Letter: Next Adams Administrator Should Look to Roads, Costs

Letter to the EditorPrint Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

It's been a while since Adams had a town admin who was familiar with the town's roads condition and was sensitive to the real estate tax cost. The town has squandered monies by chasing the dream of the [Greylock] Glen.

Our high school graduated, what 44 students? For the cost, burdensome to say the least. Do none of our town officials and certainly the administrator know or are familiar with the term "consolidation." Athletics are already headed in that direction and academics should be on that path. Consolidation with other local districts would provide a path to efficiency and help to throttle ever rising school costs.

And last but not least, State Police are close at hand, so for our population, a closer look at public safety.

Al Diesz
Adams, Mass. 

 

 

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Hoosac Valley Seeks to Prevent 'Volatile' Assessments

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass.— The "volatile" shifts in Hoosac Valley Regional School District's town assessments year to year is hard for smaller towns to absorb; however, a proposed change to the regional agreement would fix that. 
 
During the Select Board meeting last week, Superintendent Aaron Dean presented the proposed change to the regional agreement that would set assessments based on a five-year rolling average rather than the annual student enrollment.
 
"The long-term goal is to make the assessment process a little bit more viable for people from year-to-year," he said. 
 
An ad hoc committee was convened to review the district's agreement, during which concerns arose about the rapid fluctuations in assessments.
 
"I think you have to look short term, and you have to look long term. The goal is to kind of level it off and make planning easier and flatten that curve in terms of how it's going to impact both communities," Dean said. 
 
Every year, it is a little more difficult for one community because they are feeling disproportionately impacted compared to the other, he said. 
 
"The transient nature of this population right now is like nothing I've ever seen," Dean said. 
 
View Full Story

More Adams Stories