WILLIAMSTOWN -- The Williamstown Theatre Festival will receive a letter of reprimand from the Selectmen after failing an alcohol compliance check in August.
The Selectmen unanimously agreed Monday night to send the letter, which also requested that the organization report to the board any adjustments in oversight and operation of its concessions before its summer 2013 season.
"We are confident that you guys will be able to do that, and this won't happen again," David Rempell, chairman of the Selectmen, said to representatives from the festival.
Jane Patton, a consultant for the festival, said it was extremely unfortunate the compliance check failure happened, and there is no excuse for it.
"We will spend time during the off-season coming up with better plans," she said.
With the cabaret at Goodrich Hall held some nights after a performance, they would have the same staff that covered concessions for the performance do so for the cabaret, she said. The employee who served alcohol to the person under the age of 21 was shutting down the concessions following intermission from the performance and was in a hurry to get over to the cabaret to get the concessions set up over there, she said.
"Every single person on the staff was TIPS trained. I can say with a matter of confidence that he was moving too fast and didn't think. Nobody feels worse than him about it," she said.
Selectwoman Jane Allen said with
"If this is no longer the case, the other thing you should look into is who is going to be the manager," she said.
Lapidus confirmed that while the license was in his name from his time as president of the festival's board of trustees, he no longer spent time overseeing the concessions.
The Selectmen also encouraged the organization to seek further clarification of its partnership with Hops and Vines, which catered food for the concessions, and whose employees worked at the concessions as employees of the festival.
In other business, the Selectmen approved a single tax rate for fiscal 2013. Pending final certification from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, the tax rate -- as set by the Board of Assessors -- will be $14.37 per $1,000 valuation, which is an increase of 39 cents from the town's fiscal 2012 tax rate of $13.98.
"If property values go down, then the tax rate goes up," Town Manager Peter Fohlin said.
While the average home in Williamstown was valued at $294,065 in fiscal 2012, the same home would be valued at $282,350 for fiscal 2013, he said.
Homeowners will pay an average of $43.92 less in taxes in fiscal 2013 to the town, but commercial property owners will pay an average of $111.95 more than they did in fiscal 2012 because the value of commercial property didn't drop as much as residential, he said.
He added that the changes just applied to the town's tax rate, and not that of the Williamstown Fire District, which is a separate government entity. The fire district's tax rate is expected to increase by 18 cents over fiscal 2012 to 66 cents per $1,000 valuation in fiscal 2013.
To reach Meghan Foley, email
mfoley@thetranscript.com.
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