West Stockbridge — Residents will decide on six warrant articles at a Special Town Meeting set for December 11 at 6 p.m. in Town Hall. The Select Board unanimously approved the articles on November 18, including measures aimed at easing life, financially, for seniors and veterans.
Article 1, if approved, reduces the age of eligibility for a senior citizen to receive a property exemption from 70 years old to 65 years old and increases the tax exemption amount from five percent of the average assessed value of all residential properties within the town to $1,000. Articles 2 and 3 provide veterans of the Armed Forces with an annual cost-of-living-type increase in their real estate and personal tax exemption amount. Article 4 changes the position of town clerk from elected to appointed by the Select Board for a maximum term of three years. This article must also be approved by the electorate at the town’s Annual Town Meeting in May to be effective. Article 5 allows for a formal right of way to West Stockbridge’s aquifers through land owned by the Gaston family, with the town being granted a first right of refusal should that tract ever be sold.
Article 6 approves funding for the design of the reconfiguration of the Swamp Road, Lenox Road, and Main Street intersection after the town received a Complete Streets grant that doesn’t include the cost of design work. The monies will be transferred from a culvert project that cannot be fulfilled at this time. “It’s no new money being approved,” Town Administrator Marie Ryan clarified. “It’s money that’s already been approved to be able to get the design part done.”
However, the group’s discussion focused on the warrant’s fourth article regarding the appointment of the town clerk, a position now held by Ronni Barrett. “I just don’t think the issue is clear to the electorate,” Select Board member Kathleen Keresey said of the 2023 Town Meeting that included the same measure but was tabled. “I think that something that’s concise and explains the reason it’s even on the warrant, the pros and cons, because I don’t think anybody even understood what it meant last year.”
Ryan said she will create a document explaining the article and add it to the warrant on the town’s webpage.
A copy of the Town Warrant can be found on pages 11 and 12 here.
New police department union contract, National Grid pole location get ‘thumbs up’
At the session, the Select Board unanimously approved a new contract with the West Stockbridge Police Department’s union, Local 499 of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police. That document can be found on pages nine and 10 here.
According to Select Board member Andy Krouss, union representatives requested two major improvements: overtime pay and longevity. He said he and Ryan negotiated the contract, characterizing personal time now as vacation. “There was nothing major in the contract that they were asking for as far as salary increases,” Krouss said. “It was just standard. What we presented to them was just smart. It was not egregious, and it was not outrageous.”
Specifically, the document provides for added pay for evening and midnight shifts; includes graduated cost-of-living adjustments; increases the allotment for a full-time officer’s uniform and equipment from $1,200 annually to $1,500 annually; and tallies sick leave at 15 days per year.
The dais also granted a National Grid pole relocation to 86 Great Barrington Road because the current service is inaccessible to a company line truck.
