Great Barrington — During its regular meeting on Monday, March 24, the Selectboard scheduled a special town meeting for Thursday, April 17, at 6 p.m., at Monument Mountain High School.
Resident Sharon Gregory previously filed two separate petitions calling for a special town meeting so that residents could vote on the town purchasing both Housatonic Water Works (HWW) and the Great Barrington Fire District in order to merge the two water utilities. The first petition asks for the town to acquire the Great Barrington Fire District for an amount not to exceed $2 million, while the second asks for the town to acquire HWW for an amount not to exceed $2.3 million.
At the beginning of the March 24 meeting, the Selectboard held a 40-minute executive session to discuss ongoing litigation and options regarding the potential acquisition of HWW, along with the motion filed with the Department of Public Utilities in February requesting that HWW reverse its planned rate increases.
After the executive session, Interim Town Manager Christopher Rembold said that there would be future executive sessions pertaining to both issues. “The Selectboard is working on these issues, please be assured of that,” he said. “Unfortunately, the board cannot report its progress publicly. These types of discussions are not public discussions, because if they were public, the other party would be able to know what the town’s negotiated position and legal strategies are.”
Rembold clarified that the Selectboard’s discussions are not related to the citizens’ petitions. “The [special town] meeting was proposed by citizens’ petitions independently of and without consultation of the Selectboard,” Rembold said. “The warrant for the special town meeting does not necessarily reflect the Selectboard’s position or its valuation of either the fire district or [HWW]. I’m sorry, but we cannot speak publicly of where the Selectboard is right now in its discussions.”
None of the members of the Selectboard commented on the petitions. Instead, they unanimously approved a motion to set the special town meeting.
Gregory was present at the meeting and asked the Selectboard to have the vote on the town acquiring HWW first on the special town meeting’s agenda with the vote on the town’s acquisition of the Fire District to follow.
The Selectboard approved Gregory’s agenda requests, but they did not approve her request to change the date of the special town meeting.
“[April] 17th is on the Thursday right before Good Friday, and I understand that [students] will start their vacation on that Friday,” Gregory said. “Is it possible that the meeting can be moved to Tuesday [April 15] or Wednesday [April 16]?”
“This was one of the few dates we could find within the 45 days [required by town statute to call the meeting],” said Selectboard Chair Steve Bannon. “We wouldn’t be able to change it because we’d have to make sure that the school is available, our lawyer is available, and the moderator is available. There are just so many moving pieces.”
According to the Berkshire Hills Regional School District’s website, the school is still in session on Friday, April 18.
During the citizen’s comments period toward the end of the meeting, resident Donna Jacobs criticized the board for what she claimed to be a lack of transparency in dealing with issues surrounding HWW. Jacobs previously criticized the Selectboard for the same reason at its previous meeting on March 10. “Great Barrington voters are being stonewalled, and we’re being stonewalled by elected town officials,” Jacobs said on March 10. “Elected officials who sit in executive session for years with nothing to show for it. A viable plan to resolve water insecurity in this town has not even been hinted at, despite having completed comprehensive studies of the system and its needs, I challenge anyone on the Selectboard past and present to show me and other voters, what has been accomplished and what is the aim at this point.”
“I’ve been told that I offended some people two weeks ago, I just want to say that wasn’t my intention,” Jacobs said during the March 24 meeting. “My remarks were not meant to be taken personally by anyone on this board. I needed to bring up a fact that we in Housatonic are sitting in the dark while it is our responsibility to make those…”
Chair Bannon proceeded to interrupt Jacobs. “Did you hear the town manager’s statement at the beginning [of the meeting]?” Bannon asked Jacobs. “It might be helpful to come on time to meetings before you talk to us, telling us we’re not doing anything.”
Jacobs then apologized for her previous statements. “[When I spoke] two weeks ago, it left me feeling bad, and I know it left other people feeling bad,” Jacobs said. “It may not be that the Selectboard is holding back information that voters need to decide on the water system, and that’s kind of what I was referring to about the stonewalling that we’re in the dark. We don’t have the information. It might just be that we haven’t been asking the right questions in the right places, and the questions all revolve around: what do we need and where can we find the help to get what we need? We know we need everyone in town to come together, our water experts, our financial experts, and our legal experts.”
Jacobs added that she supports Gregory and the petitions.
