LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen are considering a fine for businesses that do not keep up with their certificates. But it also wants to get a better tracking system in place first.

 

The Selectmen has the ability to implement fines of up to $300 a month for a company that does not renew its business certificate. An initial proposal was made to charge $200 a month, but Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers and Robert Ericson thought that may be too much. 

 

"That sounds pretty steep to me," Ericson said, suggesting cutting that in half.

 

Currently, the town doesn't charge anything and instead just tries to track down the business owners who do not have up-to-date certificates.

 

Town Clerk Ruth Knysh said there are hundreds of businesses, big and small, that apply for business certificates. Only incorporated entities are exempt from needing one to operate. Each certificate is good for four years. 

 

Sayers added that there are others who never even get one at all, and those, too, should be fined for non-compliance.

 

"It is not fair to the charge the people who don't renew it if others don't get it at all," Sayers said.

 

The Selectmen, however, haven't decided on implementing anything as of now because the town isn't prepared to give the companies enough forewarning. Knysh said her office has taken on a task of reorganizing all of the applications into a spreadsheet to know better when companies are due for renewals. Once that is in place, the town will be able to send out renewal letters to the businesses giving them plenty of time to apply.

 

Knysh said she has had businesses completely forget they needed renewals and a lot of the certificates are needed by the bank for accounting purposes. She wants to be able to give those businesses enough of a warning ahead of time to come in and file the paperwork.

 

"A lot of people when they come in and start a business, banks won't give them an account unless they file," she said. 

 

The town clerk's office has stacks of the forms in binders but keeping up with the businesses that go out of business or new ones that open up is another task in itself.

 

"Businesses come and go and trying to keep track of the ones who are not in business anymore, that's hard, too," Knysh said.

 

The Selectmen said until the spreadsheet is created, the board will hold off on a vote to implement fines. 

 

In other business, the joint effort between the town and the Berkshire Springs Cooperative to run a new water line to Berkshire Village is progressing. The engineering firm Tighe and Bond has been testing the ground and working on a plan for the extension. The town and the cooperative are splitting the matching portion of a grant in order to bring the $1.5 million project to fruition.

 

Town meeting approved spending up to $8,000 as a match to the grant last year. The water systems in that area have previously had contamination issues and right now nearly all of the homes are served by a common well. 

 

State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi has refiled a home-rule petition eyed to allow the project to replace the Narragansett Avenue bridge. The state is heading the effort with $7 million in federal funds to rebuild the bridge. But some of the land needed for it is protected by Article 97 conservation restrictions, thus approval from the Legislature is needed.

 

That went to the state toward the end of the last session but required additional review because it is considered navigable waters. Ultimately, the bill was ready too late to be passed in the formal session. It was re-filed with the start of the new session. 

 

The town has already secured the easements and the state Department of Transportation has been designing the new bridge since last year. 

 

Finally on Monday, Ericson expressed his desire to keep the next budget at a zero increase. The town is going through what Town Manager Paul Sieloff says will be a difficult three years between taking on the payments for the new Mount Greylock Regional School and changes to the assessments at the Berkshire Mall. Those two led to a large tax increase last fall. 

 

Ericson said he is hoping the spending in the town budget can be minimal.

 

"It is going to be a tight year and there is no sense in setting it up for failure at the town meeting," he said.