In short, the woman who cannot decide whether she is GI Jane, Calamity Jane, or Amelia Earhart is a despicable freak whose removal was both justified and overdue.
In their letter to the editor Great Barrington Selectboard members Ed Abrahams and Sean Stanton write: "The Selectboard would like to be able to examine each proposed cultivation site on a case-by-case basis, giving neighbors a chance to weigh in."
The Planning Board had a frank and often tense discussion with outgoing Selectboard Chairman Sean Stanton over which board should be the special permit-granting authority for marijuana establishments.
If voters approve the Great Barrington bylaw, indoor cultivation of marijuana of the sort envisioned in the mills will be permitted by-right in the light industrial zone that covers much of Housatonic.
"Sometimes the easiest thing to do is cut some of the lowest hanging fruit but sometimes it's a matter of taking a bigger picture and stepping outside and seeing what can be done for the community as a whole."
-- Local businesswoman Ilana Siegal, addressing the Selectboard on proposed cuts to the town libraries
In Great Barrington, it's costing $150,000 annually and is rising at 30 percent per year, to unclog the town sewer system. Reliable estimates put the cost of fixing the wipe clogs nationwide at $1 billion per year.
Friday, March 23, is the last day nomination papers can be obtained from the town clerk for candidates who want to be on the ballot for the Tuesday, May 15, nonpartisan municipal elections.
100 Bridge Street has been delayed to the point that the $1 million that would have been used to pay for the burial of overhead utilities is in danger of lapsing when the grant expires at the end of June 2019.
In a unanimous vote Monday night, the selectmen urged the Great Barrington Zoning Board of Appeals to reject the appeal of Gary J. O'Brien, whose trucking company has been told to halt its illegal practices on Roger Road.
Town manager Jennifer Tabakin reminded town residents of the upcoming deadlines for citizen petitions to have items placed for a vote on the warrant for the annual town meeting.
In the last few years, Stanton has guided the selectboard through the sale of the old Castle Street firehouse, the reconstruction of Main Street, and the approval for the conversion of the former Searles High School to an upscale 88-room hotel on Bridge Street.
Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, who directs Multicultural BRIDGE and co-chairs the Du Bois 150th Committee, was in Town Hall Monday night with Randy Weinstein, founder and director of the Du Bois Center at Great Barrington, to gain approval to mount banners on utility poles in town and to report on the progress the committee had made on celebrating the birthday of iconic scholar and civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois.
Selectman Steve Bannon then made a motion that, if building inspector Edwin May attends a hearing in front of the Great Barrington Zoning Board of Appeals or goes to court in the Gary J. O'Brien matter, the town will provide an attorney to represent him. It passed unanimously.
"My immediate concern is the [fuel] trucks. Any fuel storage has to have 110-percent containment under it. How that's okay, I don't understand. If something happens, there nothing between that truck and the ground."
-- Selectboard member Ed Abrahams
In addition to the trucks and the transfer station activities, there are reports of race cars gunning their engines on the O'Brien property on the weekends.
