NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A Williamstown woman was taken to North Adams Regional Hospital after the car she was driving ran into a porch on West main Street.

Debora A. Harmatz, 50, of Maple Street was westbound at about 2:40 p.m. when her 1996 black Saturn CP left the roadway and rammed into the steps leading up to a porch at 287 West Main St. residence.

A call reporting the crash was made by an employee at the nearby Melissa's Hair & Nail Salon. A nieghbor said he came outside when he heard a loud crash and saw the car.

The Police and Fire departments responded to the scene, as did the North Adams Ambulance. A dog that was in the vehicle reportedly jumped out after the crash and the animal control officer was called.

The Saturn suffered front-end damage and was towed from the scene by Dean's Quality Auto; the wooden steps were demolished and a joist knocked out from the porch, along with other damage. No word if the dog was recovered yet.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A North Adams woman was arraigned Friday morning in Berkshire Superior Court on a drug charge. 

Eden J. Lemaire, 20, of Walnut Street had not-guilty pleas entered on her behalf on single counts of trafficking in Oxycontin and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

She appeared before Judge John A. Agostini, who released her on personal recognizance.

The charges stem from the execution of a search warrant at the Willows Motel in Williamstown on April 2, 2010. The investigation was conducted by members of the Adams, North Adams and Williamstown police departments and state troopers assigned to the district attorney's office, members of the Berkshire County Drug Task Force.

 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Several sections of the county were hit by a fast-moving storm that downed trees and power lines. At 9 p.m., Western Mass. Electric Co. was reporting some 22,000 customers out of power in Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties.

The wind split this tree in Williamstown.

Nearly all of New Ashford was reported out of power and nearly half of nearby Lanesborough. The hilltowns, including Becket and Washington, weathered the storm better, with no reported outages.

National Grid reported minor, scattered outages throughout, with about 31 customers out of power on Florida Mountain.

One our readers reported traffic lights out in Pittsfield shortly after the storm moved through and Cranwell Resort sent a picture of a large tree down in its driveway. "Tree down on road on our property — Our topnotch crew is already on the scene, removing debris," the Lenox resort tweeted us. A section of a large tree in Williamstown near the Dunkin' Donuts on Main Street also came down in the storm.

"Every county in WMECo's service area is affected, with the most customers without power in the towns of Sunderland, Agawam, Ludlow, Springfield, West Springfield, Hadley and Southampton," according to a press statement from WMECo.

WMECo reminds residents to treat all wires as live and stay a minimum of 10 feet away. Even getting close to an energized wire can have deadly consequences. Call 911 or WMECo immediately.

Home generators should always be installed by a qualified electrician. Improperly installed generators can backfeed into our lines, which could be deadly to our workers.

RICHMOND, Mass. — With Thursday's high winds, it wasn't a good day to do any outside burning but apparently, one Richmond resident didn't think so — with terrible results.

Police Officer Tom Grizzy said volunteer firefighters from Richmond, Hancock, West Stockbridge and Canaan, N.Y., responded to the 1 p.m. call after sparks from a controlled burn landed on an abandoned cottage on Richmond Shores.

The cottage was totally destroyed by the blaze. After the fire was knocked down, a backhoe was brought in to level the smoldering ruins. Police said action against the neighbor who decided burn yard waste in high winds may be pending.

Officer Curtis Crane

ADAMS, Mass. — The town of Adams added another reserve officer to the police force last week with the appointment of Curtis Crane.

"Curtis Crane has been employed with force the last two years as a dispatcher and special police officer," said Police Chief Donald Poirot at the Selectmen's meeting on April 21. "He just passed the Civil Service exam with flying colors."

Crane replaces Officer Matthew C. Wright, who was hired as a full-time officer in March.

"That will bring us up to two reserve officers. With vacations coming and Park Street events, we need these kind of officers," said Poirot.