WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The latest iteration of the Select Board last Wednesday reorganized for the 2025-26 session and talked about its priorities for projects it wants the town to tackle over the next 12 months.

 

Stephanie Boyd, one of three returning members of the five-person panel, was elected to serve as chair. Peter Beck and Matt Neely were elected vice chair and secretary, respectively.

 

In one of her first moves as chair, Boyd told her colleagues that she plans to include a portion of each meeting for members to make agenda requests for upcoming meetings.

 

"I just want to say when I chair, I try not to be the boss of the committee, but I can be a bossy person," Boyd joked. "The Select Board really is a team. I don't have more of a voice than anyone else. That's how I want to approach this work.

 

"I think the agenda belongs to all of us."

 

One of the chief functions of the chair — historically, in conjunction with the vice chair and town manager — is to set the agenda for the board's twice-monthly meetings.

 

A special Wednesday meeting was called to get the board off and running after the week before's annual town meeting, after which Beck and Shana Dixon were sworn in as its newest members. Neely, who joined the panel in the middle of last year to fill out the remaining months on a vacated seat, was elected to his first three-year term at the May election.

 

In addition to the three officers on the board, three members accepted assignments to the ex officio seats Select Board members occupy on other town bodies. Dixon, who has served as chair of the Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee, volunteered to serve in the Select Board seat on the committee. Beck signed up to serve on the Community Preservation Committee, and Boyd will join the board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust.

 

As for the Select Board itself, Boyd encouraged her colleagues to come up with ideas that they want to address, either as an elected body or through town staff. In the strong town manager form of government, the elected board supervises the manager.

 

"I wanted us to start discussing about priorities and thinking about what we'd like to accomplish this year or what you see out there," Boyd said. "We will continue this discussion throughout the year, but I thought it would be a good way to start."

 

Jeffrey Johnson, who is in his second term on the board, pointed to the list of goals the 2024-25 board established at a "retreat" it held last June. He noted that some of the items on the to-do list have been completed.

 

To prompt discussion about goals for the coming year, Boyd sent the other members links to the comprehensive plan produced by a committee she chaired along with Beck that started work when both were members of the Planning Board, which has jurisdiction over the plan.

 

"I find this document is very useful," Boyd said. "Even though I've read this document many times, I still go back and say, ‘Maybe we should work on this [item].' "

 

Town Manager Bob Menicocci told the board that a major priority for his office is continuing to maintain a balanced budget while meeting the changing needs of the community and adjusting to rising costs. Growing the tax base is seen as one way to address the issue.

 

"The town is very fiscally sound and has been for a long time," Menicocci said. "What I came into was a very healthy balance sheet, very healthy levy capacity. But there's always a thirst to do more. We want more services, more offerings for the community.

 

"Economic development … in the past, there's been committees and reports written. In the Berkshires, there have been many efforts the last 40 or 50 years around what we can do to help ourselves. Having a constant focus on that is important. … We're very lean in Town Hall. We don't have an economic development director. We have access to regional services that we can talk about how we want to access more. We could definitely raise our hand to get in line for everything we could."

 

Neely told the board there are volunteers trying to develop strategies for economic development.

 

"I'm trying to work with a non-official group on business development in town," Neely said. "It's not an official committee yet. It could be.

 

"I don't have anything to share [about the group's work]. We're just getting together … just trying to talk about this and raise the issue."

 

Most of the issues raised at Wednesday's meeting were tied to specific elements of the comprehensive plan.

 

"One focus I have is on inclusive history," Dixon said. "I was looking at [the plan] talking about acknowledging the history of everyone who contributed, from European settlers to every kind of demographic you could imagine.

 

"I know the Historical Commission was working previously on signage. I'm interested in circling back to where they are."

 

Boyd agreed and pointed out that Dixon's continued work on the DIRE Committee will connect to that initiative.

 

Dixon also pointed out that the plan talks about temporary and permanent art installations.

 

"I know as a community, we haven't been doing that," Dixon said. "When you go to Great Barrington or Pittsfield, they have art from different artists. I don't know if that's something we could do."

 

Menicocci said there are efforts underway to collaborate with the town's art institutions on public art, and he wants to see an installation in conjunction with a planned fitness pad off Stetson Road.

 

He said a local business is looking into doing a large-scale mural on its property, a proposal that coincides with the town revamping its approval process for public displays to replace its currently defunct Sign Commission.

 

Johnson singled out a line in the plan about pursuing new or improved municipal facilities, though he acknowledged that is a longer term action item that dovetails with the work of the Finance Committee's recent work on debt planning.

 

Likewise, Beck talked about infrastructure work in the comprehensive plan related to the goal of making the town a more walkable community and echoed Johnson's priority.

 

"Our DPW and other departments do an amazing job with prioritizing already, but to make sure to make their jobs easier, we have to have a clear, long-range capital improvement plan so we know: How long do we think [town hall] is going to last without a major renovation, the library, the sidewalks in order [of need], the streets in order — just for the sake of our departments."

 

Dixon asked Boyd how she envisioned moving forward on the board member's various priorities. It was agreed that one strategy will be to find members with like interest and work in groups of two outside of meetings to develop concrete initiatives to bring back to the full group.

 

And Boyd said that Wednesday's discussion was meant to be just the start of a conversation on what those priorities should be.

 

"I don't want us to commit to anything tonight," Boyd said. "It will take some time to think about it. We can take the things we highlighted, and I can figure out a plan to see who's doing it or who can do it.

 

"I would like to bring this back possibly every meeting to see who is doing what, what needs to be done. Some of it might just be in [Menicocci's] hands. Or some of it might need to go to other committees."