Great Barrington — During its regular meeting on Monday, December 19, a majority of the Select Board rejected the idea of a shuttle bus service from the town to the Wassaic, N.Y. MetroNorth train station.
The town is scheduled to receive $150,000 from the state for the research and development of a potential shuttle bus service for residents to the station. The funds were suggested by Select Board Vice-Chair Leigh Davis to former State Senator Adam Hinds in mid-July, and are being received via a state economic development bill. At the December 19 Select Board meeting, however, members of the board said that the funds should instead go towards dealing with the Housatonic Water Works crisis.
“The way I’ve looked at this is that this came down from the senator’s office with the same monies that were sent to help alleviate the problems we’re having in Housatonic with the water,” Select Board member Eric Gabriel said. “So I guess it kind of shows where the senator’s priorities are.”
Gabriel was referring to $100,000 in state funds to provide financial relief to Housatonic Water Works customers dealing with water quality issues. The funds were earmarked to the town as part of the same economic development bill along with the funds for the research and development for the shuttle service. “How [Hinds] makes it known with his way he’s put the money figured next to each one, I find kind of upsetting,” Gabriel said. “I feel it confirms what we’ve been saying about Housatonic for a while, that no one at the state level is really listening to our issues.”
Gabriel is a Housatonic Water Works customer and has made it known several times throughout various Select Board meetings that he feels neither the company nor the state has given a satisfactory response to various water quality issues. “I know there’s been a ton of letters and everything else, so it just makes me extremely frustrated how this is coming out,” Gabriel said. “This $150,000 should go in with the same pile of money to help alleviate the pain [for customers]. Since our old governor didn’t have the time to even respond to the letters that the Select Board sent, I would like to request [incoming Gov. Maura Healey’s] help to transfer this money so we can go towards alleviating the pain we’re having in Housatonic.”
“I see this not as an either-or,” Vice-Chair Davis told Gabriel. “I think that we should definitely keep the pressure on the state and remind them that this is still a problem. I think that we could probably do better than $150,000, but what I would suggest is use the funds for what it was earmarked for, and go forward with whatever the board decides, whether that’s for a feasibility study or whatnot.”
Davis said that she is hesitant to “take one pot of money to fill another pot of money.” She explained, “So I would suggest not to take the money from this [bus shuttle] initiative. This serves a lot of different purposes and I think it could really help residents, including for medical appointments and to see family.”
However, Select Board member Edward Abrahams agreed with Gabriel. “This shuttle isn’t even a priority for us,” Abrahams said. “If it should be a priority then let’s bring it up at our next meeting because $100,000 here and $150,000 there starts to add up to real money.”
“What I worry about is, after this $150,000, how much is [the shuttle] going to cost?” Gabriel said. “I just kind of see this as a private business that somebody should be doing. I just don’t see this as a town budget item in any way. It shouldn’t be on us to shuttle people back and forth.” Gabriel then proceeded to make a motion that “we request our new governor to redirect this funding to the Housatonic Water crisis,” which was then seconded by Abrahams.
In his motion, however, Gabriel did not directly specify what aspects of the “Housatonic Water crisis” the potentially redirected funds would address. Despite this, the discussion of the motion continued, with Davis arguing that the shuttle bus service would not be a Great Barrington initiative. “I see this as a regional issue,” Davis said. “Yes, Great Barrington is the host in terms of what we do with this pot of money. But seeing that there is state support and since Senator Hinds thought that this is worthwhile to explore shows me that there could be state subsidies.”
Davis’ arguments did not convince Select Board member Garfield Reed, who sided with Gabriel and Abrahams. “I agree that the money should be probably used elsewhere,” Reed said. “I don’t see how a shuttle is going to help most of the people in Great Barrington. Not at all. We have a housing problem. A lot of these people that are dealing with affordable housing problems aren’t going to be going to New York City using a shuttle bus. A shuttle doesn’t float my boat.
“I think It’s unfortunate the way this was presented to us,” Select Board Chairman Stephen Bannon said. “To put $100,000 for those Housatonic Water Works customers and $150,000 for the shuttle service in the same bill is really unfortunate. I think both could have been funded, but I would have loved to see $250,000 for the Housatonic Water Works [crisis]. I do think the [shuttle bus service] is a worthwhile venture, but it’s not nearly at the top of our list and it’s a lot of money.”
Bannon estimated that a study on the feasibility of a shuttle bus service would cost an estimated $50,000 to $75,000. “But when you say $150,000 for a shuttle and $100,000 for Housatonic Water Works [crisis], the optics on that are just horrible,” Bannon said. “The idea of a shuttle service is great if it is paid for by the state and if we do a study to see how to run it and who will pay for it after the money runs out. We’re not experts in everything and I can’t see [the town] running a shuttle service.”
The vote on Gabriel’s motion passed by a majority vote, with Davis voting against the motion.
In an email to The Berkshire Edge after the meeting, Davis wrote that she has no idea what the vote by the Select Board at the December 19 meeting means for the shuttle concept. “As much as I share my colleagues on the board’s frustration with the slow response from the state on the Housatonic Water Works issue, I feel that the Select Board’s decision to reject the Wassaic shuttle earmark outright is shortsighted,” Davis wrote. “Public transportation and water quality are two entirely separate issues. To compare and contrast the two and sacrifice one for the other is unwarranted. I agree that the optics of the two earmarks in the economic bill create challenges, but I disagree that the solution is to move 100 percent of funding away from the shuttle.”
Davis called the vote by the Select Board “misguided.” She wrote, “A shuttle to Wassaic is a public transportation initiative that could be an economic driver for the region, and one that is capable of boosting employment for residents and increasing investment in local businesses. It is the type of commonsense, big-picture-forward thinking we need more of in the Berkshires. And one question I have is, has anyone even bothered to see if the governor can get around the underlying law that states the purpose of the fund? If not, then what? Does the town forgo $150,000?”
