Uncategorized

By David Scribner
September 27, 2011

LENOX – The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in a tactic that environmentalists claim is a concession to – if not an outright partnership with — the General Electric Company, has adopted a minimal approach to protecting wildlife and humans from the PCB contamination in the Housatonic River watershed, recommending instead a watered-down removal of the probable carcinogen and endocrine disruptor from the sediment in the river channel and along the riverbank.

A sign warning of the dangers of PCBs in the Housatonic River. (Photo: David Scribner)

Minimizing the remediation of the river system would save GE hundreds of millions of dollars. And it’s not surprising the DEP is taking a do-less-is-more approach to PCB removal: Bob Durand, former secretary of the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, is now GE’s principal lobbyist. READ MORE >>

By David Scribner
August 26, 2011

GREAT BARRINGTON – With misgivings and trepidation, the Board of Selectmen has approved a 2012 tax rate of $13.12 per $1,000 evaluation, an increase of 7.9 percent over last year.

If there is silver lining to this grin-and-bear-it annual ritual of setting the tax rate, it is the decline of property evaluations that softens the blow of a higher tax rate – at least for now, until property values start to rise again due to a more stable economy and, in five years perhaps, the introduction of commuter rail service to New York City.

The rate is based on a total taxable personal and real property valuation of $1,351,621,807, a decrease of 2.9 percent from last year.

READ MORE >>

By David Scribner
August 24, 2011

GREAT BARRINGTON – Next month, when crews begin to demolish the remaining buildings on the badly contaminated property at the foot of Bridge Street once owned by New England Log Homes, the first step will have been taken in an agonizingly slow process of restoring a prime downtown Great Barrington commercial site.

New England Log Home Site, Downtown Great Barrington

The environmental remediation that follows may then mark the first instance in Berkshire County where the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has used bioremediation to remove dioxins and other toxic compounds from a brownfields site.

READ MORE >>

By David Scribner
July 7, 2011

The Great Barrington Library Trustees, meeting in emergency session, have reiterated their right to name the next library director. They took this action in spite of the fact that the town charter considers the library a town department, the Library Trustees an elected town committee like the Finance Committee, and grants hiring rights to the Town Manager.

Great Barrington Library Trustee President Karin Beebe

On July 1, Library Director Anne Just informed Library Trustees and town officials that she would be retiring from her position as of Aug. 12.

In their statement, (see below) which they e-mailed to Town Manager Kevin O’Donnell and the Board of Selectmen this week, the Library Trustees requested the selectmen hold off on naming a permanent director until the town charter can be revised to grant them supervision of library staff.

At a June 23 meeting, the Board of Selectmen reminded newly elected Trustee President Karin Beebe that the process of revising the town charter – should that avenue even be recommended by a charter review committee – is arduous and lengthy, and could take as long as two years. And until such time as the charter is changed, personnel decisions would still remain with Town Hall.

Although Ms. Beebe obviously expected a unanimous decision to send the memo, the ensuing vote of the trustees on the memo was not unanimous. Trustee Thomas Blauvelt dissented, arguing unsuccessfully that the statement set up a needless confrontation with O’Donnell, who had already informed the trustees that he was setting up a search committee for a new library director and intended to include a trustee on the committee.

READ MORE >>

A Building Inspector, A Town Manager, A Town Counsel, A Board of Selectmen & A Tree Farm That Isn’t

June 10, 2011
GREAT BARRINGTON, MA

There was a grim smile on Ed May’s face when he left the Town Hall meeting room Monday night.

“I feel vindicated,” he said quietly.

At a special Board of Selectmen meeting, Selectman Alana Chernila had declared her support — in no uncertain terms — for the town’s embattled Building Inspector and Zoning Enforcement Agent.

May had been on the hot seat for issuing cease and desist orders to an excavating business operating in a residential zone on Blue Hill Road.

Click here to read more about this Tale of Tangled Town Politics.

Has the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) gotten too big for its britches and too swank for the Berkshires?

That would seem to be the case when it comes to the way it treated at least some of its local fans this weekend.

One movie buff had acquired a $150 pass – and at that, a bit of a stretch for this person’s budget — for the four-day festival that included a ticket to the achievement award ceremony honoring filmmaker and special effects wizard – and sometime Berkshire resident – Doug Trumbull. It included a seat at the screening of “The Tree of Life,” Terrence Malick’s film that won the Palme D’Or at Cannes and for which Trumbull had been visual effects advisor.

Not only had our acquaintance purchased the ticket, she had put in about 50 hours of volunteer work on behalf of the festival.

All that didn’t matter when the Trumbull’s celebrity status went through the roof – at least in the BIFF contingent’s eyes – due to “Tree of Life.”

Suddenly, the price of her pass went up to $250. And our friend was notified to pay up another hundred bucks or stay home – well, not quite. She was told she could stand in line for a ticket – if there were any last minute cancellations.

“Suddenly, I didn’t want to see that movie,” she said.

David Scribner

Camille LeCrowe shares her thoughts on the end of the 2011 Spring TV season:

Detective Kate Beckett on Castle

THE LITTLE DEATHS

Now I know the little deaths I’m thinking of hardly matter in the scheme of things.  That’s The Scheme of Things.  The Big Picture.  The Big L.  Real life.  Believe me I know.  I’ve lost both my parents, some of my closest friends to cancer, friends to suicide, to traffic, and a friend and colleague to murder.

But still the little deaths get to me.  On the tube.

Click here to read her entire column.

I’m writing on Memorial Day 2011, a particularly confusing Memorial Day for me.  I’m experiencing a shifting mixture of pride and bewilderment.  Yesterday, I was out with my peace sign again as I have been these many years, glad of the appreciative honks, accepting of the occasional curse and upraised finger.  This is the third generation of signs.  The snow and rain and the odd angle it rests in the back of my car obviously takes a toll.

Click here to read the entire musing.

GE Distributes Dollars to Influence River Debate
By David Scribner
Illustrations by Honora Toole





Canoe Meadows, in the southeastern corner of Pittsfield, is as richly diverse a river and floodplain ecosystem as there is in the Berkshires. But appearances can be deceptive. For the Housatonic is a poisoned river, polluted by the former General Electric plant a couple miles upstream, where for 45 years the company allowed 1.5 million pounds of PCBs, a probable carcinogen and known growth and hormone disruptor, to seep into the river and collect along its banks and floodplain.


Click here to read the entire story.

Please respond to the confirmation e-mail you’ll receive shortly!