Editorial

The Necessary and the Unnecessary

We are not large. Stockbridge is just a village. There is a limit on our resources – human and monetary. We should be clever with what we have. So with sincere thanks for all who work for the Town, and knowledge that Monday-morning quarterbacking is easy, here are three areas for consideration in separating the necessary from the unnecessary.

Zoning studies

A few years ago, the Town paid Joel Russell, a respected planner and attorney familiar with Stockbridge, to review our bylaws. Russell concluded no major work was necessary. We might have saved precious resources if we had listened.

Stockbridge meets the Commonwealth criteria for low-income housing, but some suggest we might address work force housing through bylaw change. The cost of housing may be a function of the marketplace not zoning. Smaller and more reasonably priced housing is snapped up, torn down, and replaced with a million-dollar hippopotamus on a picnic blanket. An extant two-bed, two-bath, 1700 sq. ft. attached dwelling – the sort proposed for work force housing — is advertised for $649,000.

Some suggest we look again at the Cottage Era Bylaw. If we do, please, do not use a consultant who stated publicly he did not know what a Berkshire Cottage was. Planning Board spent almost two years of their energy and approximately $40,000 on consultants who had never been to Stockbridge. Both finally visited saying they should see what they were talking about. Indeed. Not surprising they proposed five bylaws and only one was brought to Town Meeting.

The Cottage Era Bylaw is and always was the kind of tradeoff some PB members wanted. In exchange for saving Stockbridge history, one Berkshire Cottage and one Great Lawn at a time, this bylaw offered a developer more (but reasonable) latitude. What prevented development at Elm Court and DeSisto was not Stockbridge zoning but the marketplace.

Our village never attracted large scale development but that does not mean it isn’t growing. We had more sales and construction this year than any in memory. We might manage our style of growth with the tools at our disposal, and not be distracted by the unnecessary.

Budget Planning

Let the Town know how we ended up with no American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) earmarks as our bridges crumble, and a $20,000 grant to study a bylaw PB voted out.

Our Finance Committee is focused on low taxes. Laudable, but not the only necessity. Instead of asking department heads for an annual 5% budget reduction, might the committee ask them what is necessary and desirable to do? Michael Buffoni has an exciting idea about generating hydropower. Might we spend now on innovative ideas and all-important, very necessary maintenance and thereby save expense later? In that way, Townsfolks see what they are trading for lower taxes and can weigh the tradeoffs.

Transparency

Transparency helps make better decisions. The Stockbridge Bowl Stewardship Commission is working on a lake management plan as Stockbridge Bowl Association (SBA) competes for control of the Bowl. (See January 1 issue of SU, Bowl Games by Bruce Blair with SBA letter attached). As a Town, let us decide to fight for management or yield to SBA and save our resources. Transparency helps to separate the necessary from the unnecessary — more voices make wiser decisions.

by Carole Owens , Managing Editor

News

Events

1. Berkshire Botanical Garden:
   • Starts January 12: Organic Vegetable Gardening
   • Starts January 13: Grafting for Garden Design
   • Starts January 15: Greenhouse and Conservatory Management
   • Starts January 15: The Cutting Garden
   • Starts January 15: Madeline Schwartzman exhibition Face Nature in the
   • Leonhardt Galleries
   • Starts January 18: Sustainable Garden Care and Maintenance
2. Stockbridge Library: Available online “Mohican History Walking Tour of Stockbridge — Footprints of Our Ancestors: Revisiting Indiantown” Click here: www.stockbridgelibrary.org/museum-archives/events
3. Trustees of Reservations: Download their map of special places and plan a field trip.

