|
Hancock Suing Berkshire Wind Over PILOT PaymentsBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:13PM / Tuesday, March 03, 2015 | |
 HANCOCK, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday decided to authorize the town's attorney to sue Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp. for back payments from the utility's wind turbine farm on Brodie Mountain.
The action is the latest step in a dispute that stretches back to 2013, the last year of a three-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement between the town and the eastern Massachusetts power cooperative.
On Tuesday afternoon, the utility said it has been negotiating with the town in good faith and was disappointed by the board's noontime decision.
"Litigation will increase costs unnecessarily for the town and BWPCC," the utility wrote in a
0 Comments
>> Read More |
Williamstown Ag Commission Weighs in on Livestock Bylaw ProposalBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
02:28AM / Tuesday, February 17, 2015 | |
 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Agricultural Commisssion decided last week to develop suggestions to help the Board of Health develop a set of regulations governing livestock keeping. The commission held a public hearing attended by Health Inspector Jeffrey Kennedy at which he explained the rationale for the proposed addition to the town code and heard reaction — mostly criticism — from farmers on the commission and in the audience. "About 10 years ago, the Board of Health looked at what we had for minimal standards," Kennedy said. "We put it away because the larger farms in town, the professional farmers, were self-governing. "Over the 8 Comments
>> Read More |
Williamstown First Congregation Looks at Carbon Divestment | 05:29PM / Tuesday, February 10, 2015 | |
 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — First Congregational Church will consider the issues of institutional and private divestment from carbon-based companies at events on Sunday, Feb. 22, and Sunday, March 1.
Divestment is one of a number of responses to a deep concern about global climate change intensified by human activities that release carbon into the atmosphere.
At the 10 a.m. service on Feb. 22, the Rev. James Antal, president of the United Church of Christ Massachusetts Conference, will preach on "Moving Toward a Lasting Foundation Through Divestment." The UCC has divested nationally and in the state.
Following the service and a period for coffee, at 11:20 in Fellowship Hall,
8 Comments
>> Read More |
Williamstown Ag Commission to Discuss Proposed Livestock BylawBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:12AM / Tuesday, February 10, 2015 | |
 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town's Agricultural Commission on Tuesday evening will take a look at a town bylaw proposal that has been in the works for years. The Board of Health has a draft proposal titled "Stables and Livestock Keeping," and it is seeking input from the Ag Commission before putting the bylaw on the books. "It was drafted, I want to say, 10 years ago," Health Inspector Jeffrey Kennedy said. "This was before there was an ag commission." Kennedy said the Board of Health, which he advises, wants to take advantage of the expertise of the Agricultural Commission. "This is still basically the draft we 8 Comments
>> Read More |
Williamstown Adds Electric Car Charging StationBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:45AM / Friday, January 23, 2015 | |
 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — David Richardson may never use the new electric car charging station at the bottom of Spring Street. But he could not be happier that it is there. "I live about 10 miles from campus, and my car, under ideal circumstances, gets a 40-mile range on a charge," Richardson, a chemistry professor at Williams College, said this week. "Unless I run errands, that fits most of the time in my charge boundaries. "I applaud the town for being this forward looking to install this device, but I’d almost never use it. … But for colleagues or other folks coming into Williamstown with significantly larger driving distances, 8 Comments
>> Read More |
Berkshire County Residents Hear Concerns About Kinder Morgan Pipeline By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
03:21AM / Saturday, January 17, 2015 | |
 LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — North County citizens packed Lanesborough Town Hall on Thursday night for an informational meeting about the proposed Kinder Morgan gas pipeline. Jane Winn of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team lead the meeting that focused on how the natural gas pipeline could affect residents. It was followed by a Q&A. Originally, the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, which will carry natural gas from Marcellus Shale territory in Pennsylvania, through New York, Massachusetts, and Maine, was planned to run through Lenox and Richmond. However, after strong resistance a section of the pipeline was rerouted north, through Hancock, Lanesborough, Cheshire, Dalton, Hinsdale and
8 Comments
>> Read More |
Williamstown Urged to Oppose Pipeline; Activists Set Info MeetingsBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:27PM / Tuesday, January 13, 2015 | |
 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A group of residents came to Monday's Board of Selectmen meeting to ask town officials to attend another meeting.
They had more on their minds, actually. They really want the board to endorse a resolution opposing a proposed gas pipeline that would run through Northern Berkshire County.
Although no part of the route would go through Williamstown itself, the threat it poses to the county is everyone's problem, activists say. And two of those activists were at Town Hall on Monday night to encourage the selectmen to attend one of five upcoming informational sessions about Kinder Morgan's Northeast Energy Direct project.
The first is Thursday, Jan.
8 Comments
>> Read More |
Williamstown Community Preservation Committee Queries 2015 ApplicantsBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
02:42AM / Thursday, January 08, 2015 | |
 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Community Preservation Commission on Tuesday evening heard from four applicants seeking a combined total of about $64,000 in Community Preservation Act funds. The town's Conservation Commission, the Williamstown Historical Museum, the Trustees of Reservations and Sand Springs Pool each are seeking between $10,000 and $27,000 to pay for projects that the applicants argue fall under the provisions of the act. The committee did not deliberate about the merits of any of the proposals on Tuesday night. Instead, it asked each applicant questions that the applicants will answer at the committee's Jan. 20 meeting. Most of the applications 8 Comments
>> Read More |
Holiday Farmers Market Freshens Up WilliamstownBy Rebecca Dravis, iberkshires Staff
09:48AM / Monday, November 24, 2014 | |
 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The calendar says November, but it felt a little bit like summer inside the Towne Field House at Williams College on Sunday. More than 50 vendors filled the gym with fresh produce and other homemade and handmade items at the sixth annual Berkshire Grown Holidays Farmers Market. The market was in Great Barrington on Saturday and Williamstown on Sunday in advance of Thanksgiving; next month, it will again be in Great Barrington on Saturday, Dec. 13, and Williamstown on Sunday, Dec. 14. The markets feature locally grown and produced foods and gifts, plus live music, lunch fare and activities for children, during months when most farmers markets are not open in the
8 Comments
>> Read More |
The Independent Investor: The Pipeline Made SimpleBy Bill Schmick,
08:00PM / Friday, November 21, 2014 | |
 The U.S. Senate rejected passage of the Keystone Pipeline by one vote this week. The controversial energy plan will be back on the agenda, however, in January. For most of us, separating fact from fiction as both sides alter the facts is difficult at best, but here are some things we do know.
First, we can describe the project. The proposed Keystone XL project consists of an 875-mile stretch of pipeline and related facilities that will transport 830,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Alberta, Canada, through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. It will then connect to existing pipeline facilities that flow through Nebraska, Oklahoma and ultimately down to the Texas Gulf Coast
0 Comments
Read More >> |
|
|
MEMBER SIGN IN
