Millay's Steepletop Announces Final 2026 Open Days

03:09PM / Wednesday, September 23, 2026Print Story | Email Story

AUSTERLITZ, N.Y. — The last days for visiting poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's home Steepletop are the weekend Oct. 10 and 11.

Visitors are invited to explore the 200-acre property's fields, trails, and gardens, including the Poetry Trail that leads to the family gravesites, and to bring a picnic to enjoy on the grounds.

Grounds & Picnic passes are available for $10 per person per day, in advance or on site. Tickets for 60-minute docent-led tours of the Millay House are sold out for Saturday, but a limited number are still available for Sunday. House tour tickets are $25 each; purchasing in advance is strongly encouraged.

Typewriter poet Jess Bowe will be in Millay's writing cabin from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, composing customized poems for visitors for no additional charge.

The exhibition "Edna St. Vincent Millay: Life at Steepletop 1925-1950," which presents artifacts from Millay's 25 years at Steepletop, will be on view at the Jackson Gallery in the Tamarack Visitors Center. The Steepletop gift shop will be open.

The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society is based at the poet's home at Steepletop, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972 and a Literary Landmark in 2016. The mission of the society and the Friends of Millay supporter program is to illuminate Millay's life and writing and to preserve and interpret the character of her Steepletop home and gardens, places where nature inspires the creative spirit.

Learn more at millay.org.

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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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