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April 2015
Williamstown Economic Development
$1.00
The Town Garage Site and the College
by Tela Zasloff
On March 9, a joint meeting of the
Williamstown Economic Development
Committee (WEDC), the Selectboard and
the Town Planning Board held a public
discussion on what to do with the Townowned, former Town Garage site on
Water Street. Three architect/designers,
one offering a proposal, and two realtor/
developers spoke about the site. But in all
such discussions before Town committees,
the issue is much bigger than what to do with
one site or one building project. It always
involves the question of how Williamstown
can preserve its special character as a town
while dealing with its single most powerful
developer, Williams College. In order to
make decisions on benefitting the Town as
a whole, Town committees have to know
about the College’s future plans. There
wasn’t much information revealed on that
question at this March 9 meeting.
The
three
architect/designers—
Thomas Bartels (Bartels Architecture and
Landscape Design), David Westall (Westall
Architects) and Ann McCallum (Burr
& McCallum Architects)—made points
about the advantages and possibilities for
developing the Town Garage site. Bartels,
who had done two earlier proposals for
developing the property, in 1989 and 1998,
included as the important characteristics
of the site, the imposing rock escarpment
and dominating College art buildings at the
north end, and its closeness to the Green
River, Spring Street, and the new Cable
Mills residential development. This site
needs to serve three purposes, he continued:
To create a mixed use of residential and
commercial space, to provide parking
space (set back from the street), and to
provide space for public gathering. Ann
McCallum, who had also done an earlier
proposal, in 1983, characterized the site
as being unfriendly for pedestrians, but,
most importantly, argued that the Town
should concentrate on Spring Street for
commercial development and develop
Water Street as residential, with easy
access to Spring Street—“We need more
shoppers in Town, meaning people who
live right there.” She listed, as potential
residents who already show a lot of interest
in living there, college alums, parents of
students, and older residents who want to
continued on page 2
Page 2
The Greylock Independent
continued from page 1
get rid of their large houses and move
into town. McCallum sees the possibility
of building about 52 housing units on the
site, and mentioned, in passing, that access
to Spring Street can be more pedestrianfriendly because “the College’s Buildings
and Grounds complex will probably go
away in the future.”
Joan Burns, Design Developer with
David Westall [see Joan Burns’ Op Ed
piece on developing Water Street on
page 3], introduced Westall’s proposal
by pointing out that they have already
gotten outside interest toward financing
their project, that their project would be
at no cost to the Town and that their plan
would invite more pedestrian traffic, a
civic meeting place and more parking,
“perhaps in conjunction with the
college.” In one of her handouts at the
meeting, Burns added, “For the moment
we can put aside what the college is
planning to do except that we are not
required to continue the use of a land lot
for their parking. In a second handout,
Burns wrote, “This is. . .an economic
development project, but it is more than
that. It is a Williamstown project at at
time when the town has substantially
either lost or is about to lose Spring
Street.” David Westall described their
project as consisting of two singlestory, glass enclosed mercantile centers,
anchored by a public patio at front, plus
four town houses, a community garden
and parking. As a result, 41.5% of the
site would be green space, with 10% in
addition, public space and patio.
Two realtor/developers made some
additional points. Charles Fox asked
about adequate parking, and mentioned
the proximity to the Green River and
the presence of Christmas Brook as
assets. Paul Harsch argued that the two
April 2015
biggest problems to resolve are parking
and whether all the units being proposed
and the Cable Mills units now being
built, will actually be filled. On parking,
he cautioned that if the College is
considering replacing the present Field
House, that expansion is likely to take
much of the present Town Garage site
for parking.
From these incidental references to
College development, it’s obvious that
Town planners and individual, voting
citizens need to know what Williams
College is intending to develop on its
own, and know enough ahead of time
to make informed decisions. There are
a lot of questions to be asked, not only
about the Town Garage site but the
Field House, Buildings and Grounds,
the proposed hotel at the end of Spring
Street, the Williams Inn, and the
rebuilding of the Science Center.
