Letter: Threats to Immigrants

Letter to the Editor02:00PM / Thursday, March 27, 2025Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, seeking to use a federal law to override the "sanctuary" policies of free states that provided safety to anyone fleeing bondage who crossed their state lines.

However, the newly empowered federal marshals (and a number of private citizens) not only went after those who had fled their chains, but stopped anyone whose skin tone was insufficiently pale. Even if the "suspect" presented evidence of free status, they could see their papers ripped up and be sent into slavery.

Today, 175 years later, does this begin to sound familiar?

Anne Skinner
Williamstown, Mass.

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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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