image description
This year's town meeting was sparser than normal with only 101 town meeting members attending.
image description
Town officials say the pledge.
image description
Moderator Edward Driscoll explains the town meeting format.

Adams Town Meeting Approves All Warrant Articles

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

Town Clerk Haley Meczywor presents the town report to Roy Thompson. The report was dedicated to Thompson for his long service to the town as a volunteer and official.

ADAMS, Mass. — Town meeting on Monday approved a laundry list of spending items, including a $7,791,369 town budget and a $5,446,707 regional school assessment.

A ban on plastic bags, the first appropriation from the newly established economic development fund and the annual citizen's petition requesting $5,000 for Bowe Field generated the most comment and debate although ultimately passing with ease.

Moderator Edward Driscoll moved the 101 town meeting members who attended through the 36-page warrant as quickly as possible in the steamy C.T. Plunkett School auditorium. All but seven articles passed without discussion by unanimous voice vote.

Both budgets were held but passed unanimously after some questioning.

It was two articles at the tail end of the meeting that provoked the most comments and debate: the use of $40,000 in economic development funds and the annual $5,000 given to the Adams Agricultural Fair for improvements at Bowe Field.  

Town meeting member Stephen Melito said he'd advocated "very forcefully" at last year's town meeting for an economic development commission and fund. Those had passed but he was concerned that the first disbursement of monies set aside for development were being largely used by the Greylock Glen project.

The town is expecting about $80,000 a year from the local surcharge on meals and rooms; $40,000 is available at this point for use. Of that, some $30,000 was targeted to the glen and $10,000 for the downtown.

"Is it going to be 75 percent every year?" asked Melito.

"We are at a critical point with the Greylock Glen project," said Community Development Director Donna Cesan, who's been shepherding the project for the past decade. "We're about one to two weeks away of issuing a request for proposals for the campground, one of the major components of the glen project."

An RFP for construction of an 11,000 square-foot outdoors center is also in the making; both will require funds for legal counsel, permitting and oversight, she said.

The town holds a 99-year lease from the state on 60 acres that have been targeted for development for decades. The town is the most recent developer of the land and Cesan said the several hundred thousand the town has invested so far has reaped some $5.6 million in return on elements that benefit it beyond the glen.

"This project hasn't cost us anything," she said to applause. "We are a moneymaker for the town."

Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco said the glen is the town's highest priority at the moment but thought it would be completed in five years and wouldn't need more support.

Town meeting member Myra Wilk, a former selectman, held the Aggie Fair's citizen's petition as a matter of principle. She said she supports the fair but there are other groups also working to attract visitors that are not being supported the same way.

"The exclusivity of funding one group over another is a problem for me," she said. "I think it's about time we stop favoring one organization or the appearance of favoring one organization."

Fair President Patricia Wojcik said the funds weren't for the fair but to support Bowe Field, property owned by the town. Last year work had been done on the bleachers and this year it will be fencing and electrical.  "It's neverending," she said.

Town meeting member Michael Mach called Bowe Field "it a jewel ... it's something that gets people into town. I think it behooves us to keep this field up."


But another member, Marshall Taylor, said the funding should be in the recreation budget. He didn't think the field was being kept up all that well. "Make it part of the parks and recreation budget," he said.

Town meeting members began to call the question as he was speaking, and Mazzucco stepped in to say the reason it's separately funded is because officials can't decide how to approach it. The town pays for its small work force to maintain the other fields but the Aggie Fair Committee takes care of Bowe Field.

The petition passed overwhelmingly but was the only article to garner some no votes.

Town meeting member Donald Sommer, a former selectman and owner of Halflinger Haus, stood to say he was in support of the plastic bag ban but wondered why the town didn't also ban styrofoam.

Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey Snoonian said the town was taking "baby steps" in instituting the bans after speaking with those in the retail and restaurant industry. The larger outlets — Rite Aid Pharmacy, Big Y and Dollar General — were prepared for the changeover since it's been spreading across the state.

