Great Barrington — Priorities for the next six months were discussed at the Selectboard’s priority planning meeting on Tuesday, July 30. The board discussed and reviewed a list of priorities divided into high-priority and moderate-priority projects. As with previous priority planning meetings, the long-standing situation between the town and Housatonic Water Works remained at the top of the list.
At the beginning of the meeting, Select Board Chair Steve Bannon read a statement recapping the current situation between the town and the long-troubled company.
“The Selectboard is responsible for advocating on behalf of the HWW customers in the rate case that is currently pending before the Department of Public Utilities,” Bannon said. “We’re also conducting a financial study [on the company], and the results will be shared in October during a public input session. The goal of that study is to better understand what it will cost to buy and operate the water system for the first five years if town voters ultimately decide to pursue that option. The Board of Health, on the other hand, is responsible for public health concerns related to water quality.”
Bannon said that he, along with Town Manager Mark Pruhenski, met over the phone with an attorney from the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. The attorney, who Bannon did not identify, said the Board of Health has the legal authority to act on HWW’s water quality problems.
“It’s my understanding that the Board of Health intends to meet in early August to reconsider their approach,” Bannon said. “We trust that the Board of Health will take appropriate action very soon. We’re standing by to offer our assistance and access to legal counsel to support the board.”
The Board of Health is scheduled to have a special meeting on Wednesday, July 31, to discuss HWW in an executive session. The financial study, conducted by DPC Engineering from Longmeadow and Harwich Port, is scheduled to be completed in October.
For the rest of the two-hour meeting, the board retained many of the items on the list previously identified as high priority:
- Affordable housing, workforce housing, and aging in place: According to Assistant Town Manager Christopher Rembold, multiple town boards are continuing to focus on rehabilitating existing housing units, and creating new units. “We have been wrapping up work on a Community Development Block Grant that focuses on providing housing rehab funds for low-income and elderly residents who want to stay in their homes,” Rembold said. “It’s focused on things that keep a home livable, including lead remediation, fixing electrical issues, code compliance, new roofs and boilers.”
- Cook’s Garage property: The town obtained the property, located at 426 Park Street in Housatonic, via tax foreclosure in early 2018 after the former owner owed $115,000 in taxes. Over the years, the town has looked at options for the former mill building. Rembold told the board that, while plans for the building are still in a holding pattern, the town has been able to complete market and financial feasibility studies via Environmental Protection Agency assistance programs. He said the market study looked at various commercial, residential, and mixed-use redevelopment options. Rembold said that the Housatonic Improvement Committee met with the Planning Board to discuss the potential development and zoning of the property. Selectboard member and Housatonic Improvement Committee member Benjamin Elliott told the board that the committee is moving towards issuing a recommendation for the property by September.
- Town infrastructure: During his discussion with the Selectboard, Department of Public Works Superintendent Joe Aberdale spoke about the town’s infrastructure. “Your roads are, basically, your most valuable asset,” Alberdale said. “It supports everything, including the police, and fire departments, along with the community and businesses. It seems as if, in the past, the town has done roads, let them deteriorate, and then go work on something else. As it comes back around, we have to pay high dollars [to do road maintenance].” Aberdale emphasized that it is advantageous for the town to spend money on proper preventative road maintenance and upkeep. “The message is that we’re not in the best of shape and we’re not in the worst shape, and it’s good to spend some infrastructure money,” Aberdale said. “I think the last time anything was done for Main Street was in 2012, and there hasn’t been much [maintenance] to Main Street since. Main Street is starting to fall apart. It may not look that way to the untrained eye, but if you get out there and look, you’ll see on the blacktop that the sand on the surface is gone, the aggregate [on the road] is starting to show.” Aberdale added that he believes that “we’re spending taxpayer money in the right areas”. “I won’t get into any of the particular roads, but the more money you give us, the more we’ll do,” Aberdale said.
One of the items taken off the priority list is short-term rental compliance. According to Town Manager Pruhenski, since the town’s short-term rental registration website was created in June 2023, 121 short-term rental property owners have registered with the town. Pruhenski said that the town has issued 67 fines to short-term rental property owners for not registering and three fines for a second offense. “Our work here is not done, but the heavy lifting is behind us at this point,” Pruhenski said. “We’re making a lot of progress. Going forward, it should be just about monitoring listings as they pop up.”