Online
Editor, Tela Zasloff
Associate Editor, Harry Montgomery
Banner photo, Joyce Lazarus
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Page 3
The Greylock Independent
April 2015
Water Street. The Key to a Sustainable Williamstown
By Joan Burns, Design Developer and David Westall, Principal, Westall Architects
Small economies can thrive on small
retail business. Small businesses thrive
on pedestrian traffic. Pedestrian traffic
requires attractions at short distance.
This is why successful small towns
have streets with diverse businesses and
engaging public spaces that pull people
along rather than pushing them back to
their cars. Everything depends on location
and arrangement. Williamstown has a
Main Street without pedestrian traffic.
Its Spring Street combines business and
public and college spaces inefficiently.
We propose to make Water Street an
important part of a more sustainable
economy for the town.
Competition from giant stores and
malls has killed village economies all
over America. Water Street cannot and
should not replace the Berkshire Mall,
but with appropriate planning and
development we can steal back some of
its income and energy. We are against
what other towns have done—made their
center into a mall. But we can take what
malls thrive on—walking, proximity,
chance encounters, and sales—and make
it an important part of our village.
From the corner of Main Street
down to Cable Mills, in the next ten
years we see a Water Street where
present buildings and businesses are
complemented by new stores and new
public spaces to attract residents and
visitors all along an enhanced pedestrian
way. We are proposing an innovative
and efficient melding of the old, the
contemporary, and the new. Imagine
Water Street flooded with people strolling
and shopping, relaxing and talking,
townspeople and students and tourists, all
enjoying beautiful Williamstown and, at
the same time, supporting local business
and employment.
We propose accomplishing this
through four initiatives:
1. Create a preliminary Vision for
Water Street, including a map from Cable
Mills to Main Street that shows every
building, business, and vacant area, and
a brief narrative of the histories of these
sites and the street.
2. Using the Planning Survey
prepared by the Williamstown Economic
Development Committee, and working
with the Committee to develop a schedule
of priorities, work to refine the Vision
for Water Street into a development
plan with short-, medium-, and longterm phases that would include supports
for existing and additional businesses
likely to succeed on the enhanced Water
Street, as well as key design features for
attractive and functional public space.
3. Outreach. Once parameters have
been recognized and goals established,
we will employ a front person
knowledgeable about local, national, and
global business who will do the leg-work
to find viable and enthusiastic business
partners.
4. We will work with town
committees and the town manager to find
specific ways to offer cooperation and
incentives to potential business partners.
We intend to seek both public and private
financing.
We will assist in writing any
necessary warrant articles for Town
Meetings and publicity.
Our aim is to take the leadership
role in a broad-based partnership to
envision, design, plan, and develop the
part that is missing from our town’s
sustainable economic future: the new
Water Street. We intend to work with
local and Commonwealth government,
development agencies, businesses,
public relations and other professionals,
and fellow citizens of Williamstown to
bring this vision to fruition.
Brewer Bros., Inc. Town Garage site,
Water Street. 1955
Williamstown Historical Museum
Page 4
The Greylock Independent
April 2015
A Tribute to Memory: Pastor Pierre Charles Toureille,
Righteous Among the Nations By Tela Zasloff, photos courtesy of Marc Toureille
Pastor Pierre Charles Toureille
Two years ago, Marc Toureille of
Williamstown, with his wife Micheline,
attended an event at the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington,
DC, to accept a tribute on behalf
of his father, Pastor Pierre Charles
Toureille.
Pastor Toureille saved
hundreds of refugees from the Nazis
in Vichy France during World War II
and was named one of the Righteous
Among the Nations by the Israeli
government. Those attending this
event—4,000 museum supporters, 843
Holocaust survivors, 130 veterans who
liberated them, and those, like Marc,
representing the non-Jewish rescuers
of these survivors—were addressed by
Elie Wiesel, founding chairman of the
museum, and President Bill Clinton.
