A welcome to two new police officers
Great Barrington — Police Chief William Walsh introduced two new police officers to the Selectboard Wednesday (February 4), and said Ryan Storti and Dalton Griffin were “two great additions” to the local force of 17 full time officers (including patrolmen and Chief Walsh), and 8 part-time reserve officers.
Great Barrington native Ryan Storti graduated from Monument Mountain Regional High School and got his Associates Degree in Criminal Justice from Berkshire Community College. He is a recent graduate of the Western Massachusetts Police Academy, and trained in the reserve academy as well as the department’s “in-house field training program,” Walsh said. Storti started in 2012 as a part-time reserve officer, and was appointed to the full-time position last March, after “a lot of hard work and dedication.”
“He’s ready to go, and he’s been out there already,” Walsh said.
Walsh noted that the Police Academy program in Springfield is a rigorous, 6-month “long haul…no-nonsense environment,” with long days that begin at 7 a.m., as well as weekend and evening work. “Any slip-ups at all,” Walsh said, “and they’re gone.”
Lee native Dalton Griffin is a Lee High graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Westfield State University. Griffin had already been through the reserve academy when he came to the Department, where he then completed the in-house training.
“We are really proud of both these young men, and we hope they have a long career with us,” Walsh said.
Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin praised the culture of the Department set by Chief Walsh, and the “environment of people teaching each other, training each other.” She said the dedication to the rigorous, competitive process required to join the department was “inspirational,” as well as the commitment to “community policing,” a style of policing that involves building ties with the community and working with residents to solve crime issues and other related problems.
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Department of Public Works update
Tabakin praised the DPW and Director Joseph Sokul’s “resourceful” action during a salt shortage “due to a trucking issue.” Sokul, Tabakin said, worked with other municipalities and even the governor’s office in order to wrangle enough salt for the recent storms.
And Tabakin and Sokul met with some residents who live on and near Taconic Avenue in the Castle Hill neighborhood, about “speeding issues and some questions or requests for crosswalks and or traffic stops,” and said the group would work on some ideas that they would bring back to the Selectboard in order to “propose some reasonable solutions that balance everybody’s needs.”
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Park Street bridge replacement hearing
Tabakin announced that a public hearing is scheduled for March 10 at the State Road Firestation by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) about the upcoming replacement of the Park Street Bridge in Housatonic. The bridge is owned by the state, and will take about two years to complete. “It is a long project,” Tabakin said. She said a formal agenda about the hearing, as well as the time of the hearing (likely 6pm), will be forthcoming.
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Local contractor/tradesman training for government work
This might be just the ticket for local contractors who want to bid on future state or municipal building projects such as…a local high school, perhaps?
The state Division of Capital Asset Management, the agency that manages the Commonwealth’s building real estate, will hold a training session on March 18 at the Firestation, 37 State Rd. from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The session is aimed at explaining the requirements for such bidding, and “how to get your company up to speed to be able to bid competitively on government work,” Tabakin said.
Tabakin said she asked the agency to come here, noting that their training sessions are usually not in the area. “They were very happy to meet our request to come. We want our local workforce to be able to get in the loop and know what they need to become part of it,” she explained.
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Wastewater study update
David Prickett Consulting out of Longmeadow was hired to do the first phase of the Wastewater Treatment Plant rate study, now underway, to determine “the rates and financial issues, and to understand how our operation works,” Tabakin said.
Prickett is being paid $3,230 for his services, and was the most economical choice, Tabakin added.
“What we began with is looking at the assessors data…and sewer billing data to identify the properties that are currently billed for sewer, and updating the building codes to current standards,” Tabakin said. The first phase will also determine which properties are either on sewer or water, or both, she added.
The town met with both town water companies, the Fire District and Housatonic Waterworks, to determine whether sharing data would work. Tabakin also said that the town is also looking at what is most efficient from a billing and administrative perspective, as well, and that this would be considered before the question of “how to implement and how to deal with the rates themselves.”
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Selectboard supports protection of local water supply
The Selectboard voted unanimously to recommend that the Zoning Board of Appeals rule in support of Building Inspector Edwin May’s cease and desist order for the Forest Cutting Plan at 263 Long Pond Road, which violates zoning laws that protect Long Pond, the water supply for entire Village of Housatonic.
Property owner Lynn Hutchinson has been served three cease and desist orders for cutting next to the water supply since she and her husband, Brian Schwab, purchased the 35-acre property in July 2013 for $700,000. The house was on the market briefly last fall for $1,290,000 and is now being advertised for $1,375,000, with a listing that boasts “breathtaking westerly views.”
It was the desire for a view of Long Pond that led to the trouble.
Attorney Richard Dohoney represents both May and the ZBA in the matter, and was on hand to answer questions before the issue is heard by the ZBA on February 10, 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall. Dohoney explained that this latest exploit of a protected area, part of which is owned by Housatonic Waterworks, is strictly a zoning matter, and that activities unrelated to the management of the water supply are in violation of code. He further explained that this is a “public safety issue through zoning,” though there are other overlapping state environmental regulations as well.
Tabakin wondered what other methods municipalities could use besides zoning to protect a public water supply.
Dohoney said his knowledge of that was only anecdotal, but that it was unusual to see a private water supply that serves such a large population not be fully under the water company’s control. Typical tools of municipalities, he said, are “eminent domain and put up a fence, but that is extreme in this situation.”