Click here: https://thetrustees.org

Bryant Homestead in Pioneer Valley and sites in Berkshire County appear in bold:

Agassiz Rock
Governor Ames Estate
Appleton Farms and Grass Rides
Armstrong-Kelley Park
Ashintully Gardens
Ashley House
Bartholomew’s Cobble
Bear Swamp
Bear’s Den
Becket Quarry
Francis William Bird Park
Bradley Estate
Eleanor Cabot Brickyard
The Bridge Island Meadows
Brooks Woodland Preserve
Bryant Homestead
Bullitt Reservation
Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge
Castle Hill on the Crane Estate
Cedariver
Chapel Brook
Charles River Peninsula
Chase Woodlands
Chesterfield Gorge
Chestnut Hill Farm
Coolidge Reservation
Copicut Woods
Cormier Woods
Cornell Farm
Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge
Crane Beach
Crane Wildlife Refuge
Crowninshield Island
deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum
Dexter Drumlin
Dinosaur Footprints
Doane’s Falls
Doyle Community Park
Dry Hill
Dunes’ Edge Campground
East Over Reservation and Hales Brook & Sippican River Tract
Elliott Laurel Reservation
Farandnear
The FARM Institute
Field Farm
Fork Factory Brook
Fruitlands Museum
Gerry Island
Glendale Falls
Goose Pond Reservation
Greenwood Farm
Halibut Point Reservation
Hamlin Reservation
Haskell Public Gardens
Allen C. Holmes Reservation
Hutchinson’s Field
Governor Jacobs Hill
Jewell Hill
Land of Providence
Little Tom Mountain
Long Hill
Long Point Wildlife Refuge
Lowell Holly
Lyman Reserve
Malcolm Preserve
Mary Cummings Park
Mashpee River Reservation
McLennan Reservation
Medfield Meadow Lots
Medfield Rhododendrons
Menemsha Hills
Misery Islands
Mission House
Monument Mountain
Moose Hill Farm
Moraine Farm
Mount Ann Park
Mount Warner
Mountain Meadow Preserve
Mytoi
Naumkeag
Noanet Woodlands
Noon Hill
Norris Reservation ,North Common Meadow
Norton Point Beach
Notchview
Old Manse
Old Town Hill
Peaked Mountain
Pegan Hill
Peters Reservation
Petticoat Hill
Pierce Reservation
Pine and Hemlock Knoll
Powisset Farm
Questing
Quinebaug Woods
Ravenswood Park
Redemption Rock
Rock House Reservation
Rocky Narrows
Rocky Woods
Royalston Falls
Shattuck Reservation
Signal Hill
Slocum’s River Reserve
Stavros Reservation
Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens
Swift River Reservation
Tantiusques
Tully Lake Campground
Two Mile Farm
Tyringham Cobble
Ward Reservation
Charles W. Wasque
Weir Hill
Weir River Farm
Westport Town Farm
Whitney & Thayer Woods
World’s End

News

Notes from the Board of Assessors January 3, Hybrid meeting

Present:

• Gary Pitney, Chair
• Doug Goudey via Zoom
• Tom Stokes via Zoom
• Tammy Touponce, Secretary
• Michael Blay, Town Assessor

1. Board is required to sign Personal Property “Form of List” and post annually. Personal Property Tax mut be paid annually.
2. Requests for personal property tax abatements very low. Blay reported approximately 12 when in other years there were as many as 40.
3. Deed and map changes are posted annually. According to Blay, there will be many deed changes and only 3 or 4 map changes.
4. Blay reported there were no requests for abatements from the utility companies.
5. One landowner in Stockbridge requested to meet with the Board presumably with respect to his personal property taxes. The matter will be reviewed at next meeting
6. Blay mentioned increased expenses such as: for postage Blay mentioned a mailing to second homeowners is now “a huge mailing”; increase in expenses incurred to satisfy Department of Revenue (DOR) requirements; increased expenses with regard to Blay’s continuing education.
7. Blay reported that the Appellate Court tax case in which the Desisto school property – 37 Interlaken – is appealing tax assessment is scheduled for January 12, 2022, after a number of postponements in 2021. Blay has not heard that it would be postponed again so he expects it will take place.

Meeting adjourned.