All the speakers at the ceremony, in
their different ways, addressed the
question of what a memorial to the
Holocaust means.
I wrote a book about Marc’s father,
A Rescuer’s Story: Pastor Pierre
Charles Toureille in Vichy France (The
University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).
As Marc stood up, obviously moved by
the tribute, and accepted the honoring
of his father, I asked myself again,
as I had asked when first meeting
Marc in Williamstown in 1995, what
is the meaning for us now, of Pastor
Toureille’s courageous actions?
I began the book because of a
strong personal interest in how people,
ordinary citizens, act in times of war
when their country is occupied and
dominated by a draconian enemy.
Our record as rescuers of our fellow
citizens at such times is not impressive,
as it was not in France during the Nazi
occupation. France, especially the
Vichy government, cooperated with
the Nazi determination to exterminate
the Jews, to the extent of enabling the
Nazis to deport to the extermination
camps over 25 percent of the Jewish
population in France, including the
native-born and the refugees who
poured into France as a supposedly
safe haven from persecution. How
could that happen in a country with
the national motto Liberté, égalité,
fraternité, especially fraternité?
Pastor Toureille’s story helps us
understand how that can happen, and
how much extraordinary courage
and will he had to gather within
himself, to fight against what the
Vichy collaborationist government
and the large majority of the French
population were agreeing to under
the Nazis. His country was suffering
from its defeat and occupation but
the majority of his countrymen
considered the setting up of the Vichy
collaborationist government as a way
to protect themselves from the worst
of Nazi oppression, so as to continue
with their own daily lives. They felt
contempt for the democratic doctrines
of their former leaders who had lost the
war to Germany. The separating out of
Jews into a different, foreign category
fomented anti-Semitism in France
and made it possible for the majority
of the population to blame all Jews,
both refugees and native-born, for their
defeat.
Marc Toureille
This national attitude during the
war, was antithetical to everything
Pierre Toureille believed about how to
live and act. As a French Protestant, a
Huguenot, he grew up with stories about
his ancestors’ dealing for hundreds
of years with reactionary Catholic
regimes that imprisoned and tried to
repress and convert them. But Pastor
Toureille’s special background that
impelled him to become a courageous
rescuer, doesn’t apply to most of us.
A more universal reason resides in the
imprecise answer given to researchers
who ask people why they saved
someone at great risk to themselves:
“Isn’t that what anyone would do?”
they answer. “Isn’t it the human thing
to do?” But a skeptical look at history,
particularly at Holocaust history, shows
that we can’t conclude that this is an
accurate view of how most of humanity
thinks in times of life-threatening crisis.
But perhaps it is a reminder of how we
should think. And that we need to keep
remembering the courageous.
Clinton addressed the gathered
audience: “The sickness that the Nazis
gave to the Germans is still the biggest
threat to our children and grandchildren.
. . .You are our conscience. You know
the truth, you have enshrined it here,
you must continue to work to give it to
all who would come.”
Page 5
The Greylock Independent
April 2015
Cohousing is here—making traditional neighborhoods
and protecting the environment
By Jane Shiyah
Jane Shiyah and Colin Murphy. Walking on proposed Blackinton, MA site.
Photo by Jeff Hines
Cohousing is coming together in
the northern Berkshires! A development
model predicated on community,
economy, and sustainability, the
cohousing concept originated in
Denmark thirty years ago, and is
now spreading worldwide. It seeks to
recapture the feel of a traditional closeknit neighborhood in a manner that is
diverse, environmentally sensitive, and
ecologically sound.
The Northern Berkshire Cohousing
Community (NBCC) is the brainchild of
Jane Shiyah, retired school counselor,
and Colin Murphy, a builder of “netzero” homes. Murphy has offered
to donate a 50-acre parcel of land in
Blackinton for the development. The
land borders Clarksburg State Forest,
between Williamstown and North
Adams.
