Great Barrington — Despite concerns raised at their previous meeting, the Selectboard voted unanimously on Thursday, December 19, to hire attorney Eric Krathwohl as special counsel in negotiations between the town and Housatonic Water Works regarding a potential acquisition of the company.
At its meeting on December 2, the Selectboard reviewed a proposal to hire Krathwohl as special counsel in its acquisition negotiations with the troubled company. Krathwohl is a partner at Boston law firm Rich May PC and has previously worked on corporate and finance work for water, energy, and telecommunication companies. Town Manager Mark Pruhenski and Town Counsel David Doneski, who previously worked on cases with Krathwohl, recommended him to the board.
At the Selectboard’s December 2 meeting, when asked if he had any previous dealings with HWW, Krathwohl told the board, “I did mention to both David and Mark that I had received a call a number of years ago—two years maybe more, maybe a little less—from [Housatonic Water Works Treasurer] James Mercer. I heard his description of the situation of HWW and basically being not able to really support operations the way they needed to be, including the idea of potentially trying to sell the water company down the road. He talked to me, and nothing went beyond that.”
Krathwohl said that he did not have any further interactions with Mercer, and neither he nor his law firm ever took HWW on as a client.
Vice Chair Leigh Davis said at the December 2 meeting that she was uncomfortable with hiring Krathwohl, and board member Eric Gabriel suggested that the town conduct a thorough search for a special counsel.
At the December 19 meeting, Chair Steve Bannon said that he consulted with Finance Committee Chair Philip Orenstein following the December 2 meeting. “He talked to a few lawyers, including Eric, and [said he would] come back with a recommendation,” Bannon said. “He found that there are some lawyers that are qualified in the state, but not a lot.”
Bannon said that Orenstein did not see how Krathwohl’s discussion with Mercer could be seen as a conflict of interest and recommended that the town hire Krathwohl. “My questioning [at the previous meeting] was due diligence,” Davis said. “I think that we obviously have a very small pool. I’m assuming [Town Manager Pruhenski] has done a little bit more research since our last meeting.”
Davis said she would support hiring Krathwohl, and Selectboard member Ben Elliott added his support and said that Krathwohl’s previous phone conversation with Mercer did not rise to the level of a conflict of interest.
From the audience, however, resident Michelle Loubert, who is also a customer of HWW, said she did not think the town should hire Krathwohl. “As I always tell people, there is legal, there is moral, and there is ethical,” Loubert told the board. “I don’t think that this is ethical. I don’t think it’s right to hire this person because there’s no better option. I think that this board owes it to the people of Housatonic to ensure that any option by this law firm isn’t questioned or challenged later on.”
“This is the best option in the state we could find,” Bannon told Loubert. “There were many with conflicts [of interests].”
Davis made the motion to hire Krathwohl, which was seconded by board member Gabriel. The board unanimously voted to hire Krathwohl as special counsel.
Other business
At the beginning of the meeting, Vice Chair Davis issued her concerns about GE’s Revised On-Site and Off-Site Transportation and Disposal Plan for the Housatonic Rest of River remediation project.
Davis said that she attended the December 4 meeting held at Taconic High School where company representatives discussed its plans for the remediation project, which is expected to last 13 years. “GE has come back after many, many comments by citizens really worried about the [original] transportation plan,” Davis said. “I’m happy to say that they did listen to us, and they’ve made significant progress from [transporting waste] off the roads primarily to hydraulic pumping and [transporting waste via] trains.”
However, Davis said that she is concerned about the three rail sidings, also known as spurs, for loading and unloading toxic materials. “One is planned in Great Barrington, once planned in Housatonic,” Davis said. “We need to be aware of that. This is going to be around Front Street and Van Deusenville Road. This is an additional railway siding that we need to be aware of.”
Written comments about the plan can be submitted to the EPA at R1Housatonic@epa.gov by January 15.
The December 19 meeting was also the last meeting for Davis before she takes office representing the 3rd Berkshire District in the State House of Representatives. “In 2007, about 17 years ago, I was stranded in a snowstorm in Great Barrington,” Davis said. “I didn’t know this town, and I had three kids from Ireland. It was really a leap of faith that we moved here. This community embraced us, and I think that’s one of the reasons why I worked so hard in my volunteer roles. It was really the support of the community that really made a difference, and it propelled me into running for the Finance Committee in 2013 and then the Selectboard.”
Later on during the meeting, the board elected member Gabriel as its new vice chair.
It was also the last Selectboard meeting for Town Manager Pruhenski, who will assume the role of the town manager in Middlebury, Vt., on January 15. However, Pruhenski did not make a statement about leaving the Great Barrington town manager position during the December 19 meeting. Pruhenski has been Great Barrington’s town manager since March 2019.
Also during the meeting, the Selectboard unanimously voted to lift the state of emergency originally declared on November 19 due to the Butternut Fire.
The fire, which started on November 18, was declared under control by the town’s Fire Department on December 1. At last estimate, the fire consumed 1,670 acres of land and spanned three miles in length, with a perimeter of over 10 miles.
While department officials previously stated that the fire was a result of manmade circumstances, there have been no developments announced in its investigation.
