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Williamstown Economic Development Committee Holds First Meeting
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
02:11AM / Wednesday, January 07, 2015
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The committee includes, from left, Stephen Sheppard (obscured), Fred Puddester, Paul Harsch and Andrew Hogeland.

Jeffrey Thomas was elected chairman of the committee on which he serves with Sandra Thomas (no relation).
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town's newly formed Economic Development Committee may be the largest committee in town, but its members want to hear more voices.
 
The now 11-member panel held its first meeting on Monday evening, and although much of the discussion focused on the members getting to know one another and procedural matters, one theme that emerged was the need to garner more input from the community.
 
"I would like to call a public forum, and we can send invitations through the Chamber [of Commerce] and the media," committee member Paul Harsch said. "And I'd like to have a meeting — if they're willing to — to pick some prominent former business people, or existing business people, who would have specific suggestions for how we can make this a more business friendly community."
 
The Board of Selectmen this fall created the EDC with a charge to generate a plan that would protect and grow the local economy. The board selected its appointees to the committee with an eye toward producing an end product that would have significant "buy-in" from the community.
 
All agreed on Monday that the committee needs to hear ideas from all comers.
 
"We need to go and find out … whatever is the deciding factor from these different constituencies -- find out what would be the trigger to bring them back here," Hugh Daley said. "We need to know which switch to flip."
 
Daley and fellow Selectman Andrew Hogeland initiated the board's push on economic development last year. Together, they drafted a plan — posted on the town's website — that they hope will be a starting point for the committee's discussion. And they removed themselves for consideration for leadership posts on the committee, arguing that, as selectmen, they should participate in but not lead the conversation.
 
The pair did direct Monday's initial meeting off an agenda they developed, but as part of that agenda, the committee voted on its leaders. Jeffrey Thomas, the director of the Lever business incubator project in North Adams, will be chairman. Williamstown dentist Karen Lartin will serve as vice chairman.
 
As part of its emphasis on outreach, Hogeland suggested the EDC make a push to appear before each of the town's relevant committees to see what ideas each might have to contribute to the discussion. Hogeland volunteered to ask the chairs of each of the town panels for a spot on their respective agendas and encouraged his fellow EDC members either to join him or appear on behalf of the committee himself or herself.
 
As for the EDC's own meeting schedule, it settled on alternate Mondays at 7 p.m., meeting on the first and third Monday of the month to complement the existing schedule of the Selectmen, which meets on the second and fourth Mondays.
 
The discussion of a regular meeting day highlighted the difficulty that such a large committee will have finding dates and times when all 11 10 members are available (one person who previously accepted an appointment, Liz Costley, had to resign because of unforeseen personal demands; one appointee, Molly Kerns, was unable to attend Monday's meeting another, Molly Kerns, also resigned after accepting a spot).
 
But the committee began Monday night to form working groups that will allow individuals or two or three members to collaborate on tasks and report back to the full panel.
 
For starters, Williams College economics professor Stephen Sheppard will work with Daley and Harsch to compile baseline data about demographics and the state of the local economy that the committee can use to make decisions and evaluate progress.
 
Committee member Sandra Thomas, who recently was named the interim director of the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce, was drafted to helping to reach out to the business community in town. Jeffrey Thomas was charged with developing what he described as the committee's "raison d'etre," a case that the committee can take to the public about the need for a development plan.
 
The final plan will be developed over the course of the next year, but the creators of the committee made it clear on Monday that the panel's task is to spur action, not just engage in an intellectual exercise.
 
"We don't have to wait until the plan is done to do something," Hogeland said. "If there are specific pieces or tasks that should just go on because they make sense, we should do them."
 
With characteristic humor, Daley told the committee that he hopes the EDC will produce results, not just words.
 
"I'm not sure what success looks like, but failure looks like a three-ring binder," Daley said. "If all we do is write a report that sits on a shelf somewhere, we haven't helped anything."
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