Stockbridge Select Board Votes to Keep Children's Chime Tower at Daily 30-Minute Schedule

STOCKBRIDGE — June 4, 2026 — Stockbridge Select Board holds Children's Chime Tower schedule despite neighbor and church complaints. The board voted 2-1 at its June 4 meeting to keep the historic Children's Chime Tower playing 30 minutes daily at 5:30 p.m. through the summer, rejecting requests from a neighboring pastor and the chair of the Congregational Church trustees to reduce the duration, lower the frequency, or install dampening equipment; the pastor, who said the bells make conversation impossible at his home 250 feet away for 3,180 minutes each season, proposed shortening sessions to five to seven minutes or moving to an every-other-day schedule, while supporter David McCarthy, a 45-year Church Street resident, wrote that the chimes offer "a moment of reflection and grace." The board also approved two MassDOT grants totaling up to $400,000 — including a $214,000 grader at no cost to the town and up to $150,000 for culvert planning on Route 183 over Shadow Brook — unanimously authorized Town Administrator Michael Canales to sign letters of intent for a $1 million state solar grant application due August 7, and elected Chuck as the new board chair.