Shiyah and Murphy are gathering a
group of interested individuals, some of
whom consider themselves prospective
residents, and others who merely
support the concept of innovative and
economical community-building. The
wider the supporting group, the more
successful the project will be. It aims to
provide alternatives for single people
of all ages, couples of all varieties,
families of different blends, a place
where everybody from toddlers to
retirees can interact to their mutual
benefit.
Cohousing is characterized by
privately-owned homes clustered
around a core of common spaces:
walkways, play areas, community
gardens.
Cohousing
members
participate in planning a common house,
designed for daily use, supplemental to
the private residences, thus allowing
for the building of smaller homes. The
common house might include a kitchen,
dining area, sitting area, children’s
playroom, laundry, workshop, exercise
space—whatever the residents decide
to incorporate into their community.
The aim is to create a community
that is eco-friendly, multi-generational,
mixed income, accessible to all
abilities, welcoming of diversity and
environmentally safe for those with
chronic health conditions. NBCC
envisions a living situation where
neighbors care about each other, and
shared resources allow each to live
more lightly on the planet. Green
construction will strive to reduce
energy costs toward zero.
Murphy is a practitioner of such
building, and the land he proposes to
donate is well suited to the use of solar
energy. As a local businessman, he is
eager to support the local economy as
well as realize a vision of thoughtful
construction.
More
information
is available at his website: www.
freelandintheberkshires.com
Shiyah has a lifelong interest
in community living, and has fallen
in love with the idea of cohousing,
which provides the privacy people are
accustomed to, within a community
where social interactions with
neighbors come naturally, and where
sharing of resources and abilities
enriches everyone. She has a particular
interest in creating an environment
where people with chronic health
conditions and chemical sensitivities
can be less isolated.
Cohousing is a vision that will
require a gathering of energies, and
anyone who is interested in the concept
as well as its final realization, is
invited to participate in NBCC, whose
motto is “Putting the neighbor back in
neighborhood.” More information can
be found on the organization’s website:
http://cohousingberk.org/
Page 6
The Greylock Independent
April 2015
GAILSEZ: What to Do in April
By Gail Burns
Happy Spring! Gail Burns here,
with my first monthly column for The
Greylock Independent on arts-related
happenings in the region. These are my
personal picks from the ocean of events
out there. If you want me to know about
something you have going on, send it
to gburns35@gmail.com.
WALK THE LABYRINTH:
Once again the First Congregational
Church of Williamstown hosts the 36foot portable canvas Labyrinth in their
Fellowship Hall from March 30-April
3 from 9 am-8 pm. All are welcome to
stop by, take off your shoes, and do a
silent walking meditation.
LOCAL HISTORY: On April
11 from 9:30 am-12:30 pm the last in
the series of Living History Workdays
to restore an antique horse-drawn
work sled will take place at Sheep
Hill. And on April 18 at 11 am learn
how the settlement of West Hoosuck
became incorporated as the town of
Williamstown in a talk by Pat Leach at
the Williamstown Historical Museum.
POETRY: During the dead of
winter the Berkshire Fine Arts web site
sponsored a contest challenging local
poets to write about elevators. Twentysix poets posted 33 elevator poems and
MCLA English Professor Mark Miller
was the judge. When all was said and
done, I won first place, North Adams
poet Stephen Rifkin took second,
with Astrid Heimer of Adams coming
in third. We will celebrate our grand
accomplishments at the Spectrum
Playhouse in Lee on April 10 from
7:30-10:30 pm. Please join us!
Come to MCLA’s Gallery 51 on
April 22 at 6 pm to hear original poems
by Williams students, local high school
students, and MCLA alumni, at the
Sekou Sundiata Evening of Spoken
Word & Poetry hosted by Craig Harris.
DANCE:
At
the
’62
Center
Choreographer-inResidence Ronald K.
