Dear Carole,
As a new subscriber and a fairly recent full-time resident of Stockbridge, I wanted to tell you how impressed I am with [Stockbridge Updates]. It’s valuable, smart and really nicely designed. Thanks so much for your very important contribution to building our community!
Liz (Elizabeth McCarthy)
Dear Liz,
Thank you so much for the kind and encouraging words about Stockbridge Updates — our local — very local — newspaper.
Carole
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Dear Carole,
The Fountain Committee was very pleased to receive funding for the restoration of the Cat and Dog Fountain and the Watering Trough at the annual town meeting in June through the Community Preservation Act fund. Thank you to all Stockbridge residents for funding this project; we will keep you posted on the work through Stockbridge Updates.
Hilary Deely, president of the Laurel Hill Association, has been very helpful providing input on plantings and a sign. Thank you, Hilary!
Also very exciting, we received a generous donation from Dr. and Mrs. Valerie and Allen Hyman. The Hymans moved to Stockbridge full-time last year after owning a home in Stockbridge for many years. We were delighted to receive an email expressing interest in the fountain restorations. Thank you, Valerie and Allen!
Sincerely,
Kate Fletcher
Bob Jones
Carl Sprague
GeGe Kingston
Dear Fountain Committee,
How nice, and thank you for all you do.
Carole
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Dear Carole,
In response to a letter asking about opting-in to Chapter 90 section 17c (municipal speed control over town streets) I brought this up and this was discussed my first year in office with the Select Board, Chief Fennelly and the Town Administrator — the opt-in sounds simple but requires specific traffic studies and documentation with associated costs in both dollars and manpower. We can certainly take another look, but it might require an appropriation and opt-in approved by voters.
At the time, it was deemed more urgent to respond to the voter’s wishes regarding the Red Lion Inn and East/East Main Street intersections and the Main Street corridor that had just been voted on. Instead, we posted 20 mph signs on Main Street although they are below the 30 mph limit mandated by the Commonwealth.
Bringing this up directly with the Select Board might be an appropriate way to have this reconsidered.
Roxanne McCaffrey
Chairman, Select Board
Dear Roxanne,
Thanks for sharing.
Carole
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Hello Carole…
Thank you for your well-reasoned editorial about the “Rest of the River” agreement and your questions about the “legal fees”. May this be the spark that ignites a demand for answers from the voters of Stockbridge.
The “RoR” agreement was sophistry. It proposes a PCB dump in the middle of Berkshire County. More specifically, in the north end of the Town of Lee, just yards away from, and uphill from, the Housatonic River.
The “RoR” agreement undid years of a tacit agreement to remove the PCBs from the river — which stores them now due to decades of dumping by GE — and transport the toxic materials from Berkshire County to already established approved sites in other areas.
Without the knowledge, without any access to information, without input by the voters, an agreement was signed to allow this. Boards from Sheffield, Great Barrington, Stockbridge, Lenox, the City of Pittsfield, and sadly, Lee, bought into this deal.
Yet another egregious fact is that all municipalities were represented by one law firm. This isn’t even done in real estate closings. Five towns and a city, all distinctly diverse and different using one source for legal counsel. How can this be?
One can’t blame the residents in any of these municipalities. They didn’t know. Given the response of your representative, the voters of Stockbridge still don’t know. That is disturbing.
Lee is appealing the outrage in Berkshire County Superior Court. There is an appeal by the Housatonic River Initiative before the EPA Appeals Board. Private citizens are reaching into their own pockets to finance these.
I lived in Stockbridge for eighteen years. I served and volunteered. I am asking you as friends and neighbors to please awake. Take the time to educate yourselves. Find the answers to all the questions posed in Owens’ editorial. We have been victimized by a closed process that excluded the citizenry. You are financing this. Speak out now.
Although I am a sitting member of the Select Board of Lee, I am writing this as a private citizen.
Bob Jones
Dear Bob,
I suppose if Stockbridge Updates has a primary purpose, it is to get information to the people and encourage them to demand answers to any questions left unanswered. Thank you for your thoughts.
Best wishes, Carole
