Stockbridge Selectboard Meeting, September 17, 2026

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[0:00] Good evening. Welcome to the meeting for September 17th, 2026. Open meeting pursuant to MGLC30A20F. After notifying the chair of a public of the Public policy, any person may record or transmit this open meeting. This hybrid meeting is being recorded by the Town of Stockbridge. The names of members participating remotely will be announced.
[0:27] Any member of the public wishing to speak was first received permission from the chair. The general items listed are those reasonably anticipated by the chair, but not all may be discussed, and other topics not listed may be brought up for discussion by the public body as rated by law.
[0:48] Make a motion to approve the minutes of September 3rd. All in favor? Aye aye aye. Aye. Comment. Anita. Anita, do you have a question? Yes, but am I unmuted now? Yes. Okay, good. That's the first question I need.
[1:22] And, I'd like to know, would you please provide an update on when Stockbridge residents will get to vote on whether to accept the seasonal community designation that's created by the Massachusetts Affordable Homes Act, which recognizes communities that seem seasonal, swings in employment and housing demands, including in the Berkshires, Cape Cod and the islands. So towns were more than 40% of their housing stock as seasonal were identified.
[1:54] And it includes Stockbridge, and IT residents have to vote and a town meeting on one whether or not to accept the designation. Great Barrington, Monterey, Sheffield. What separate and Egremont have already voted to accept, and other towns such as Becket have a for a vote soon.
[2:17] But anyway, that bitch chose not to place the acceptance article on the town meeting warrant last spring. It's my understanding that the vote was delayed until the town received, a poor. The results of a study by Berkshire Regional Planning Center that was supposed to explain the pros and cons of excepting the designation, was my understanding. I had a grant to get this report from Berkshire Regional Planning.
[2:47] So, and a public hearing would then be held to discuss the results, followed by a special town meeting so that residents would be able to vote on whether to accept the designation.
[3:16] So my question, has the town received this report from Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, and if so, who hasn't been shared with? When we get to see it? Will the public get to see it? We can't answer. Right okay I understand, I'm sorry. I understand that it's not on tonight's agenda, but you know, any little comment you could throw in and hopefully this will be addressed at an upcoming meeting. But I wanted to put my questions out there.
[3:37] And, has the town received the report? Who has it been shared with? When will it be shared with the public? Will there be a public hearing? And then when will a special town meeting be held? So town residents must vote at a town meeting on whether or not to accept the designation. And also, this is different.
[4:00] The seasonal communities thing designation is different from residential tax exemption, which is voted on only by select board members. I understand that, and but will there be a discussion on the T before the Select board votes on it? Unless you already did.
[4:22] But so those are my questions, and I hope that you can put this on a coming agenda as soon as possible. I don't think there's at this time there's no deadline as to when the town has to vote. Or I couldn't find one, but the sooner the better.
[4:40] Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Public comment? Okay. See? Hey, Harvey, Waller's not I. I see no, back to him if he's there. Okay. Take action on one day. Alcohol line and malt license for hot plate. Groovy company at Paksha Garden Center. Harvest Festival, October 10th and 11th, from 10 a.m.
[5:08] to 5 p.m. each day. Back, back. Second. All those in favor? Aye aye aye. Take action on one day. Alcohol and wine and license for Partridge Mountain Brewery at Birch Garden Center. Harvest Festival, October 10th in October 11th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Make a motion to our Sept second. I take action.
[5:38] One day I'll call and wine license for five census events and designed LLC Aperture Garden Center Harvest Festival October 10th and October 11th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day I make a motion to our Sept a second favor by. All right. If you went to South County Connector, like you don't have a lot to say.
[6:06] Myself and Jamie attended the last meeting. The first meeting of the new arty a C that's been established by Great Barrington. Most of it centered around just establishment of what the committee would look like. They really didn't get into any subsequent discussion on what's happening with the program itself.
[6:27] I know I did bring up at the end, as to when could we see or potentially look at a proposed IMA and whether or not the IMA is a shared service or is it strictly a contract for service? The difference is, is that shared service usually has some type of governmental control, such as us in West Stockbridge,
[6:49] where we're sharing an oversight board while contracted services similar to what we do with Lee, where we just pay Lee to cover us with ambulance. But we have no say in their operation, so we just need to know which one it is, what, what are the parameters of it and the rest.
[7:06] And then whether or not we want to be a part of it. So financial impact and there's a finding it's, you know in the budget already. But the program has definitely changed.
