LINK TO THE FULL WARRANT FOR THE OCTOBER 19 SPECIAL TOWN MEETING
ARTICLE 1: $20 MILLION BORROWING REQUEST FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT AND AVERY LANE PUMP STATION IMPROVEMENTS
At an August 26th meeting the Selectboard, in their capacity as sewer commissioners for the town, were presented with DPC Engineering’s findings on the state of the GB wastewater treatment plant and its recommendations for extensive upgrades to ensure the system’s sustainability.
CTSB VIDEO OF THAT MEETING HERE
In that presentation DPC Engineer Justin Skelly said, regarding the current situation at the treatment plant and Avery Lane pump station:
“It’s 1970s era equipment that is no longer dependable…..There’s steel that is rotting out, concrete that’s degraded…..There’s just a lot of elements that we as engineers design things to have a certain useful life, and there’s a lot of equipment and structures that have just simply hit or exceeded that point.”
Out of this meeting emerged the imperative to hold a special town meeting and to include this borrowing as the first, priority item on the warrant.
The full Finance Committee and Selectboard approved its inclusion on the warrant as written.
***
ARTICLE 2: CLEAN-UP COSTS AT THE FORMER COOK’S GARAGE AT 426 PARK STREET IN HOUSATONIC, PART OF WHICH HAS FALLEN INTO THE HOUSATONIC RIVER
In late August Eric Gabriel was alerted the Town Manager to the partial collapse of the former Cook’s Garage into the Housatonic River. The dilapidated brick building, part of the Monument Mills complex, directly abuts the river, and the town acquired it through foreclosure on June 7, 2018. An assessment conducted later that year found lead and asbestos, with 75% of a second-floor section inaccessible.
Four above-ground tanks and some soil were removed in 2019–2020, but COVID paused that work, and any attention that had begun to be repaid to improving the property starting in 2023 was dropped when the previous town manager left in 2024.
The GB Selectboard discussed Cook’s Garage at their September 14 meeting, whose summary is here, with police drone footage shown at 1:08:48.
The debris in the water contains asbestos and lead, and no DPW or Great Barrington fire staff hold the required certification for handling asbestos and lead. The debris remains in the water.
The three goals as she laid them out are to:
Address the immediate risk to the building and the health of the river.
Stabilize the building for safety and disposition.
Put the building up for sale as is, transferring the liability and costs associated.
Article 2 addresses the first two prioirities.
[The cost to demolish the building is estimated, according to Town Manager Liz Hartsgrove, “in the multiple millions.”]
Votes on funding requests coming from the town’s stabilization fund require a two-thirds vote.
***
ARTICLE 3: SIMPLE TYPO (OR ‘SCRIVENER’S ERROR’) CORRECTION, AS THE FISCAL YEAR REFERENCED IN PRIOR WARRANT FOR FIREFIGHTER SALARIES WAS INCORRECT
This is just to correct a one-number typo made in the last warrant.
***
ARTICLE 4: REQUEST TO PAY SMALL INVOICES FROM PRIOR FISCAL YEAR TO RAILROAD STREET YOUTH PROJECT AND EAGLE SHOE AND BOOT
This is a bookkeeping item to finish out fiscal year 2026.
***
ARTICLE 5: ZONING CHANGE TO REMOVE THE 45-ROOM CAP ON MOTELS AND HOTELS
The hotel room cap has become a live question, and a warrant article, as the town has been moving more aggressively to seek out revenue to pay for its ever-mounting costs.
The 45-room max has been a limiting factor for hoteliers looking to build in town, so the reason for this article is to make Great Barrington more appealing to would-be hotel and motel operators, including, presumably, Vijay and Chrystal Mahida, the owners of 79 Bridge Street, the old Searles School property, which has sat empty for years rather than been repurposed as a hotel.
Article 5 would change a zoning law to remove the 45-room limit and place no ceiling on the maximum number of allowable rooms.
***
ARTICLE 6: SBAS REQUEST FOR $47,838 FOR THE TOWN’S SHARE OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2027 CAPITAL ASSESSMENT FOR TWO REPLACEMENT AMBULANCES
Article 6 is a citizens’ petition filed by Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad board member Peter Most, and asks voters to appropriate $47,838, Great Barrington’s fiscal year 2027 share of two new ambulances, each costing approximately half a million dollars.
SBAS has identified the capital stabilization fund as the source of their request, which requires a majority vote.
The SBAS request is a second attempt to get the same funds appropriated after failing during the regular town meeting. Budget materials presented to the squad’s six member towns last November listed Great Barrington’s share in two separate lines: $414,676 for operations and $47,838 for ambulance capital. Alford, Egremont, Monterey, Mount Washington and Sheffield each approved their capital shares at their annual town meetings in May. Great Barrington is the only town that hasn’t.
51-year SBAS volunteer and board president Ken Schumacher had this to say on the reasoning behind the purchase of two new ambulances: “All we’re trying to do is maintain top level service with the best equipment.”
At the May 2 Annual Town Meeting, the warrant offered SBAS $327,777 for operations, a 7.5% increase over last year, but short of the $414,676 the squad requested, with the Selectboard and Finance Committee calling a 36% jump unsustainable.
A separate citizens’ petition seeking money toward the new ambulances was tabled in May, and the Finance Committee indicated that it would revisit the capital request once a contract between the town and squad was in place. At a June 29 Special Town Meeting, voters approved another $86,899, bringing the operating appropriation to the full $414,676, and on June 30, Town Manager Liz Hartsgrove and SBAS signed a three-year contract fixing annual increases at the 7.5% rate. But that contract covers only operations, so SBAS still has this outstanding capital request.
SBAS will make up the difference on the cost of the two ambulances through private fundraising. A summer concert raised nearly $98,000 and they recently sent out a mail appeal.