One of the most debated articles on the 42-item warrant was a citizens’ petition to amend town laws to include the Progress Pride flag – a rainbow flag with the addition of black, brown, blue, pink, and white stripes to represent communities of color, the Trans community, and those lost to the HIV/AIDS crisis – among official colors flown by Williamstown.
“In last year's budget, the select board had moved a bylaw forward that had restricted the posting of of flags to really the core flags that we would expect- The US flag, POW flag, state flag, that kind of thing. And that was in response to some of the court cases that had come through, mainly the Boston Supreme Court case around the public's access the public flagpoles and public buildings, things like that, and things that can be posted there. So the select board had made a move to send a clear message that public forums are to be maintained under some some pretty strict control so that there's a strong feeling of kind of an agnostic view that government should take, that we're open and available to all and we don't necessarily make strong political statements one way or the other in public spaces," said town administrator Robert Menicocci. “In response to that, there had been, I think, a long held desire for the members of the community of the town to express its openness and its support for the LGBTQ rights and such, and conversations in the past had focused on, what kind of symbols can we do? Could we paint a crosswalk in the rainbow colors, things like that. And there's some constraints on that due to some some department transportation requirements. So that conversation had continued for a number of years, and with the flag bylaw that was passed in last year's town meeting, the folks had taken a look at that and said, hey, is it possible to amend that to specifically allow the flying of the Progress Pride flag in the context of presumably Pride month."
While the proposal sparked conversation at town meeting, it ultimately passed.
“Conversation in town was focused on kind of two sides of the issue, which was focused on making making a statement that the town is a warm, welcoming environment, and concerns raised around what that kind of request can open the door to, in the sense of what other requests may come our way and how we would manage that,” explained Menicocci.
Voters also approved a bylaw aimed at expanding housing.
“For the past number of years, our planning board has been looking at ways to promote development and really looking at ways that we can promote affordable housing. The housing in Williamstown is limited, it's at a pretty expensive level. So, the planning board has proposed a number of changes over the past few years to help address affordable housing, and this this cottage court proposal that was passed this year was another attempt at that," said Menicocci. "And what that really allows for is changing our zoning so that we can do higher density in the core of our town, in our general residence district. And again, that just makes the community more open and more available to development, especially at a higher density level, which we're hoping, given the size of what can go in there, the relatively small footprint homes, that would help in the affordability end.”
A general operating budget of around $10 million was passed for fiscal year 2025, up from $9.7 million the year prior.
A slate of charter revisions passed, including a new section formalizing recall procedures for elected officials.