Brown and his dance
company Evidence
perform April 2 at
7 pm in the Dance
Studio.
Sankofa
takes the MainStage
April 10-11 at 8 pm,
followed by Nothin’
but Cuties, the student directed hip-hop
dance group, April 17 & 18 at 8 pm,
and finally the contemporary dance
ensemble CoDa performs “The Body
Unbound” April 24 & 25 at 8 pm in the
Adams Memorial Theatre. Keigwin &
Company comes to MASS MoCA on
April 11 & 12.
THEATRE: I am massively
excited that MCLA is bringing the
legendary Cuban-American playwright
Maria Irene Fornés--a leading figure
of the Off-Off-Broadway movement
of the 1960s--to campus to perform
“Mud” & “The Successful Life of 3”
in Venable Theatre April 22-24 at 8 pm
and April 25 at 2 & 8 pm.
On April 16 from 5-8 pm actor/
writers Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen
from The Debate Society turn big
paintings into tiny plays in an objectinspired extravaganza at the WMCA.
CULINARY ARTS: On April 7
at 6 pm join culinary historian Susan
Rossi-Wilcox and Darra Goldstein,
Founding Editor of “Gastronomica:
The Journal of Food and Culture,” at
the WMCA as they read between the
lines of the illustrated recipes in “Wild
Raspberries,” the cookbook Andy
Warhol produced with socialite Suzie
Frankfurt, mocking the post-war desire
to cultivate a European lifestyle through
food. Drinks and mingling follow.
A page spread from the cookbook Wild
Raspberries (1959) by Andy Warhol and
Suzie Frankfurt, at the Williams College
Museum of Art on April 7. Litho-offset,
hand coloring with tissue overlays. Courtesy of Williams College Museum of Art,
Gift of Richard F. Holmes, Class of 1946.
© 2015
TEACUPS: On April 19 The
Clark is all about Northampton artist
Molly Hatch, author of the new book
“A Teacup Collection: Paintings of
Porcelain Treasures.” Hatch was given
exclusive access to Sterling Clark’s
largely unviewed 300-piece collection
to create her illustrations. The day
starts with a special tea and treats in
Café 7 at 1:30 pm; followed by a book
talk with Hatch and Curator Kathleen
Morris in West Pavilion at 3 pm, with
book signing at 4 pm.
BOOK SALE: The highlight of
my April is always the Friends of Milne
Public Library Annual Book Sale in the
gym and cafeteria of the Williamstown
Elementary School from 9 am-6 pm on
April 24 and from 9 am-4 pm on April
25. When my sons were young we used
to volunteer at the book sale during
vacation week. Back then it was the
Smith College Book Sale and held at
the First Congregational Church. Boy,
do I feel old!
Page 7
Muckraker Farm
The Greylock Independent
April 2015
A website for people interested in digging beneath the surface: http://muckrakerfarm.com/
who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in
his hands; who was offered a celestial crown for his muckrake, but who could neither look up nor regard the crown
he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth
of the floor.’ Although the president’s use of the word was
pejorative, the muckrakers themselves embraced the insult
as a badge of honor. The term stuck.”
Here are some examples of articles on the
Home page of MuckrakerFarm site:
The Disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans
at abuse-laden ‘black site’ (Homan Square)
The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to
the Encryption Castle
Photo courtesy of Mary Ferger
Mary Alcott Ferger, a Williamstown resident, has
established a website for readers who want to dig deeply into
important issues. Mary explains her mission this way: “I am
a former college teacher who has been collecting muckraking
stories for a number of years. Now I have decided to plant
some of these investigative journalism pieces on a website as
a resource for people who are interested in digging beneath
the surface in order to better understand complex local,
regional, national and international issues. These exposés
are both contemporary and classic, some going back several
centuries. It is hoped that this historical range will enable
readers to make connections, to discover similarities and
differences between past and present wrongs, and to see the
historical roots of many contemporary injustices.”