Editor’s Note: Form of List is personal property subject to taxation. The list is filed annually by individuals (and businesses) of their furnishings, that is, those things about their property but not permanently affixed to the property. The primary exemption for individuals is for household furnishings and contents at the person’s primary domicile

News

Notes from the Agriculture and Forestry Commission, January 3, Hybrid meeting

Present:

• Matt Boudreau, Chair
• Lisa Bozzuto
• Erik Rasmussen
• Shelby Marshall, Alternate
• Abigale Fredsall, Alternate

1. Minutes approved as written.
2. Fredsall, newly appointed, is a recent graduate of UMASS School of Agriculture.
3. Stewardship Grants are available for care and maintenance of Town forests. Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is the granting authority.
4. The Commission also questioned if there might be Community Preservation Act funds available? Some thought it was too late to apply for this year
5. Some suggestions for grant applications would be: Managing an Old Growth Forest (Ice Glen); Managing Invasives in our Forests; Managing Logging in Town Forests (Lake Averic/Reservoir).
6. Apparently, there is a requirement for the forest to be 9 acres or more to qualify for a grant. The suggestions were: Gould Meadows, George Ripley Park, and the forest north of Lily Pond.
7. The Chair suggested action steps:
   1. Reach out to Water Superintendent Mike Buffoni about Averic Reservoir
   2. Marshall to reach out to Gould Meadow representatives (Tim Minkler, Arthur Dutil, and Ron Brouker)
   3. Chair to find representative to discuss the George Ripley Park
8. There is a natural treatment for ash borer beetle. Treatment requires an area of more than 40 acres, a certain density of ash trees, and low human activity to qualify. It involves introduction of wasps that eat the borers.
9. Continue the application process to become a Tree City
10. When will dedication of Old Growth Forest take place? (Ask Select Board)
11. Bylaw change to allow Marshall and Fredsall to be members of Commission rather than alternates (requires change in number of members on Commission).

Meeting adjourned

News

Notes from the Water and Sewer Commission, January 4, Hybrid meeting

Present:

• Don Schneyer, Chair
• Peter Socha

Also present: Jennifer Carmichael, Secretary, Michael Buffoni, Water Superintendent, and Tony Campetti, Sewer Superintendent

1. Minutes approved as written
2. Annual inspection of the tops of Stockbridge’s two water tanks will be done by “TC” (the full name of “TC” is not stated) from now on, and in addition he will seal small cracks
3. There is a 132-page report from the engineer on Tuckerman Bridge. If presents an in-depth evaluation and offers three options to repair before there could be any further use. (The original plan was to have the bridge carry a water main)
4. Park Street Pump Station construction will go out for bid February 16.
5. Buffoni, as rep to the Stockbridge Bowl Stewardship Commission, reported SBSC is working on a lake management plan.
6. Campetti reported letters to residents on Park Street sent, but he would rather delay home visits due to COVID 19 and unauthorized use has decreased since letters were sent. Campetti also reported the number of sump pumps increased.
7. Residents on Averic Road are investigating if it is feasible to connect to Town sewer.
8. Buffoni reported that budget items and special articles could be discussed next meeting. He suggested:
   1. Update water and sewer software
   2. Study of possible hydropower project (using moving water to generate electricity)
   3. Mandatory to repair crack in conduit on generator
   4. If the water line at the DeSisto School Property needs repair, Town may be responsible

Meeting adjourned

News

Notes from the Planning Board (PB), January 4, Hybrid meeting

Present:

• Bill Vogt, Chair
• Marie Rafferty, Vice Chair
• Nancy Socha
• Wayne Slosek
• Gary Pitney via Zoom
• Kate Fletcher vis Zoom
• Carl Sprague via Zoom
• Jeff Lacy, consultant via Zoom
• Jennifer Carmichael, Secretary
• Patrick White, Select Board via Zoom

