Stephanie Boyd, a five-year veteran of Williamstown’s planning board, was the second-place finisher in Tuesday’s contest.
“I think I promise to do work much the way that I do on the planning board,” she told WAMC. “I do a lot of research, both on the web and talking to people and crunching numbers. So, I really try to look at issues from all perspectives. And there are a number of issues that I really want to dig in deeply with, and I want to work with other committees in town, because we have a lot of people doing some really great work and I think if we can all collaborate together, we can make a lot of progress.”
Boyd, now retired, was the founding director of Williams College’s Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives.
“There's a couple of things that I do want to move forward over the next couple of years,” she said. “That would be our net zero planning. The COOL committee has been working on that, and I want to really integrate that into our town planning efforts in general. I'm really interested in, once we get our comprehensive plan finished off, moving on into implementation. That's going to take all of our town. And also, various issues related to affordable housing. That may be zoning changes, how we do property taxes, how can we lower the cost of living in Williamstown?”
So what was the defining issue among town residents in this year’s election?
“I think we're really still trying to, and will for a long time, grapple with, how do we make our community welcoming, and what does that what does that mean to each of us?” said Boyd. “It's a different issue depending on what your perspective is. Do you have a different racial background or social background or economic situation? And how can we really support each other as individuals and as a community to live our best lives?”
The top vote getter was retired lawyer Andy Hogeland, who cruised to a fourth term.
“I think that the most common theme for all the candidates was addressing our housing needs,” he told WAMC. “So that was a topic on which we were fairly unified going forward. And other issues on, you know, we need to keep careful track of our tax increases and promote our economic development.”
He says housing is at the top of the select board’s docket for the coming term.
“I'm also the chair of the Affordable Housing Trust, which has a lot of programs to help people buy their first houses,” said Hogeland. “We've funded construction, we've funded purchases of land. So, I'm really looking forward to working on the housing issues there as well. I think we'll be also going through the town charter. I'm part of that committee as well, trying to review the town’s charter for the first time since it was adopted in 1956.”
Candidates Paul Harsch and Andi Bryant – who initially dropped out of the race before making a late-game return to the field – were unsuccessful in their select board bids.
Now, it’s time for Williamstown to turn to its annual town meeting, which is set for Monday night. Hogeland says that as with the election, housing will dominate that discussion as well.
“There are several warrant articles on zoning changes,” he told WAMC. “The one that generates some conversation is to create more opportunities for manufactured homes, which used to be called mobile homes, to be on residential properties throughout the town. And I think those housing structures have a historic stigma associated with them, but I think people need to open their minds to realize that the mobile homes that they looked at in the 1950s are not the same type of manufactured home that you look at today. So, I hope people are open to really thinking about what this will mean and accept it as a way of allowing more housing to be available for people. We are short of housing, and this might be a way to alleviate that shortfall a little bit.”
Also on the agenda? Dogs.
“There are a number of residents who want to be more controlling on- I'm sorry, having residents control their dogs better, have them on leashes in more places they are today,” said Hogeland. “Today, the bylaw allows would be under voice control, but that's not sufficient. So, it will be debate between various people on the dog owner community versus those who are worried about dogs near them trying to work out the best way to do that.”
The meeting will also serve as an experiment with electronic voting devices. Other Berkshire County communities like Lenox and Lanesborough have already adopted them.
“The idea is that it saves time in vote counting, it also means your vote is confidential,” Hogeland told WAMC. “But it kind of goes against the Norman Rockwell image of people standing up to vote in public. So, we're trying it as an experiment. We're going to use the clickers for about two thirds of meeting and then take a vote or whether we want to buy them. So, this will be a group experiment on that technology.”
Williamstown’s annual meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mount Greylock Regional School.
