Great Barrington — At the Selectboard’s meeting at Town Hall on Monday, April 14, Vice Chair Eric Gabriel and member Ben Elliott came out against the town’s acquisition and merger of Housatonic Water Works (HWW) and the Great Barrington Fire District (GBFD).
Meanwhile the rest of the board, Chair Steve Bannon and member Garfield Reed, would not divulge their positions concerning the special town meeting.
The special town meeting has been called via citizen’s petition and is scheduled for Thursday, April 17, at 6 p.m., at Monument Mountain High School. At the special town meeting, residents will vote on whether the town should purchase HWW and the GBFD to merge the two utilities.
The first petition asks for the town to acquire GBFD for a sum not to exceed $2 million, while the second asks for the town to acquire HWW for a sum not to exceed $2.3 million.
Unlike other municipal meetings, the special town meeting will not be broadcast via Zoom as the meeting’s agenda does not list a Zoom link.
At the beginning of the April 14 meeting, Selectboard member Eric Gabriel said that he would be voting against both warrant articles. “Before joining the Selectboard, I participated in a Zoom candidates’ forum where we discussed HWW,” Gabriel said. “At the time, I stated that HWW should be a public entity, and I have consistently advocated for this. Since then, my position remains unchanged, and I’ve been actively pursuing this goal as a member of this board.”
Gabriel said that he recognizes residents’ “frustration with the slow and challenging process.” “However, rushing such a significant transaction would be unwise. The town still bears scars from the experience of taking over a business run by the same owners of HWW,” he said, referencing the town’s past legal battles with HWW President Frederick Mercer over a landfill property that he previously owned.
“We needed to conduct a comprehensive study to fully understand the implications of the town’s involvement, which has been completed,” Gabriel said. “To be clear, the town has hired a negotiator to negotiate the sale of HWW on behalf of the town, and this is in process.”
Gabriel did not identify the negotiator during the meeting.
“The basic negotiation strategy tells us that the vote at the special town meeting for the purchase of HWW for $2.3 million would undermine our negotiation,” Gabriel said. “I ask everyone to give us more time to allow negotiations to play out so that we, the Selectboard, can bring forward a set negotiated price to secure HWW and the future of our water. I will be voting ‘no’ on both questions at the special meeting.”
Later on during the meeting, Elliott added that while he “agree[s] with the intent of the [citizen’s] petitions,” some residents may have misconstrued ideas about the special town meeting. “In some people’s minds, they have the idea that if we vote ‘yes’ on Thursday night, then the town will own HWW the next day,” Elliott said. “There’s this kind of perception that is out there. There is that kind of perception that is out there. No matter how the vote goes, we’ve already hired a lawyer. Negotiations are in progress, and they will be in progress one way or the other. I think we’ll discuss what it means to have that ‘yes’ vote and the negotiations on Thursday.”
Elliott emphasized that he would not be voting ‘yes’ for the two questions at the special town meeting. “While I agree with the intent of this petition, I do not think it is the actual best way to achieve the results that the organizers and this board are looking to achieve,” Elliott said.
When asked by former Selectboard member Ed Abrahams, neither Bannon nor Reed would state their positions on the citizen’s petitions.
During media time, NEWSLetter publisher Eileen Mooney asked Bannon whether or not the vote at the special town meeting would be advisory or binding.
“That will be the first question we ask town counsel at the meeting,” Bannon responded.
“I thought you were going to ask already,” Mooney told Bannon.
“I have not seen anything in writing,” said Bannon. “But [Town Counsel David J. Doneski] will tell the assembled [audience] on Thursday evening.”
