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Dalton Green Committee Needs Survey Participants

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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DALTON, Mass. — The Green Committee needs more responses for its climate action plan survey. 
 
Only 40 responses have come back, 33 digital and seven hard copies, which is only about a third of the way to the committee's goal of 96, committee member Todd Logan said during Wednesday's meeting. 
 
The plan aims to guide the town toward achieving the state's net zero goal by 2050 by seeking strategies to decrease its dependence on fossil fuels for homes, businesses, municipal facilities, and vehicles. 
 
The plan should be detailed enough that the town knows what it needs to do and when to complete each subproject on time. 
 
A key aspect of this is gathering as much information as possible to accurately determine what the majority of the community believes to be its needs and priorities.
 
The survey takes 10 minutes to complete and is available electronically and in hard copy.
 
Hard copies of the survey are also available at the Town Clerk and Tax Collector offices and the Dalton Senior Center. 
 
Completed surveys can be dropped off at the Town Clerk’s office or the Senior Center. The committee hopes to have enough completed surveys by early December. 
 
Although the survey asks participants to include address information, the committee requests these details solely to guarantee that all town areas are fairly represented. This information will be removed from the final results shared at public meetings. It is solely used to guarantee all town areas are fairly represented.
 
Committee members have undertaken several ways to distribute the survey to make it accessible.
 
Committee member Antonio Pagliarulo has been working with the Central Berkshire Regional School district superintendent to give the survey to staff at Wahconah Regional High School, Nessacus Regional Middle School, and Craneville Elementary School, Committee member Laurie Martinelli said. 
 
In addition, Martinelli said she is working with Wahconah Regional High School student Jackson Crow to circulate the survey to Daltonian youth. 
 
Committee members Todd Logan and Thomas Irwin have also been handing out hard copies of the surveys. Irwin will be working on transcribing the data into the spreadsheet under the name “paper copies” so that they can differentiate where the responses came from. 
 
To ensure accuracy, paper copies will be kept in case Cisco Tomasino, the climate and events manager needs to refer to the original version. 

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Lanesborough Picks Information Panel for Public Safety Proposal

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town has a public safety building proposal to present to taxpayers, and now, an informational committee will help move the process forward.

On Monday, the Select Board voted to form a public safety building informational outreach committee and re-appointed four members: Dean Clement, Daniel MacWhinnie, Mark Siegars, and Lisa Dachinger.

"The Public Safety Building Committee has done their job. Now we need, hopefully with some of those same bodies, to form a new committee of some type and move forward," Select Board member Timothy Sorrell explained.

Earlier this month, the town officials voted to advance a $7.3 million combined police/emergency medical services facility to town meeting, discarding the option for a $6.5 million separate build.  The same design, then priced at $5.9 million, was shot down in 2023.

"There is the option to go to what could be a debt exclusion, which requires a two-thirds majority at either a special town meeting or an annual town meeting, and that can be followed by inclusion in a ballot," Town Administrator Gina Dario said.

Siegars advised that if the question goes to a ballot first with a fixed project budget, that amount can't be changed for a subsequent special town meeting vote.

"In our discussions, there are committee members who are willing to stay on if you wanted to continue the committee or appoint to new one, who have volunteered to be involved with any public information sessions to try to answer the questions with the idea that that they would also explore further and work with Gina and town counsel on specifically what the question should be for a special town meeting, and if, if warranted a subsequent ballot vote," he reported.

Chairman Michael Murphy echoed the former committees' arguments that the town can't explore grants and financing until it has approved an amount.

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