image description — The Williamstown Fire Department will host an open house at its new station on Saturday, May 30.

District Meeting, Fire Station Open House on Tap in Williamstown

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
04:51PM / Sunday, May 24, 2026Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A busy week for the town's Fire Department gets underway on Tuesday evening.

The annual Fire District elections and district meeting are scheduled for that night in the Williamstown Elementary School gymnasium.

The week will wrap up with a dedication and open house at the district's new fire station on Main Street.

Polls for the election are scheduled to open at 4 p.m. and will be closed at 7 to allow for returns to be counted prior to the start of the annual meeting at 7:30.

There are two positions on the ballot this spring: a three-year term on the Prudential Committee and a three-year term for moderator.

Incumbent Moderator Paul Harsch is the only person running for his position. Michael Noyes is the lone candidate for the Prudential Committee seat currently held by longtime member John Notsley.

The Prudential Committee, analogous to the Select Board at town hall, manages the fire service and supervises its one full-time employee, the fire chief.

As the fire district is a separate taxing authority apart from town government, its annual budget is approved each spring at an annual meeting — a smaller and much shorter process similar to the town meeting conducted at WES on Tuesday, May 19.

This year's operating budget is up by about 9 percent from the one approved by district meeting members in May 2025 for the current fiscal year. But the property tax rate for the district is expected to drop, from $1.24 per $1,000 in valuation in FY26 to $1.15 for FY27, because of the district's use of a $5.5 million in gifts from Williams College and the Clark Art Institute to lower the cost of borrowing for construction to taxpayers in the coming fiscal year.

Taxpayers will have a chance to check out the new station on Saturday afternoon, May 30, when the district will host a ribbon-cutting, dedication and open house from noon to 2 p.m.

Guided tours and refreshments are planned for the event at 580 Main St. (Route 2).

Tags: annual meeting, fire district, open house,

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Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Persists 25 Years After 9/11

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
07:00AM / Saturday, September 12, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.

"Of course, you'll find several accounts of Muslims from all over the U.S. describing how they went from the unknown kids in the school to being stereotyped or ridiculed for their Muslim names," Sidra Mahmood recalled recently. "However, many Americans forget that the victims of 9/11 were also Muslim Americans.

"I can't forget the time when a classmate broke down in sobs when 9/11 came up in our classroom at the Islamic seminary I went to in Texas, because her father's best friend who was like an uncle to her, died on 9/11."

Today, Mahmood is a chaplain at Williams College. In 2001, she was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists forced two passenger jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and another plane into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A third plane, which terrorists hoped to crash into a D.C. landmark, was brought down in western Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.

The attacks, which ultimately claimed 2,976 lives, horrified people around the world, including in Mahmood's native land.

"I remember being aghast like anyone who witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers in real time," she said. "However, even as a child, fear gripped me about the possibility of war, especially once we learned that Afghanistan, right adjacent to Pakistan, would be attacked by the U.S. My mother had told me about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when she remembered hiding in the dark after bomb sirens would go off in Punjab after intentional blackouts.

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