Great Barrington — Over 300 residents attended the annual town meeting at Monument Mountain Regional High School on Saturday, May 3.
Great Barrington traditionally holds its annual town meeting on a weekday evening; however, the Selectboard scheduled this year’s meeting on a weekend afternoon in an effort to increase attendance.
According to Town Clerk Josh Risen, 340 residents attended this year’s meeting. At last year’s town meeting, 253 residents attended.
Despite several debates during the three-and-a-half-hour town meeting, voters approved all 29 articles as presented on the meeting warrant.
One of the most prominent articles on this year’s warrant was a $3 million appropriation from the town’s budget for the construction and installation of a temporary bridge on Brookside Road. The bridge was unexpectedly closed at the beginning of May 2024 following a routine inspection by MassDOT. The truss-style bridge crossing the Housatonic River was built in 1949, with a total length of 148.3 feet and a span length of 142.7 feet.
Last year, then-State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D – 3rd Berkshire District) said that a permanent bridge replacement project would take six to eight years to complete.
At the May 3 Town Meeting, Department of Public Works Superintendent Joe Aberdale spoke in favor of the article. “We, in Town Hall, put our heads together and said, ‘What can we do?’” Aberdale said. “We looked at a couple of options, and what it came down to is taking a temporary bridge, like we did at Division Street, and sliding it through the existing bridge.”
Aberdale said that, despite the engineering challenges, a temporary bridge “appears doable.” “The other option we looked at was trying to repair the bridge, but there were just too many unknowns that we would get into and just keep putting money in,” Aberdale said. “This is why this option is on the table. This also has provisions for emergency services.”
“This [warrant article] is not about a detour—it’s about safety,” said Brookside Road Neighbors group member Merle Kailas. “The residents of Brookside Road [and neighboring roads] Brush Hill Road and East Sheffield Road are aging. The increased ambulance, police department, and fire department time [to respond to emergencies] are all a huge concern for us.”
Eisner Camp Director Paul Isserles spoke about the impact the bridge closure has had on the camp, which is located at 53 Brookside Road.
“In addition to having over 800 people [at the location] all summer, we also have retreats throughout the year where we have anywhere from 100 to 300 people, almost seven days a week,” Isserles said. “The increased time that it takes for emergency services is a major concern for all of us, and we want to make sure we’re always putting the health and safety of our campers, and our staff, as our first priority. This is incredibly important, not just for the homeowners, but also for all the campers and staff who rely on health and safety.”
Brookside Road resident Meredith Smyth spoke about an emergency incident that happened in January that involved her son. “This January, my 14-month-old son had a seizure that impacted his breathing,” Smyth said. “We called 911, and in figuring out the fastest way to get help for my son, emergency dispatch instructed me to run across the bridge carrying my baby in my arms to meet the ambulance. The timing was everything, and there was no other option. I don’t even want to think what that could be like in a different circumstance. And I also reflect that we were lucky that there was no snow at that point in January.”
Two weeks after the incident with her son, Smyth recounted, a snow and ice storm came through town. “I would not have been able [to bring my child across the bridge] at that time,” Smyth said. “We need you [the residents] to take action right now and vote ‘yes.’ We must ensure that fire trucks and ambulances can reach all residents promptly without a temporary bridge. We are risking lives—we cannot afford that gamble, and my family cannot afford that gamble, nor can any of the others who live on these roads.”
“The response time for EMTs arriving at the scene of an emergency strongly influences whether or not the patient will survive, especially if the individual is encountering a cardiac event,” said Brush Hill Road resident and retired pediatrician James Fagin. “Survival from cardiac arrest is all about the time interval for initiating defibrillation and administration of epinephrine and antiarrhythmic medications. Any delay in EMT response time may significantly compromise the effectiveness of resuscitation procedures, including defibrillation. [The likelihood of] survival for patients who have suffered cardiac arrest decreases 10 percent for every minute delay in defibrillation, which is why having an EMT arrive at the scene as quickly as possible can make the difference between life and death.”
The article was approved by a secret ballot vote of 281–23.
Despite some debate, residents approved a zoning amendment—as proposed by the Planning Board earlier this year—that creates a new overlay district on the Bard College at Simon’s Rock campus. There are approximately 17 parcels of land on the campus, comprising 275 acres.
In November, the Bard College Board of Trustees and Board of Overseers announced that the college would close the Simon’s Rock campus by the end of this academic year.
As described by Planning Board Chair Brandee Nelson back in January, the zoning amendment creates a zoning overlay on the campus property to “give flexibility to the redevelopment of the site. The campus is an educational use, which is not subject to [town zoning regulations].”
The zoning overlay includes various conditions of use for the property, including permitted and prohibited uses.
At one point during the Town Meeting, resident Fred Clark proposed an amendment that would have made the Selectboard the special permit granting authority instead of the Planning Board; however, residents voted down the proposed amendment.
Bard College Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Taun Toay, who is not a resident of Great Barrington, spoke to the audience about the article before it was put up for a vote. “It is not for me to tell you how to vote on this, but I do want to explain a couple of things in this process,” Toay said. “One, for us, is the certainty of execution. I would ask you to consider that if we are restricting the sales group to be largely populated by nonprofits, that doesn’t accomplish anything by bringing this onto the [town’s] tax rolls. We want to leave the property in good hands.”
A majority of residents eventually voted to pass the zoning amendment.
Also at the meeting, residents voted to approve the town’s fiscal 2026 operating budget of $16.7 million, a $313,336 (1.9 percent) increase from this fiscal year. “This is a really conservative, really tight budget,” said Interim Town Manager Chris Rembold. “As presented, this would result in a $14.09 tax rate, but it is likely that it would be lower once the new [property] values come in. It’s a really low increase, if any, to the tax rate.”
“There is very little room to add expenditures, so please don’t,” Remold told the audience.
Residents also approved the Berkshire Hills Regional School District assessment for fiscal 2026 for $22.2 million, a $1.17 million increase from this fiscal year.