Ferger adds, on the origin of the term “muckraker” and some
thoughts about muckraking journalism [From A Muckraking
Model: Investigative Reporting Cycles in American History,
by Mark Feldstein, 2006]:
“[O]n March 17, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt
coined a new phrase that soon entered the American lexicon:
‘muckrake.’ It was not a term of endearment. As a politician
trying to curb the worst excesses of America’s industrial
revolution while still preserving the nation’s capitalist
system, the president’s delicate balancing act sometimes
seemed threatened by a dangerous new kind of journalist:
the investigative crusader whose writings inflamed the
masses. Roosevelt likened this journalistic dirt-digger to a
character from John Bunyan’s seventeenth-century fable,
Pilgrim’s Progress: ‘The man with the Muck-rake, the man
Guantánamo torturer [Richard Zuley] led brutal
Chicago regime of shackling and confession
Destroyed by the Espionage Act. Stephen Kim spoke
to a reporter. Now he’s in jail. His story.
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of
Racial Terror
Swiss Leaks: Banking Giant HSBC Sheltered Murky
Cash Linked to Dictators and Arms Dealers
A Bug in the System. Why last night’s chicken made
you sick
U.S. Research Lab Lets Livestock Suffer in Quest for
Profit
How Ebola Roared Back
Page 8
The Greylock Independent
April 2015
LETTERS
Thanks for Your Help This Winter. Now what are you going to do for us?
Typically delinquent with “thank you” notes, I’d like to
make amends and thank all those who helped us through this
record winter in Williamstown. Unfortunately, I can name
only a few of them.
Inside our house, two tests came early. Justin of Four
Seasons came and conquered Carrier’s software---solving
the heating problem for half the house. More critical was
our emergency call to the Haig Brothers, third generation
plumbers and boiler fixers. Bluish water on the cellar floor,
they quickly diagnosed, required replacement of the entire
boiler. Wow! But a four-figure bill shrunk to very little when
Haig & Haig checked and found the old boiler had another
month under warranty. Outside, we relied on plowmen Craig
and Gregg of Countryside for our driveway. They did a great
job, including shoveling the steps up to the house.
Located at the intersection of Route 43 (Water Street/
Green River Road) and a major town road, we came to
marvel at the night lights of plow trucks clearing the way
for morning traffic. This required the combined efforts of
Chris Lemoine’s Williamstown Public Works crews and
their anonymous counterparts from the state’s District One
Highway garage on Route 7. Plow drivers, working long
shifts for two different employers, don’t exactly fit ballet
stereotypes. However, their coordination, tacit I’m told,
BOOK TALK
would match some of the best choreography devised by the
‘62 Center’s dance program.
Mid-March, with the melting, a large and deep pothole
appeared where our drive feeds into Route 43. Would a new
problem diminish our gratitude to the plowmen? By week’s
end we had the answer. The pothole was filled. Thanks again.
But mid-month we also received a certified letter
from State Highway District Director Peter Niles. So
did neighbors. DOT surveyors might need to enter our
properties in connection with “Reconstruction of Route 43”.
No problem, we say.
But reconstruction of Route 43, a favorite of young
jogging athletes, presents another opportunity for our
Select Board to be concerned with pedestrian and cyclist
safety. Much of Water Street/Green River Road is devoid
of shoulders; visibility is bad on curves. Road shoulders
and/or a protected lane are needed to prevent that otherwise
inevitable vehicular/pedestrian accident. No one, town or
gown, would sleep easy if we lost a jogger.
Harry Montgomery
Williamstown
“Cave to Coop” Cheese
for April
www.Willinet.org/Search/Shows/Book_Talk/
Mad River Blue
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Made from raw organic cow’s milk
Buttery, mild and slightly sweet
Special Price $13.99 lb
320 Main Street
Williamstown
Mass.
413-458-8060
wildoats.coop
open 7 days