Within the next year or so, non-polystyrene options for restaurants are expected to be more widely available, said Snoonian, to the point at which Styrofoam may not even be offered in the state.

The bag ban is only for large retail from the register and is not designed to affect smaller outlets, restaurants or bagged goods within the supermarket. The ban will be overseen by inspection services — either the Board of Health or the building commissioner.

"The industry is changing and the plastic bags we use now, if you see one in 10 years, it will be on a fence behind Ed's house," joked health Chairman Bruce Shepley referring to a comment made by Driscoll.

Town meeting member Jeffrey Levesque wanted answers on the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District's maintenance budget and a second article for spending $130,000 in town money on a new roof and related repairs for Plunkett's boiler room.

Levesque thought since the school district has a $19 million budget it should take care of maintenance and queried why the buildings needed such repairs. School Committee Chairman Paul Butler said the buildings naturally get worn even with regular maintenance.  

"I would be glad to spend more money on maintenance if the towns would like us to ... but our primary mission is to educate the students," he said.

Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey Snoonian reminded town meeting that Plunkett School belonged to the town and it was appropriate for the town to help take care of it.

Town meeting member Starr Baker questioned the town's commitment and ability to tackle flood chute repairs, pointing the minimal $600 put aside in the town's operating budget and the $70,000 in the capital improvement plan.

There are "islands" in the main chute, he said, and overgrown spillways in the smaller catch basins that run under the North Summer and Columbia Street neighborhoods.

"If we ever have another 100-year-old flood those basements are going to be in trouble," he said. "Those waterways were put there a hundred years ago for a purpose."


Town Clerk Haley Meczywor hugs Roy Thompson.

Mazzucco said the town could spend more on the waterways but doesn't have it. The Department of Public Works does the best it can, he said, and the $600 for repairs may not be a lot but it shows the town is trying, for grant purposes. The town will be using seasonal workers on the chutes this summer and he anticipates spending a lot in the next year or so on the basins under Jordan Street.

"If we had five more guys, we could do flood chute repairs all day along," he said.

In other business:

Town meeting applauded the dedication of the town report to longtime civic activist Roy Thompson. The Adams native officiated at local youth sports leagues and served with the Adams Alerts for 26 years. He has also served on the Redevelopment Authority and the Board of Health and as a town meeting member. He is an officer of Northern Berkshire Community Television and hosts the show "Hardline." He also established Adams Friends of Animals, a food pantry for pets, and established a scholarship for students interested in veterinary medicine or other animal subjects. He received the Margery and William Barrett Public Service Award in 2010.

Town meeting re-appointed Stanley J. Ziemba Jr. and Victor Ziemba as fence viewers and Donald Delmolino and Walter Slosek as measurers of wood and bark.


Tags: fiscal 2017,   town meeting 2016,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Adams Sees No Races So Far

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — With less than a week left before nomination papers are due, there are currently no contested seats.
 
Only selectman incumbent John Duval has returned papers. Selectman Howard Rosenberg has decided not to seek re-election. 
 
Rosenberg, who was elected in 2021, said he has chosen not to run again to make room for younger candidates.
 
"I feel strongly, we need younger people running for public office,  as the future of our town lies within the younger  generation. The world is so fundamentally different today and rapidly changing to become even more so. I believe we need people who are less interested in trying to bring back the past, then in paving the way for a promising future. The younger generation can know that they can stay here and have a voice without having to leave for opportunities elsewhere," he said.
 
The only person to return papers so far is former member the board Donald Sommer. Sommer served as a selectman from 2007 to 2010 and before that was a member of the School Committee and the Redevelopment Authority. He ran unsuccessfully for selectman in 2019 and again in 2021 but dropped out of before the election.
 
Incumbent Moderator Myra Wilk and Town Clerk Haley Meczywor have returned papers for their respective positions.
 
Assessor Paula Wheeler has returned papers and incumbents James Loughman and Eugene Michalenko have returned papers for library trustees.
 
View Full Story

More Adams Stories