The Mount Greylock Regional School Building Committee on Thursday decided to defer action on an invoice from the town for inspection services and instead ask Williamstown's town manager to come before the committee and explain the basis for the bill.

iBerkshires.com reports at issue is up to $300,000 in fees that the school building project has incurred over the life of the addition/renovation at the middle-high school.

The town has provided the district with documentation that the project actually has run up $309,554 worth of fees already, based on the published fee schedule for inspection services. But in keeping with prior communications between the town and district going back to 2015, the town is offering the district a discount on those fees.

Williamstown resident Matt Sheehy encouraged the committee to gather more information before deciding to approve the expenditure, a course also pushed by committee member Richard Cohen.

Cohen urged his colleagues to consider the examples of other regional (i.e., multi-town) districts that have received more significant waivers.

Of the eight members present for Thursday's vote on the invoice, Cohen was joined by four of his colleagues in a 5-2-1 decision to defer. Thomas Bartels and Mount Greylock Principal Mary MacDonald, both of Williamstown, joined Cohen, Al Terranova and Chairman Mark Schiek, all of Lanesborough, in voting to defer.

After the motion to defer succeeded, Daley suggested but stopped short of making a motion that the committee forms a working group to gather more information.

Cohen stressed that the information must be presented to the full deciding body, the School Building Committee, and not a subset or working group.

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