Great Barrington — Over the past week, there have been several developments with the situation concerning the long troubled Housatonic Water Works company (HWW). At the Select Board’s meeting on Monday, October 24, Town Manager Mark Pruhenski announced that the town received two proposals from companies capable of appraising the company’s water systems.
Pruhenski said that the town is expecting one or two more proposals, but would not go into details about either the proposals submitted or the proposals that the town is expecting. When questioned by The Berkshire Edge during the media time portion of the meeting, Pruhenski said that he would share copies of the proposals submitted to the town.
On Tuesday, October 25, via email, The Berkshire Edge formally requested copies of the submitted proposals. In response, Pruhenski wrote, “Do you intend to include the cost of each at this time? I’m asking because I’d rather you didn’t since it could impact the remaining quote(s) that we’re still waiting on.”
When asked if the costs are part of the public documents, Pruhenski confirmed that they were. The Berkshire Edge wrote back that, because they are public documents, it has a responsibility to publish the proposals in full. Pruhenski proceeded to forward the request for copies of the proposals to Town Clerk Jennifer Messina, who confirmed the receipt of The Berkshire Edge’s request.
One week after the request, as of Tuesday, November 1, The Berkshire Edge is still waiting to receive copies of the proposals.
Meanwhile, at its meeting on Thursday, October 27, the Planning Board formally approved a statement to the Select Board expressing its concerns about the Housatonic Water Works situation. At a previous meeting on September 22, the planners had worked on a draft of a letter that requested regular updates from the Select Board concerning the situation with the company.
However, members of the board felt that the proposed request would be putting an additional work burden on town staff. “The residents of Housatonic are enduring unacceptable water quality conditions without meaningful resolution,” members of the board wrote in its letter to the Select Board. “As a board concerned with the economic development of our town, we recognize that Housatonic is well positioned, because of its existing infrastructure, to continue to meet commercial and residential development demands essential to economic sustainability. Not only is Housatonic a vibrant residential neighborhood, but it also has strong commercial and industrial uses and opportunity for additional growth.”
In the letter, the board offers its support to the town to “help the process along.”
“Water quality is only one facet of the situation,” Board Chairman Brandee Nelson said while reviewing the letter. “I was troubled to read in the paper that the fire department responding to [the Formel Salvage Yard] fire couldn’t use hydrant flow. I think they said that they needed to run tanker shuttles [to the site]. Those hydrants should function for the benefit of fire protection in the community. I know quality is what’s on the mind of the residents, probably more so than quantity. But it’s a two-fold issue.”
For many years, there have been concerns from town officials and residents on whether or not the water flow from fire hydrants in Housatonic is adequate enough to fight fires.
After the board unanimously voted to approve the letter, Chairman Nelson said, “I think it’s important that we’re all united in making sure the residents have clean water.”
“I think it’s also important that it’s really an economic development issue, not just a personal issue for people who are currently suffering because of the water situation,” board member Malcolm Fick said. “Housing prices have suffered as a result of this.”
On Monday, October 31, town publicist Ellen Lahr announced via email that the Select Board would be convening on Monday, November 21 with representatives of the town’s Fire District to discuss a potential merger with the HWW system.
In her email, Lahr wrote that the HWW and Fire District’s water systems are separated by about 900 feet and a connection would be required along with other infrastructure. She wrote that while the Fire District’s system draws water from underground sources, HWW uses surface water from Long Pond.
