Letter: New Fire Station

Letter to the Editor02:20PM / Wednesday, January 25, 2023Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

I support our Fire Department as well as our Police Department. The proposal to spend $25 million is not unreasonable for what is being proposed.

However, the primary reason we need a new fire station is the requirement to have big fire trunks with long ladders to protect Williams College's tall buildings for which the college pays no taxes. While Williams has it's own security police department it does not have its own fire department.

It is true that they support Fire Department volunteers, which is good. Thus, the college should contribute $10 million up front toward the new fire station and voters should be asked to vote to approve $15 million toward a new fire station. How about it Williams? Pony up! Common sense!

Ken Swiatek
Williamstown, mass.

Tags: fire station,

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Williamstown Select Board Plans Off-Camera Evaluation of Town Manager

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:24AM / Friday, October 09, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board plans to take extraordinary measures to avoid having its discussion of the town manager's performance recorded by the town's Public, Educational and Government cameras.

At its Sept. 28 meeting, the board decided to hold a special meeting in a room not covered by WilliNet cameras to complete its annual evaluation process of Town Manager Robert Menicocci.

Chair Peter Beck said that while the evaluation is "absolutely" to be conducted in an open meeting, the board could follow a process similar to the off site, unrecorded meetings that past Select Boards have characterized as "retreats," a term not contemplated by or included in the commonwealth's Open Meeting Law.

The current board met on June 29 for what it characterized as a "planning session" where no formal votes were taken. That meeting was held outside of Town Hall, at the new fire station on Main Street, in a room equipped with audio and video recording equipment that the Select Board chose not to use.

At the Sept. 28 meeting, one board member indicated that an unrecorded meeting was preferable to discuss the annual evaluation of the one town employee supervised by the board.

"I'd like to do it without all the Willinet stuff," Stephanie Boyd said in a discussion toward the end of a two-hour meeting. "I think it's more conducive to conversation."

With the board expected to meet just once in October — its "regular" meeting date coincides with Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 12 — Beck suggested that the panel could find a date for a special meeting, suggesting the third Monday of the month, Oct. 19.

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