Construction to change face of Williams

Berkshire Eagle | January 1, 2005
By Christopher Marcisz

The cultural map of Williamstown will also get a major overhaul this spring with the opening of the Class of 1962 Center for Theater and Dance at Williams College, a large, glittering performing center that will make the town and its summer theater festival an even bigger draw.

Other projects promise to boost the downtown area.

On Water Street, the long-awaited opening of the General Cable Mills building is set for the coming year. The long-blighted site will become high-end condos -- not apartments as some had hoped -- but is likely to bring new life to the long-neglected Water Street area that has lived in the shadow of the Spring Street revival for years.

Many hope its emergence will also be an inspiration for developers when the board of selectmen try again to find an innovative use for the old town garage site further up the street.

And perhaps the building boom will inspire innovative solutions to the Photech mill, which collapsed in 2003 and remains a wreckage pilealongtheHoosicRiver, awaiting state or federal funds in the effort to clean it up. The year opens in the shadow of something that will not be built: the proposed extension of the town water main down Cold Spring Road to Mount Greylock Regional High School.

The measure failed at a Dec. 2 special town meeting, which was one of the largest in town history, and followed one of the most contentious debates in memory.

A bipartisan committee is currently studying ways to bring clean water to the high school, either through filtering out the perchlorate, using alternative wells or whatever.

But the vote also shaped the plans of two of the town's largest institutions, Northern Berkshire Health System's expansion of its Sweetwood complex,and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute's new conservaiton center, which will be built on its campus, setting in motion the major expansion project, just in time for their 50th anniversary in May.