Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The Great Barrington Select Board met at 6 p.m. on Monday, December 1, 2025. The board approved routine licenses, set the FY27 Annual Town Meeting date, updated strategic priorities, approved menorah placement at Town Hall, received a Ramsdale Library renovation update, directed a letter to MassDOT on the Route 7/23 bridge project, and increased the Housatonic Water Works reimbursement cap.
Okay, it's 6 p.m. We will call the meeting to order. Pursuant to MGL 7C 30A session 20F. Notifying the chair of the public body. Any person may make a video audio recording, open session of a meeting of a public body or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Beginning of the meeting, the chair shall inform other attendees of any such recordings. This meeting is being recorded by the Burke Ridge, the town of Greek Barrington and CTSP. Any member of the public wishing to speak at the meeting must receive permission of the chair, the listing of agenda items or those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed, and other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. Select boards announcements, statements. Phil. Nothing, thank you. Thanks to the Department of Public Works for getting the lights, uh, the holiday lights up on downtown trees and poles. Uh that's great driving in. Um, also thanks, BBW for getting the streets ready for tomorrow. First of the season is on its way, so it's great to see that the streets are already treated. Um, and then looking ahead to December 13th. I hope everyone will be able to come out to holiday stroll downtown Great Barrington. Great tradition. But um, I'm proud to be a board member of the uh chamber of commerce and nothing. Thank you. All right. Yeah, just wanted this uh talk about the who's he hustle that we had, and I want to say thank you to Sheila Tilly and her whole family for making it possible. We had a great turnout of about 78 uh folks on uh Thanksgiving morning. And uh we walked, ran and strolled up and down the Housey Rail Trail. And the new extension is pretty amazing right behind Americas. And um, it was a great event. Uh a bunch of money was raised for people's pantry, and uh it was just uh a nice community event and um the people's pantry. Uh we raised about a thousand dollars for it. So it was good to uh give that to a local pantry like that. So just want to thank everybody involved. Tower managers report. Thank you. Um as you may know that the town manager reports are actually posted now on the town manager's page. So we'll take a look at it the next morning. Anything that I say, so um that it's all printed out for everybody to look at in reference to. Um, but this time starting today, I've actually kind of categorized it in a way that is going to be aligned with your strategic priorities that you're going to be um identified or um looking at this evening. So it'll be structured in that sense so you can see the projects that are aligned with which areas of focus. Um so and as a reminder, the select board can request to the chair to place any item that is in my rear board um on the future agenda for further discussion as we know it's a so for my report tonight of December 1st. Uh recently, the town completed paving on Round Hill Road in Great Barrington and Oak Street at Husatonic, making another step forward and maintaining safe, reliable local infrastructure. As part of this work, fog lines were added on uh to both roads to enhance visibility during low light and nighttime conditions. These painted edge lines help drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians more clearly identify the boundaries of the travel lane, especially on narrow or winding sections of the roadway. This small but meaningful improvement supports our ongoing commitment to roadway safety and certainly some more walkable and bike-friendly. The new crosswalk and accompanying stop signs have now been installed at the intersection of the underception. Again, safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists in this well-traveled area. The police department have coordinated in placing portable message force to reinforce awareness of the updated traffic patterns.