[7:27] I still I've spoken a few times to the state and haven't yet got confirmation as to what would happen with the vans if we were to so choose not to participate. So I'm still trying to get that answered, but as of right now, there's really no decision before the Select board at this point. I'm hoping that soon we'll see exactly what is being proposed.
[7:45] And once we see what is being proposed, then we can make some decisions. So okay. Yeah. And I think if you have any you were at the meeting and I did bring up just Georgia brought it up to about our seniors and handicapped and people who are working, getting rides.
[8:02] But I sort of it was vague that the service is still running, but I'm still not convinced that everyone's getting the rides they need.
[8:15] But that was the answer I got, and I think we did. I know I did question even though the programs up and running, we know with the amount of lack of staff in the rest that the non the rate of refusal was 40% that we last knew and they're still short staffed.
[8:32] And the further you go out from the heart, the more the denial rate is. So, you know, it is concerning and we're still just monitoring. So I think we just continue to leave this on until we get some more factual information and then we can we don't know what about the. They don't know what the radius Rostock which non transport.
[8:51] Nothing. Nothing. We really don't know. It's being redone and we're waiting to see. I mean I would assume that right now because they haven't had full, they've had the grant in place so they haven't had to pay all the positions yet. So I would think that they're okay.
[9:11] But for us we just need to know exactly what's being proposed before we can make a decision. So definitely hopefully we'll see something soon. So I recommend just leaving this on the agenda. We'll update as it goes along and go from there okay. All right.
[9:29] If you would discuss traffic issues at the Main Street fire station, we received letters from the membership and from the fire chief, about concerns about the, traffic cutting through the Central Fire Station property. Oh, we are getting busier and busier up there with our own staff now. More often there, you know, we're running trainings and other things.
[9:55] So I understand there's a lot more activity and going to be more activity as we move into an M.S. thing. I don't think we have to make any decisions tonight, but this was coming before you from concerns from the membership of just the cut through. There is a deeded right for the property to get access behind, but that just means they need to have access to it.
[10:19] But we may need to look at the lot itself and and the cut through as to whether or not it's creating any safety issues. You know, the chief and the membership won't think that, you know, that this is a issue. It is an issue. Yeah. I tried to block that off back in my time and refused.
[10:40] Can we market or quote it off or not? Well, that becomes the reality for signage. First, I don't see any reason why we can't do the sign this right now, right? Yeah. And can the because there is that driveway.
[11:01] Can they just use the street like that way instead of coming through the the fire station parking lot? I believe we can legally probably because that's the access to the driveway. We're not denying all we have to do, even if we were to put a gate, as long as you give access, if there was anything to go up there, we would have to ensure that the family who has rights through that gate gets access.
[11:18] But other than that, it's whether or not we want through traffic cutting through. You know, we get as, as was stated there, there's a number of cars that cut through to get over to Vine Street and vice versa through the lot when we've had with the hoses, you know, with our crew, a lot of times
[11:36] if they're on and there's no collar, nothing there training today, I was up there and they were training, practicing, getting in and out of their gear, you know, because you try to be as quick as you can to get in and out. You know, they've had hose tests, other things. So it's just one of those things.
[11:52] Should they be designating the area or not? What I can do is work with the the department itself and come back with a plan exactly where to put some signage, and we can start with signage, that's what the first and then go from there. Right. So I'll make a motion.
[12:09] We go ahead with allowing them to do signage. Do you want me to come back with a plan of exactly what signage, where we're going to put it, everything else, or do you want us to proceed? Sorry. No.
[12:30] I mean, I like the idea of signage, but I also would like to, ask what their needs are to access their property. Right. The homeowners. Because I know that if they're coming out and they want to go north, they may come through and go up the north driveway, but they have a right to pass through. So, yes, I think right now it'd be an authorized vehicles.
[12:58] And somehow we'd identify with their vehicles as authorized. Anybody going up behind would be unauthorized vehicle. So okay, we're going to try to prevent through traffic because the last thing we want is for one of our firefighters to get hit through there. Okay.
[13:18] And that was going to be for for years, hopefully as a new station 3 or 4 years. Well, that's just yeah. Let's see. And then do you, do they order assign the order sign. Highway order sign? Well, we'll probably probably be through highway because we have an account with, I forget the name of the company that most of our signage. I think it's palm aligned. Yeah.
[13:38] Okay. So more than likely, I mean, that's just a minor thing. If you guys want me to just proceed with signage, I can just work with the fire department on signage with it. If you would like me to come back with a plan for location of signage, I can bring it back. That's up to you.
