With No Races to Decide, a Light Turnout in Williamstown Town Election

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — All four candidates on the town election ballot easily won election on Tuesday in a light day of polling at the elementary school.
 
In a town with about 5,000 registered voters, 438 ballots were cast in an election with no contested races, a turnout rate of about 8.6 percent.
 
Incumbent Select Board member Jeffrey Johnson received 408 votes for a second three-year term on the body.
 
Anna Halpin-Healy was returned to the library board of trustees for another three years with 419 votes.
 
Laila Boucher was re-elected for another three years as one of the town's two representatives on the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Tech) board with 412 votes.
 
And newcomer Samantha Page was elected to a five-year seat on the five-person Planning Board with 406 votes, according to acting Town Clerk Tom Webb.
 
Webb, with eight votes, was the winner of a write-in vote for a five-year term on the town's Housing Authority. Fifty ballots were submitted with write-ins for the spot, which had no names on the ballot.
 
Webb said Wednesday afternoon that about 300 of the 438 votes cast came in by mail, about 68 percent of the total.
 
Last year, when there four candidates running for two seats on the Select Board, just shy of 1,000 ballots were returned.

Tags: election 2024,   town elections,   


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Concerns Over PFAS Spark Sewage Debate in Williamstown

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff

The composting facility at the intermunicipal wastewater plant is operating at about two-thirds capacity. 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Forever chemicals are the source of a protracted debate for the Select Board.
 
Out of 15 fiscal articles on the warrant for the annual town meeting in May, the board last Monday voted to recommend passage of 14.
 
It delayed its decision on Article 5, which concerns the budget for the sewer department, more specifically the town's share of operating costs for the Hoosac Water Quality District.
 
Some members of the community, including a member of the Select Board, say the district is choosing a course of action that is at odds with the environmental principles that the town espouses.
 
The HWQD is a 55-year-old intermunicipal entity shared by Williamstown and the city of North Adams.
 
Residents of both communities on public sewer service send their wastewater to a treatment facility in Williamstown off Simonds Road (Route 7).
 
The facility cleans and treats the wastewater and discharges it into the nearby Hoosic River.
 
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