Approval of the ultimately unsuccessful merger of the Berkshire Hills and Southern Berkshire school districts was the marquee event at Monument Mountain Regional High School, but community preservation projects and a citizen’s petition were also voted on.
Assistant town manager Chris Rembold introduced the three projects, beginning with a $92,400 appropriation for a housing non-profit.
“The first one is Construct’s emergency family housing proposal," he said. "This is a site that Construct owns, it's a four-bedroom house where families who are experiencing housing pressures because of the pandemic can be temporarily housed. This program will provide the staff and support for these families to live here on a temporary basis. They'll serve several families over the course of a year. And the Community Preservation Committee recommends this grant.”
The second project is a $50,000 appropriation for the Ramsdell Library in Housatonic.
“This grant will allow the board to move forward with the required next step to secure state grants to renovate the Ramsdell Library, the next step being hiring a professional to prepare a building program feasibility study," said Rembold. "And the committee recommends that as well.”
Library board of trustees chair Pat Hollenbeck explained that the state grant in question would pay up to 60% of the Ramsdell renovations if secured.
“So, there's some stipulations involved. Because it's an old building, we need to do a user- It's called a user assessment, where they go through in everything, to find out where the codes are wrong and everything else like that," he explained. "The other aspect is a building program, where you have to find out what the community needs with a 30-year horizon, is what they want to know. They want to know this building is going to be good for 30 years to come.”
The third undertaking made up the lion’s share of the total spending, with a $300,000 appropriation.
“The last one tonight is a grant to the community land trust to acquire 200 North Plain Road, a farm and residence in the heart of a Great Barrington breadbasket, if you will," said Rembold. "It’s a 79-acre parcel the land trust will own the land and execute a long-term lease to the owners of Off the Shelf Farm. The project will preserve the farm for farm use in perpetuity. Since the land trust will own the land, it won't go back on the market ever. It'll always be used for farm use and farm housing, and it also protects a vast swath of habit and floodplain area along the Housatonic River. And the Community Preservation Committee recommends this grant as well.”
Not just opposing the three projects on the warrant, resident Charles Williamson spoke against the Community Preservation Act entirely.
“A perfect example is you just had the Cove bowling lanes bought for a million dollars, and we turned around and gave a millionaire $50,000 to put fire protection into the Cove bowling lanes," he said. "That's my money given to a rich person. He made 5% in six months. I don't see anybody making 5% but the rich and they’re making it off us poor people. I'm getting sick and tired of you taking our money, and you call it fees or whatever you want to call it, and pay for this stuff.”
Voters approved all three projects.
A citizen’s petition aimed at opposing the installation of a W.E.B. Du Bois statue on the grounds of the Mason Public Library was less successful. Resident Karen Johnson introduced the measure, which called for a vote on the issue.
“I believe that this property is public property, we should all have a vote, we should all have a say in what should remain as public property," she said. "A special interest group wants to change that, and I do not think it is appropriate.”
Dubois Thomas, president of the Blackshires Community Empowerment Foundation and a member of the sculpture project board, said he took issue with Johnson’s framing of the situation — prompting cheers and an intervention from town moderator Michael Wise.
“The only special interest of our group is to provide a gift for the town of Great Barrington and to honor a great American,” said Thomas.
“Please, no demonstrations," Wise said to the applause and shouts. "Please.”
“It's been several years of a transparent process where there's been fundraising, there's no public dollars for this project at this time, the project has been approved by the historic commission and the selectboard, there have been multiple opportunities for the issues to be heard," Thomas continued. "I suggest that we vote no on this motion so that we can expedite the improvement of our public library.”
Advocates of the sculpture project moved swiftly to call the vote on the petition, preventing further debate with an overwhelming rejection.
After the citizen’s petition was decisively shot down, WAMC caught up with Thomas to find out more.
“The project is to renovate the currently not used marble steps in front of the library, install a new bench and then on that bench be a installed a sculpture of W.E.B. Du Bois," he explained. "So, it would be an all-encompassing project that beautifies the front of the building, welcomes pedestrians on Main Street to the building and to the sculpture of one of our great Great Barrington residents.”
With the citizen’s petition defeated, Thomas said the team behind the sculpture project expects to have it installed by the end of 2024.
“It's made up of a bunch of local residents that have been engaged in fundraising and community hearing processes and interviewing artists over the course of more than two years now leading up to this, but I know that there have been others that have been working on the legacy project and this sculpture for close eight years at this point," hetold WAMC. "So, this is a culmination of many people's hard work to bring something special and great to Great Barrington.”
