seat on the Housing Authority, and Roger Lawrence is running for another five years on the Planning Board.
 
The last day to register to vote in the spring election is Friday, May 1. The last day to request a mail-in ballot is Tuesday, May 5.
 
In-person voting is scheduled for 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on May 12 at Williamstown Elementary School.
 
The annual town meeting — also open to all registered voters — is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, at 7 p.m., at WES.
 
That meeting will make the final decision on the town's spending plan for fiscal year 2027, which begins July 1, and address several other issues, including: approval of the town's grants under the Community Preservation Act, proposed changes to the town's accessory dwelling unit bylaw to bring it into compliance with state law, a proposal that the town adopt provisions of the commonwealth's Seasonal Communities law and three articles submitted by way of citizens petition.
 
On Monday evening Town Manager Robert Menicocci told the Select Board that three sets of petitions were submitted by that day's deadline. One would ban the use of biosolids as fertilizer or soil amendments, one would expand the town's ban on second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides on town-owned land to include all private property and the third would amend the 2015's bylaw banning single-use plastic bags and polystyrene food containers, Select Board Chair Stephanie Boyd told her colleagues on Monday.

Tags: election 2026,   town elections,   

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Williamstown Residents Question Plan to Use Herbicide Near Green River

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Residents are asking the Conservation Commission to reconsider a 2023 decision that allowed the use of an herbicide that studies have linked to cancer, while its unclear if the group with permission to treat a parcel near the Green River will follow through on the plan.
 
At issue is a 4.3-acre riverfront parcel owned by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation off Woodlawn Drive near the site of the town's new fire station.
 
In late 2023, Con Comm OK'd a management plan for the area that included, "a combination of forestry mowing, cut/paint and foliar spray herbicide application," to address the out-of-control growth of invasive exotic plants on the site.
 
But WRLF never recorded the commission's order of conditions with the Registry of Deeds, a step it would need to complete in order to implement the plan. The town's conservation agent told the commission at its March 12 meeting that because of budgetary concerns, Rural Lands had not embarked on the planned ecological restoration, but it might want to revive that plan.
 
The commission's order of conditions expires three years after it was issued in December 2023.
 
"There was a seasonal plan in that [2023] application of cutting at a certain time of year … and then herbicide application in certain times of year to line up with the seasonality of certain plant and animal communities," Community Development Director Andrew Groff told the Con Comm. "They'll have to amend some of that schedule moving forward.
 
"I think we'll see [Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation's Dan Gura] and his contractor in the spring for an amendment to that schedule later in the spring, maybe early summer, and, likely, an extension."
 
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