1. Minutes approved as written
2. As requested, Consultant Jeff Lacy prepared example of NHRPZ Draft 8 “density neutral”. “density negative”, and “conventional development” of 37 Interlaken (Desisto School Property). On the 313-acre estate, there would be 52 houses using conventional zoning; 34 using NHRPZ density negative; 38.6 using density neutral.
3. Questions for consultant:
   1. The consultant said Cottage Era Bylaw “could be grafted onto NHRPZ” — Slosek asked, was NHRPZ at odds with Cottage Era Bylaw?
   2. Sprague asked if setbacks, length of driveways, and other elements in current zoning bylaws would still apply or if NHRPZ take the place of those? Apparently, NHRPZ takes the place of those.
4. After questions, the Consultant left and PB discussed NHRPZ.
5. Chair floated idea of dropping NHRPZ.
6. Discussion followed including if PB should take up the Cottage Era Bylaw.
7. One member said PB spent almost two years on NHRPZ to the detriment of other responsibilities of PB. She said PB spent so much time on NHRPZ, PB could not do a simple sign bylaw. Therefore, NHRPZ should be dropped, and no more time wasted.
8. She also asked Chair — how much money was spent? Chair said he did not know. (According to Town Administrator Michael Canales in an earlier meeting, all $40,000 allocated for consultants last year was spent.) Of the additional $40,000 voted by Town Meeting, it is not clear how much of that money was spent by Lacy on his site visit and the materials created for this meeting, etc.
9. Another PB member said time and money had been spent on NHRPZ – why throw it out? Why not pass it as an option for developers?
10. However, the Chair moved to drop NHRPZ, that is, to discontinue working on it. He said there was no majority on this Board to approve this bylaw. Even if it were voted on right now and passed 4/3, he did not feel PB should bring something to Town Meeting that was not more enthusiastically supported.
11. The motion to discontinue work on NHRPZ passed 7/0.

Meeting adjourned.

News

Notes from the Tri-Town Board of Health, January 6, Hybrid meeting

Present:

• Charles Kenny, Chair
• Jim Wilusz, Executive Director

Members of the Boards of Health of Lee, Lenox, and Hank Schwerner and Rae Williams from Stockbridge

1. Minutes approved as written
2. Chair announced a complaint was filed claiming the Tri-Town Board of Health violated an Open Meeting Law (OML).
   1. Chair took the complaint to Town Counsel (TC) who said OML was not violated
   2. At issue was whether the Chair had invited/allowed public comment at last meeting
   3. TC said Chair was not required to invite public comment
   4. However, Wilusz and Kenny agreed they would prefer to have public comment and would include time for it at upcoming meetings
   5. Chair asked that public comments be relevant to items on the agenda
3. In addition, the Chair explained the reason he did not invite public comment at the last meeting was that they were addressing the scheduling of a Public Hearin not the issue itself — mandating proof of vaccine to enter a restaurant.
   1. Tri-Town Board members, Dianne Romeo, Noel Flagg, Joanne Sullivan also spoke to the issue.
   2. A Board member asked if owners and representatives of restaurants could send in written comments if unable to the public hearing? Wilusz said yes – send to his office.
4. A member of the public, Jim Castagnaro from Lee spoke and was not pleased to have public comment limited to agenda items – he wanted to discuss whatever subject concerned him — for example the PCB Dump proposed for Lee.
5. Chair said he hoped to guide discussions to “stay on track”.
6. Wilusz will schedule and advertise public hearing on vaccine mandate

Meeting adjourned

News

Notes from the Cultural Council, January 6, Hybrid meeting

Present:

• Judy Wilkinson, Acting Chair
• Isabel Rose
• Maureen O’Hanlon
• Terry Moor
• Selena Lamb
• Rena Zurofsky
• Janet Egelhofer
• Barbara Cooperman
• Andrea Sholler
• Joe Tonetti

1. Election of Chair – acting Chair Judy Wilkinson elected unanimously
2. Request to extend the award granted in 2020 but delayed due to COVID 19. Moved, seconded, and approved
3. