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Should Williamstown abandon its Town Manager residency requirement? Menicocci $155K contract and a $1.7M Bennington house force the issue

Should Williamstown's next town manager live in town?  The answer is no, according to selectmen, who signed a contract with Robert Menicocci -- who lives in Bennington, Vt. -- to lead Williamstown's government starting July 1. But . . . but not as "Town Manager". That would be illegal.

 

To make it legal, the Select Board have to get approval of Williamstown's voters to change a state law which, since at least 1956, requires "that the town manager shall be a resident of the town during the term of his office."

 

Article 30 on the Williamstown Town Meeting Warrant, to be considered on June 14, appears to start that process by asking the Legislature to approve deleting the residency requirement from the town charter. It appears the town's voters will then have to vote at the next Town Election -- in 2023 -- to ratify the Legislature's action before it takes effect. So for all that time it appears Menicocci will be, legally, "Temporary Town Manager" -- unless he becomes a Williamstown resident. 

 

That language is part of the 1956 state law which established Williamstown's "town manager/selectman" form of governance.  It also requires a confirming vote of the full Massachusetts Legislature to be amended and changed. Town voters must approve via a "ballot" vote at a town election.  So the typical sequence would be: 

• The town's voters approve on a local election ballot a proposed amendment to the 1956 Town Charter, which is a state law. Then,
• The Legislature is asked to also approve the amendment. The next town election is May 10, but this proposed change is not on the ballot. So it appears it would have to be handled at a special election or else held over until the May, 2023 town election.

Why is this necessary? Because the contract signed by selectman Andy Hogeland for the town on April 26, and by Menicocci the next day (now a public record), hires him July 1 at a $155,000-a-year salary, but as "Interim Town Manager."  The word "interim" is important for two reasons: 

 

First, he can't serve as "Town Manager" unless he lives in Williamstown, under the Town Charter.  So the contract adds the word "Interim." State law only mentions the possibility of selectmen appointing a "Temporary Town Manager" between appointments of a full "Town Manager." 

 

The contract says the Select Board decided to employ Menicocci for a year as of July 1 "pending the above proposed charter revisions and, if and when the charter revisions are effective, to employ the manager as the Town Manager."

 

The arrangement would be unnecessary if Menicocci were to become a legal resident of Williamstown as of July 1.  

 

But instead of requiring that as a condition of employment, the selectmen have agreed not only to contract with him as "Interim" town manager -- a term not in the charter -- but also to ask voters to abolish the residency requirement so they can hire him full time. 

 

That would also be unnecessary if Menicocci had any intention of becoming a town resident. 

 

Menicocci's contract provides that if he is fired by selectmen anytime during the one-year contract, he will be automatically entitled to half-a-year's severance pay -- $77,500. 

 

Menicocci, (PICTURED HERE) in the April 3 "meet the public" session before his hiring, emphasized his work experience in relatively senior roles in human services in both eastern Massachusetts and California.  He spoke about his desire to leave California because of its fire and water environmental challenges, and acknowledged that he and his wife had bought (a news story and other records show the sale occurred April 16, 2021) a $1.7-million, six-bedroom, five-bath house on 382 acres at 1510 Pleasant Valley Road, in Bennington.  

 

A web search shows their "current address" as either the Bennington address or Santa Cruz, Calif. The address cited in the hiring contract is 1510 Pleasant Valley Road, in Bennington. (A detailed listing also uses a 1477 street number.

 

A search of the web shows that bios of Menicocci do not describe any experience running a municipality. His work cited is in social justice, social welfare and financial management at the state or county levels. In 2015, a government-transparency nonprofit published his then-annual salary and benefits at $289,000. 

 

Selectmen chose Menicocci ,  56, over one other finalist,  Alex Torpey, among a number of applicants in the latest search to replace former Town Manager Jason Hoch. Torpey, the other finalist, an adjunct professor, had years of experience in leadership of at least two municipalities in New Jersey.

 

On the one hand, it is impressive that Williamstown attracted a Massachusetts native back from the West Coast at half his 2015 big-county agency salary to run a little town government. It says something about how many Californians are thinking twice about staying there. For a Californian, a traffic-free 20-minute commute to work may feel luxurious. 

 

On the other hand, there must have been some reason why Williamstown voters in 1956 decided our town manager should live in town.  Some other Berkshire towns, such as Sandisfield, may have lost managers because of housing costs, and may have dropped residency requirements to cope. 

 

But why should voters be asked to make that change after-the-fact of hiring someone who doesn't meet the requirement, and for whom the town will have to pay a $77,500 termination fee if voters don't accept that change?  And if dropping the residency requirement is OK'd by both town voters and the Legislature, shouldn't the town then re-advertise the permanent Town Manager job to what would undoubtedly be a larger pool of interested candidates? 

 

There's a larger question posed by this contract: If we can't attract a qualified candidate to be $155,000-a-year permanent Town Manager -- who finds it financially feasible to live in town -- what does it say about our stock of affordable housing for people of average means? 

 

RELATED LINKS:

• Download Robert Menicocci Employment Contract
• The 1956 Town Charter legislation:
• The Town Charter full text:

 

BELOW FROM:

https://socialservices.sccgov.org/our-story/robert-menicocci

 

Bob, has a Bachelor's in Fine Arts and extensive graduate work in management of human services. His interest in social justice, specifically in social welfare, has allowed him to spend all his career in efforts to reform and improve service delivery and systems of care.

county of santa clara social services agency 

 

BELOW FROM:

https://www.first5kids.org/about-us/first-5-commission/robert-menicocci/

 

Robert Menicocci is the Director of the County of Santa Clara Social Services Agency (SSA). Robert, who joined SSA in January 2014, has had extensive experience in social services, mental health, and other areas over the course of his career. This includes work in two California counties in fiscal administration and operations, and at the state level in Massachusetts in both the Transitional Assistance and Mental Health Departments. He has also worked as a consultant in the private sector.

LINK: Full text of May 14 letter from District Attorney Andrea Harrington concerning Judge Jennifer Tyne

The following link will open a PDF file for download of a four-page letter dated May 14, 2021 and signed by Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington.  The letter, which has been the subject of news accounts in The Berkshire Eagle, was written to the chief judge of the Massachusetts district court system, Paul C. Dawley. It recites cases and makes assertions regarding Judge Jennifer Tyne of the Berkshire District Court.   The owner of this non-news blog, Bill Densmore, made a request for a copy of the letter to Judge Dawley's office under the Massachusetts Public Records Law.  Judge Dawley email replied suggesting the request be made to the district attorney, who's office then emailed a copy of the PDF to this blog's owner.

Download Harrington-letter-05-14-2021

The letter is also the subject of an unsigned opinion piece on the website of the trade-publication Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, authored by a named editorial board.  https://masslawyersweekly.com/2021/06/17/da-oversteps-in-critique-of-judge/

Below is a copy-and-paste of a Google search which provides links to Eagle stories, including a 2017 article reporting Judge Tyne's nomination to the bench by Gov. Charlie Baker.  The governor is a Republican.  Ms. Harrington is a Democrat. Neither judges nor prosecutors are political jobs per se, however. 

Attorneys say DA's letter about judge was political strategy ...

June 22, 2021  — The Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly slammed District Attorney Andrea Harrington's attempt to oust district court Judge Jennifer Tyne in a letter ...

 

Attorneys group rips DA move to oust judge as 'indefensible ...

Jun 11, 2021 — Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington's attempt to have a district court judge removed from the bench has drawn criticism from some in ...

 

Berkshire district attorney tried to unseat a judge she called a ...

Jun 9, 2021 — Sullivan praised Tyne as a jurist. “Judge Tyne is a fair and impartial jurist who will hold any attorney accountable for not being prepared or not ...

 

'Dangerous' and 'stunning': Attorneys lament Berkshire DA's ...

Jun 9, 2021 — 'Dangerous' and 'stunning': Attorneys lament Berkshire DA's bid to oust judge. By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle ...

 

Full press release from Attorney Robert Sullivan ...

Jun 9, 2021 — No rational human being supports domestic violence, but this attack on Judge Tyne is completely inappropriate substantively and ethically. This ...

 

Tyne unanimously approved for associate justice in Central ...

Nov 16, 2017 — BOSTON — Jennifer Tyne won unanimous approval from the Governor's Council on Wednesday to become an associate justice in Central ..

Berkshire legal community shows high praise for district court ...

Oct 31, 2017 — PITTSFIELD — A soft, full smile stretched across judicial nominee Jennifer Tyne's face Monday night as members of the Berkshire legal ...

 

Baker nominates defense attorney Jennifer Tyne for District ...

Oct 18, 2017 — BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker has tapped a local defense attorney as his nominee for associate justice of the District Court. Jennifer Tyne ...

 

Williams selects site for new art museum building, but needs trustee approval to go ahead

LENOX, Mass. — Williams College President Maud Mandel says the school intends to construct a new art museum building on the Field Park rotary site of the now-dormant old Williams Inn — but needs to make the financial case to trustees first.

The disclosure came on Sunday as Mandel spoke to about 40 people assembled at a Lenox Library lecture entitled, “The View from Campus.”

In the hour talk and Q-and-A period she spoke about Williams’ strategic planning and relationship to the region, the nature of a liberal-arts education, and some of the characteristics and concerns of young adults.

Through its academic partnership with the Clark Art Institute, Williams has a small graduate program in art history which has produced many curatorial leaders of U.S. arts and cultural institutions. Mandel says the strategic-planning process has pointed to that as an area for continued investment, “looking to build on that legacy and history.”

One thing that means, she said, is “we need, and hopefully we will be bulding, a new museum” for the Williams College Museum of Art. Its current spaces in Lawrence Hall would be too expensive to renovate and can be repurposed as “maker spaces” if a new building is constructed, she said.

It is up to Williams leadership to convince its trustees to approve a new museum building and that hasn’t happened yet, said Mandel. But she said two decisions have already been made.

• First, the now-dormant old Williams Inn building at the Field Park rotary (Williams owns the land and building) will be razed starting in about a month (“none to soon,” she quipped).
• And second, if trustees approve spending on a new museum structure it will definitely be located on that site. Until then, it will be greenspace, she said. “If we build a new museum, we will build it there.”

READ FULL STORY HERE: 
http://www.greylockindependent.com/williams-selects

National effort to curb explosive growth in polluting plastic launched in Berkshires region

(Panelists, above, from left: Laura Martin, Judith Enck, Rosemary Wessel, Mehernosh Kahn and Sage Bohl)

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- A new national project seeking to curb the explosive growth of polluting consumer plastics in the oceans, streams and landfills of the United States has launched in the region and the founder, a former Obama-administration Envirionmental Protection Administration (EPA) official, spoke about it on Saturday at a Pittsfield panel discussion. 

"We can't recycle our way out of this problem," warned Judith Enck, former EPA Region 2 administrator and founder of Beyond Plastics.org, a nonprofit that is currently housed in space donated by Bennington College. "It's about personal responsibility."   Enck is a senior fellow at the college's Center for Advanced Political Action who lives in rural New York just over the Vermont border from Bennington.  Besides delivering a keynot speach at the Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, Enck joined a panel moderated by Williams College Prof. Laura J. Martin. Personal responsibility, Enck said, means figuring out how to reduce personal use of plastic in consumer packaging and goods, she said.

The Aug. 17 free panel discussion, "Environmental Challenges in the Berkshires", dovetailed with Barrington Stage's original musical-comedy production, "Fall Springs,"  (additional review) which deals with natural-gas hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" -- a rapidly growing method for extracting fossil fuel from deep rock formations which only became technology feasible in the last decade. The theater show runs through Aug. 31. 

The panel -- hosted by Barrington Stage -- focused on a key point made by Enck -- as the use of fossil fuels in transportation and electric-power generation plateaus or declines because of hybrid cars and renewalble energy sources, the oil-and-gas industry is trying to ramp up the use of plastics as an expanding market.  "The fossil-fuel industry is starting to panic and they are turning to plastics as their next growth area," said Enck. She said they are particularly seeking to convince young consumers of the alleged benefits of plastic over less packaging or natural packaging, she said. "The more you read about it the more overwhelming it gets."

One focus of Beyond Plastics, is to encourage the banning of the three biggest sources of single-use plastic pollution all at once. They are plastic bags, white polystyrene packaging and fast-food containers, and plastics straws. She calls this the "plastic trifecta." The plastics problem is not solveable with changes in consumer choice alone, says Enck. "That is helpful but not nearly enough," she says. "We need to enact laws to reduce plastic packaging, such as the Plastic Trifecta which was recently adopted by the state of Vermont."

Beyond Plastics (logo to right) received initial funding from the Park Foundation of Ithaca, N.Y., through Bennington College.

Increasing plastic use will be a disaster for the earth and everything that lives on it, Enck said. Each year, she said, some 3 million tons of non-biodegradable plastic is ending up in the world's oceans.  Even though a plastic bottle, for example, may by wave action be turned into "microplastics," those tiny pieces are ingested by birds, fish and sea mammals, causing death or threatening humans who eat fish. In her slide deck before the Barrington Stage audience of perhaps 100 people, Enck projected a future in which there is more plastic in the oceans than fish, by weight.  That's because only plastics labeled 1, 2 or 5 are truely recyclable.  Even green plastics bags obtained at stores and touted as "biodegradable" are only decomposed at limited and special recycling centers, she said, and don't degrade if just buried in a landfill.

The idea that youth might buy into industry arguments for more plastic use was seen as unlikely by Sage Bohl, a recent Mount Greylock Regional High School graduate now enrolled at Wheaton College (class of 2023).  Bohl, also on the Barrington Stage panel, was a member of Greylock's Youth Environmental Squad (YES), and became engaged only in her senior year at the urging of friends. 

Citizen efforts to delay or defeat gas-industry initiatives to build new pipelines and compressor stations in Massachusetts were chronicled by panelist Rosemary Wessel, of Cummington, program director of the activist group No Fracked Gas in Mass., a program of the non-profit, Pittsfield-based Berkshire Environmental Action Team. Wssel, who spent much of her career as a graphic designer before devoting time to fracking activism, said the oil-and-gas industry "is really starting to get aggressive" about developing deep-shale formations in Pennsylvania and upstate New York for gas production.  She said she worries there are also smaller deposits in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts woulc come some day be targetted for extraction.  

Wessel said more than one thousand people submitted papers to courts hearing pipeline cases in Massachsusetts to obtain legal status as "intervenors" in the cases, requiring the pipeline proponents to send legal notices to each one every time they filed arguments in court or scheduled hearings. She said typically such matters might have a few dozen intervenors.  She characterized this as the sort of "non-violent direct action" which can have impact on the regulatory process.  Yet the big challenge to the spread of citizen action is our modern economic structure which leaves parents and especially young adults struggling economically, working multiple jobs, and therefore unable to exercise their right to be active in public policy. 

"People need to struggle just to get by," she told the Barrington Stage audience. 

Martin, the Williams College Center for Environmental Studies professor, asked the audience to think about the power of humor -- such as the current "Fall Springs" production, to affect public policy.  Both Martin and Enck spoke about perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination of water supplies near Bennington, in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, N.Y., as illustrating the challenge of mitigating the envirionmental effects of production for Teflon, Gore-Tex and other plastic-base materials.  Martin began her undergraduate work as a ecologist at Brown University but has focused her Ph.D. and post-doctoral work (at Harvard) on the history of environmental regulation. 

Also joining the panel was Mehernosh P. Khan, M.D., a Berkshire Medical Center family doctor practicing in Lenox. He described a 25-year-career in the Pittsburgh, Penn., area which came to an end in part because his family became concerned about the health-effects of fracking development to the north and east of the city.  He pointed to a BMC executive he said he saw in the audience, and asked, rhetorically, what the health system was doing to curb plastic consumption where possible, such as in a cafeteria where most the food served is in plastic.

With Trump-era tax breaks, Krens’ museum-theme park bid now stands to remake North Adams’ downtown; 2,000 spinoff jobs forecast

A sweeping theme-park-for-art vision of a economic and cultural transformation of the Greylock region – 2,000 new jobs and up to $180 million annually added to the economy, and tax-breaks for investors — was detailed for the first time in a public forum on Sunday by art entrepreneur Thomas Krens.

Krens spoke to a full-house audience at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., in the final of four lectures since fall about his career from Williams College professor to head of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and years helping create large-scale museum projects worldwide.

GO TO THE GREYLOCK INDEPENDENT TO LEARN MORE  . . .  

COMMUNITY: How shall we define? Let us count the ways — nine at TedX North Adams

How many ways can we build community? Sharing water, theater, books, music, food, family, arts education or hip hop and “stepping” dance?   Nine speakers and performers each took 20 minutes on Saturday to describe a form of community.

It was the second-annual TEDx North Adams event held in Studio 10 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA). Under rules of the national TedX nonprofit, the North Adams effort, in its second year, was limited to only 100 tickets sold, but next year they’ll be authorize to sell more. The Studio B 10 at MassMoCA was organized like a cafe.

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GREYLOCK INDEPENDENT 

Berkshire Eagle publisher/president invites public to talk at BrewHaHa! on Friday 9 a.m.-10 a.m.

Click image to enlarge

NORTH ADAMS -- Frederic Rutberg, president/publisher and co-owner of The Berkshire Eagle is bringing one in a series of "coffee and conversation" meetings with the public to the new location of BrewHaHa! cafe/restaurant at 437 West Main St., in North Adams on Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.  It's a chance for readers -- print and Internet -- to provide suggestions and constructive feedback on the news organization's efforts. 

For two decades The Eagle and its sister papers in Brattleboro, Bennington and Manchester, Vt., were owned by a Denver-based chain which gradually reduced the size of its newsroom, closed The Transcript and The Advocate weekly and raised subscription rates.  In May 2016, four businessmen -- three of them with homes in the Berkshires, purchased the papers for a undisclosed sum and have adding reporters, editors, graphic artists and other support staff in Pittsfield with the goal of creating "the finest community newspaper group in America." 

Rutberg, a retired state district-court judge who lives in Stockbridge, has been operational leader of the new owners of New England Newspaper Inc. (NENI).  Shortly after the ownership change, Rutberg inaugurated a circuit-riding approach to checking in with readers, appearing at coffee shops and other venues throughout the Berkshires. Friday's visit is at least the third in northern Berkshire County. 

"Pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee and get to know our president and publlisher, editor and other key managers," says a invitational advertisement which appeared in an edition of last week's paper. "Tell us about your neighborhood, ask us questions, share your concenrs, or stop in just to chat. The coffee is free, the conversatoin is informal and information . . . . " 

 

 

Three candidates state priorities and goals in hot district-attorney three-way race

 

 

UPDATE: This post has been updated with links to ongoing coverage of the DA race.

WILLIAMSTOWN --  Three candidates for Berkshire district attorney stated the priorities and goals during a one-hour Q-and-A "debate" hosted by Williams College and organized by the town's League of Women Voters.  Approximately 75 people attended.   (Read iBerkshires account of July 31 debate in Williamstown). 

ADDITIONAL COVERAGE:

• All of the DA race coverage by iBerkshires is linked from the bottom of THIS STORY
• WAMC Williamstown event coverage: "Berkshire DA office undertakes reforms mid-campaign" 
• Berkshire Eagle, Aug. 2: "DA candidates believe background key for the office"

PHOTOS FROM THE DEBATE:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oYQ8vAaR9qzjxDcYTmNKujTbrZgWIDHU

VIDEOS:

Your No. 1 priority: Three candidates reply:
https://youtu.be/0steSshWDHA

What's the goal of the DA's office?
Caccaviello replies:
https://youtu.be/2iEetBWUxLk

Knight and Harrington reply:
https://youtu.be/Bx8rShASnfA

Closing statements by all three candidates:
https://youtu.be/ibdoMA5bT80

AUDIO OF THE WHOLE DEBATE PROGRAM: 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Wy7vZrjnJu7C_F5Xr9JjflAbQdAj8ynl

As there is no Republican candidate, the race will be decided at the state primary on Sept. 4. The forum was held in the Paresky Center auditorium on the Williams College campus. The public is invited to attend and participate.

 

Willinet taped the Forum for videocasting later this week. Public radio station WAMC also made an audio recording for delayed broadcast. 

The three candidates, in alphabetical order, are: 

• Paul J. Caccaviello, of Dalton, who graduated from Western New England College of Law in Springfield in 1989 and the former North Adams State College in 1986, has been an assistant Berkshire district attorney ever since. Caccaviello served on the Saint Agnes School Board, was a member of the Dalton Rotary Club and is a trustee of Berkshire Community College. He announced his candidacy in May  (AUDIO) in a ceremony which drew a state ethics complaint and a response from Caccaviello. 

• Andrea Harrington, an attorney at Conner and Morneau LLP who has been a criminal and civil practice attorney for 15 years. She is a graduate of Taconic High School and is a Richmond School Committee member. She ran for state senate two years ago but lost to Adam Hinds. She earned an undergraduate degree in international relations in the honors program at the University of Washington and received her law degree, cum laude from American University.