[13:52] I don't think it's that because right now we're just trying to get motorists to not use it just to put a massive town signs. Yeah, right. And then. But we should the property owners we will I will regarding we're putting the signs up and it doesn't affect them. Yeah. Right, right okay.
[14:12] But mindful if the firemen are in the truck for over a long time. Yeah. And I can counter that. But it's very kind of them to donate the property to put the fire station there to begin with. I wasn't sure if we had anybody, that wanted to comment on this because these are. All right.
[14:32] Any comments on public? Okay. Talk to them in a bird project. We continue to seek the hydraulic waiver. So I just wanted you guys to see the correspondences between the towns and the town and the department and the diagrams. You know, we're still looking to, you know, use where we are and not change configuration or anything else.
[15:00] One of the big things is with the stream crossing standards, they want to your abutments outside the floodplains, which would create a monstrous bridge there. We want to keep the bridge where it is within the aspect. So we're we can.
[15:18] I just wanted you to be aware of the correspondence and see the correspondence that are happening between our engineers and the state seen. What's interesting is only like twice a lot. Got up, got up to the bridge. Yes, but it over goes over the course. So. Right. Isn't it real? It isn't the whole river. It's a the. So the pressure goes way out. Way out. It's not the whole river pressure.
[15:41] And I think that helps us a lot. Yes. And the big point what do you draw the plane of. Right. If the whole you got to start way at the corner. Yeah. I mean if the water was physically hitting the bridge we would be in a bridge would be gone. It would just say, no, you're not.
[15:55] Because we it gets to a certain right below the bridge and then it starts going over the roadway. You'd have to have so much water to go up anymore because it has that optional floodplain to go. And by then that area also is very slow.
[16:13] It's not like out here, this is this is rocking and down at the golf course. It spans out and becomes a slower overall flow. So we haven't been denied. Right. But the engineers understand that. What's that. The engineers do understand our do we just have to be forceful. Yes. States engineer to. Yeah. Right. Yes. Sometimes they need to come out and look at things.
[16:37] Yes, yes. Understand? Yes. And we have been successful on on rattlesnake. We were able to convince them not to make it a bridge on a dirt road and that based on the screen water, the stream crossing standards. So this is a constant thing.
[16:56] I know there was an article today about why bridges cost so much and that and this is one of those. Yeah. And this is one where if we had to pull it back outside to meet the current standards, it would we think it's still safe within the 1500 year flood, just because it will go over the roadway before it will hit the bridge.
[17:12] And therefore, we should be able to get the hydraulic waiver and allow the bridge to just just have us primarily replace the superstructure. There is some work below sheathing to protect the abutments, but we don't want to move the bridge. I know the golf course does not want to see the bridge move and that.
[17:31] So I think we're all in agreement and I will just keep you updated. What I figure is, as we get more information or reports, whenever there's a report, and I will make sure you guys are aware of it so you can just see what's happening as far as the bridge. Okay, good. Okay. See if anybody wants any comment from the public on the bridge.
[17:51] Okay. See you. None. Sorry. When might we get here? More information. I wish I could say one to say get back to us. They'll do is they'll get back to us and say, well, we want a B. And in the past, probably six months or before, they wanted certain hydro.
[18:11] So we actually had a boring we had to do borings around the bridge because they need us to. So it depends on what they come back and ask us to do. And then we basically in order to get the waiver, we have to provide them with that documentation.
[18:30] So, we just continue to plug along, answer their questions, and hopefully they'll say, okay, now you can proceed with the waiver. Right? Okay. You can proceed with the waiver request. This is just to get approval to bring the waiver forward. Because they determined that the bridge was getting hit, they'd say, you can't have a waiter. Okay. So it's a it's an interesting process.
[18:50] And that I said, well, okay. Yeah that's one step. One step. So fingers crossed we continue to add ask. It is a priority. We understand we want that bridge restored or replace the superstructure because of the right underneath. Before we don't want that bridge to be closed.
[19:12] We started this two years ago and we're still trying to get that waiver. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Fire department, fire chief resignation, effective October 31st in leadership discussion regarding the continuity of the fire and EMS operation and turn leadership in the process for recruitment of the new fire chief. Fire Chief Vincent Foley has submitted his resignation. Effect of October 31st, 2026.
[19:46] Chief Gary Foley is voluntarily leaving his employment with the Stockbridge Fire Department. The town thanks Chief Gary Foley for his service and appreciates his continued cooperation as the department transitions to new leadership, the town will work closely with West Stockbridge and the paid and volunteer members of the department to ensure continuity of fire and EMS services.
