By Bill Price. Editor
Published November 1, 2024.

Secret Sharers. (Photo: Brittany Mackbach

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A recent front-page story in The Berkshire Eagle featured Sandisfield and Otis together, in agreement. The agreement was preliminary steps toward a revision in the Regional District Agreement governing the operation of the Farmington River Regional School District (FRRSD).

Usually when both towns are mentioned in the same news story the report is about their viewpoints are in opposition, as if the towns were constantly at odds.

In fact, the towns share more than appearances would suggest.

For instance, in the photo on this page, Hailey Malbaurn and Noah Dvorak, two students who live in Otis, share a ride in a red wagon at Sandisfield's Riiska Brook Orchard. The kids were taking part in the annual apple-picking field trip of Mrs. Hamill's Farmington River Elementary School's Early Kindergarten class.

In fact, the towns share even more than two kids from one town in a wagon from the other.

The towns share a river, the Farmington. They share a highway, Rt. 8.

They share the elementary school. They share a house of worship - the New Boston Congregational Church.

Sandisfield and Otis, both small towns way out in the Massachusetts wood, also share the same cold shoulder from Boston politicians.

They share Otis Woodlands, where almost half of the homes are in Sandisfield, although the Woodlands seem far from wherever the center of Sandisfield is located. They share New England weather. When it rains in Otis, it generally rains in Sandisfield, and vice-versa. Their teenagers choose the same few high schools in a small collection of towns. Both towns tend to vote Democratic, with similar vote ratios of Democrat to Republican.

Will these residents who already share so much share a vote to approve the revised Regional District Agreement for FRRSD which will improve an already superior elementary school? A "yes" will increase school costs for one town while lowering them for the other town. A "no" vote could mean one town will seek to withdraw from the district. For more, see our story, Click here.