• Judith C. Knight, of Lee, served as an assistant district attorney in eastern Massachusetts from 1988 to 1993 and has had a Great Barrington private practice since 2006. Also a certified mediatory, she was an adjunct professor at Western New England School of Law from 1999-2005. She worked in the Colorado public defender's office in Denver in 1987-1988 after receiving her law degree in 1987 from Washington and Lee University in Virginia. She ran and lost to incumbent David Capeless in a 2006 primary bid for DA. She announced her candidacy in May.

Capeless retired earlier this year  (AUDIO) and Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, appointed Caccaviello to fill his expired term until November. (See: "A Massachusetts DA tries to crown his successor" by Eoin Higgins, June 26, 2018)

---

Related: "How Capeless plotted succession plan"(Commonwealth Magazine, May 17, 2018)

---

The last day to register to vote in the September primary is Aug. 15.  The Williamstown meeting of the three candidates was one of several between now and the Sept. 4 primary.  Their first faceoff was on May 16.

 

SOURCES FOR ADDITIONAL VIDEO VIEWING

(courtesy Drew Herzig)

 
Past DA debates you can see online: 

• The one hosted by Sen. Adam Hinds in Becket on Aug. 14: 
  https://vimeo.com/285353655?ref=fb-share 
  Also covered in iBerkshires.com here: http://www.iberkshires.com/story/58128/Candidates-Double-Down-on-Talking-Points-in-DA-Debate-In-Becket.html 
  
  
• The Berkshire Brigades/CentralLabor Council sponsored debate at the American Legion:
  http://pittsfieldtv.net/CablecastPublicSite/show/29418?channel=3
  
  
• The one sponsored by the NAACP: 
  http://pittsfieldtv.net/CablecastPublicSite/show/29783?channel=3

All three candidates have campaign websites: 

• http://votecaccavielloda.com/
• http://harringtonfordistrictattorney.com/
• https://www.electjudithknight.com/

Profiles of each of the three candidates written by iBerkshires' Andrew McKeever:

 

More About Each Candidate:

 

Harrington Running to Reform District Attorney's...

July 08, 2018 | 05:15AM

If you want things to change, you need something different. That's Andrea Harrington's view when it comes to reforming the criminal justice system. And now, she wants to be that change. She is seeking election as the next district attorney following the retirement of David Capeless.

Caccaviello Leans On Experience in Race for District...

July 07, 2018 | 05:15AM

For Paul Caccaviello, the district attorney's job is a call to service. After 14 years as the first assistant district attorney, Caccaviello is looking to fill the shoes being left by David Capeless, who retired. With some 30 years as a prosecutor, Caccaviello said he has the most experience and qualifications to take over the office.

Knight Pushes Progressive Platform, Experience in DA...

July 06, 2018 | 04:00AM

Judith Knight isn't a natural politician. She's an attorney. She's a defense attorney who has spent years on the other side of a courtroom from a district attorney's office that operated in a way that she doesn't think is for the best. Back in 2006, her frustration boiled over when she watched the district attorney's office prosecute a teenager over minor drug charges and she launched a campaign to take over the office.

OTHER COVERAGE:

• iBerkshires' coverage of Aug. 2 debate in Pittsfield 
• WAMC's district attorney coverage page
• http://www.wamc.org/post/berkshire-da-candidates-clash-over-experience
• http://www.wamc.org/post/democrat-challenging-caccaviello-berkshire-da
• http://www.wamc.org/post/wives-das-past-and-present-wade-berkshire-primary-race
• http://www.wamc.org/post/berkshire-da-explains-campaign-event-hosted-felon

Pot shop plans August opening in Williamstown, projects $350/ounce pricing

From left, Josh Ferranto, Joshua Silver and Brendan McKee Posted by Bill Densmore WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Operators of a marijuana "store" opening in the Colonial Shopping Center in August took questions, some of them politely skeptical, at a public meeting attended by about 22 people on Saturday morning (Sept. 24) at the Williams Inn. The initial opening will serve recreational customers, with medically certified users coming later.   LINK TO READ FULL STORY

VIDEO: Entrepreneur Ralph Brill details "Hobbit-style" Greylock Glen and downtown Adams eco-tech-bike tourism in Bascom Lodge video

ADAMS, Mass. -- Entrepreneur Ralph Brill unveil details of his proposal for a bicycle-and-virtual reality reinvention of Adams' business district -- and a "Hobbit-inspired" Greylock Glen -- in a public discussion atop Mount Greylock.  