[20:13] Additional information regarding interim leadership and the process moving forward will be provided as arrangements are finalized. The town wishes Chief Gary Foley well in his future endeavors would make a motion reshuffle. Resignation. Second, what was the favor? I, I I. Great. So now we move on to what are our next steps.
[20:44] So our next steps, we we need to go out and do a comprehensive search for a new fire chief. That's going to take time. And that is something we can figure out over the next couple of meetings. Get update the job. I'll pull the job description. I'll get it to you guys. We can update it.
[20:59] We can check all those things and make sure that we're working toward that. The immediacy is, is that November 1st we won't have a fire chief and we have to appoint somebody as acting chief. So some of those bring questions of how do we want to approach that? It can be an interim chief.
[21:20] A lot of times when you bring in an interim police chief and interim superintendent, superintendent and interim town administrator, what that would do is allow us to bring somebody from the outside in to continue with the administration of the department, make sure that we stay on task while we begin a comprehensive search.
[21:39] This would also allow individuals that may be within the department interested in plying, that. It wouldn't complicate any search process, because I think there should be an external and internal search at the same time, allowing both internal and external candidates to apply for the position. And this just keeps it neutral.
[22:00] I think that the first step would be is maybe next week, or at least the week after get a meeting of the oversight board with West Stockbridge. So I think we should call that and get that, get them together and then bring a recommendation back at the board is all right.
[22:21] Have me begin working on a recommendation, work with the Oversight Board and get something back to the selectmen. Well, I think we will work cooperatively. West Stockbridge, the final decision as the lead community will fall to this board. And like I said, we basically have six weeks here to solidify. Actually, it's seven because there's five weeks in October.
[22:39] So we have seven weeks to get our interim leadership in place. And then I think over the next month, map out our plans for a comprehensive search.
[23:05] So will there be any overlap between the two? If we do have an interim chief? And I think that we appoint an interim chief for probably like six months, and if there ends up being some overlap or not, you know, typically, yeah, I think there can be overlap on either end than that. And then depending on how the search goes in the rest, you know, we'll we'll play it by ear as we go along.
[23:24] But if we can find an interim that could come in and hold everything together while we begin that search, I think would be the best one. But I think it would be good to talk about it with our colleagues from West Stockbridge and then invite also, it'd be an open meeting of the Oversight Board, and if any volunteers from the companies
[23:38] or individuals want to come and talk about it, have have an open conversation about what do we do next? Yeah. So to be involved. But I like the idea of an interim. So that gives the guys, the guys, you know, some leadership and structure while we move forward.
[23:57] And we do have to have one. We have to have legally. Yes, legally. For we need to have have one. Well, we could pick one of the guys on the fire department, but I think the interim. Yeah, but I think the interim is a better idea right now. And then do a real search for the new leader.
[24:19] Yeah, that's a really good job description. I would think that it would be wise. This is just me to see if the Oversight Board could meet next week. So then you could bring to us.
[24:40] An applicant so that we can move forward. And at least on that and knowing that's done, and then we can work on the oversight board and not the Oversight Board. Excuse me. On the on the panel for a new chief. All right, I could my suggestion fast. Right. We can move quick.
[25:02] I think what it will be is focusing on somebody to come in and run the administrative portion, which you can do. And then the deputy chiefs would perform the operational aspects of the department. And it's actually, they're, they're definitely up to that. So that would definitely fit as a structure.
[25:23] And if you're looking at an admin, we can look everywhere from a temporary chief, a retired chief, somebody who would be interested in coming in and possibly filling that position. So what I will do is I will speak to Chuck's on the oversight board. Well, I'll check your schedule. I'll contact Toby and Mark for West Stockbridge tomorrow.
[25:40] And what I will do is, well, either next week or the beginning of the week after, but definitely before the first, so that we can try to have something to come back to this board to try to finalize the interim part before October 1st. Yeah. And I would say at the latest, by October 15th. Okay.
[25:59] So we need to have this figured out. So and then move then that shift our focus to the search for a permanent replacement. So right. And that's how I will operate I will contact I'll talk to you after this meeting about your schedule and we'll go from there. So yeah okay.
[26:27] Any announcements Jimmy can't think of any motion to adjourn. Any questions? Any questions from what we did. Well, we're supposed to do it in general, you know, because we talked about a topic. Okay. Any questions from the public? Yeah. See you. None. Motion to adjourn. So moved. I oh, I.