Brill's April 6 talk was entitled: "What do Hobbits, Ilvermorny and Bicycle Shops Have in Common in the New Adams." Brill's proposal is pending before town boards and selectmen in Adams and he revealed some details in December. Brill's key argument is that the town needs to embrace the use of the former Adams Memorial Middle School as a hostel and new-media education center in conjunction with the Glen and with bicycle-oriented eco-tourism. He has even suggested the town be renamed, "New Adams" as a way of emphasizing its new focus and image.

Video of the roughly one-hour talk, broken into three segments can be viewed at these YouTube URLs: 

https://youtu.be/_dYJ2IjguXs (Part 1, about 11 minutes) 

 

https://youtu.be/QpslJ1QzxS0  (Part 2, about 25 minutes) 

 

https://youtu.be/16FDK84n1Rs  (Part 3, about 20 minutes) 

RALPH BRILL ASSOCIATES
Ralph Brill, President
Box 786
North Adams, MA 01247-0786
413.664 4353
[email protected]

RELATED LINKS: 

• Entrepreneur Ralph Brill files plans for campsite Phase 1 of Greylock Glen -- with some innovative twists 
• Thirteen firms propose helping build Greylock Glen education, ski center; town now mulls Brill’s eco-reality camping bid; Audubon interest affirmed
  
• J.K. Rowling's fictional wizardry school -- "Ilvermorny" -- enchanting the Berkshires
• First magical convention for Ilvermorny held in June in Adams 

Film, discussion on Saturday about football scholastic head injury -- Williams summarizes review process

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Amid evidence that head-impact sports may cause lasting brain damage to players even in secondary school and college, a retired physician is staging a free feature-film showing and discussion on Saturday at the Milne Public Library in town.  Sports officials from both Williams College and Mount Greylock Regional High School say they can't attend. The reason -- prior engagements. 

However, Williams provided a statement explain its research into the head-injury question. 

"Concussion," a 2015 feature film which chronicles the discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brain of the late Pittsburgh Steeler lineman Mike Webster -- and the National Football League's efforts to downplay its significance -- will be show at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the library free and open to the public, says Nicholas Wright, M.D., an epidemiologist and Williams College graduate. 

Wright has been working for several years since his retirement from New Jersey to Williamstown to alert Williams trustees, sports administrators and school board members at Mount Greylock to the possibility that repeated sub-concussive blows to the head common in tackle football programs may have a compounding effect on the brains of youth.  Wright wrote about his concerns in a Berkshire Eagle op-end last fall, has spoken about it to the Mount Greylock school board, and written to Williams trustees.

But so far, he has had little reaction -- appending to the bottom of another op-ed, """Williams College has denied two requests to provide a representative for interview on these issues." So he decided to show the film.  Already, some students at Williams screened it on campus. 

More than a month ago, Wright emailed and then spoke with Lindsey von Holtz, athletic coordinator at Mount Greylock, and Lisa Melendy, athletic director at Williams. But as of this writing, both had declined Wright's offer to be part of a discussion. Melendy said she has a family engagement. von Holtz is coaching a long-scheduled lacrosse game on Saturday as the film is showing.  Also, Melendy said Williams sports-medicine staff would be covering games at that time.

In an email to Greylock News, von Holtz said: "I hope the event is a success and the turnout is large." 

Williams' media-relations director Mary S. Dettloff, responded for the college on Thursday:

"The college has voluntarily participated and provided data for outside concussion studies. NESCAC has formed a Medical Aspects in Sport Committee that is gathering data, following research, and making recommendations for best practices.  This work is on-going and under constant review at every level.  (coach, sport medicine, athletic directors, and presidents, and medical directors)  The college relies most heavily upon the NCAA Sport Science Institute and the NCAA Medical Safeguards Committee to provide us with cutting-edge research and guidance."

RELATED LINKS:

• Background on the history of the National Football League's handling of brain injury
• Berkshire Eagle story on Dr. Wright's planned testimony
• iBerkshires story on Dr. Wright's testimony and school-board reaction
• WNYT-Channel 13 (Albany, N.Y.,) report on Wright's testimony
• March 1, 2017 op-ed in Berkshire Eagle by Dr. Wright 
• Earlier op/ed in Greylock Independent by Dr. Wright: 
  ""Williams College has denied two requests to provide a representative for interview on these issues.""
  
  Photo of Nick Wright, (to right) courtesy of WNYT-TV, Channel 13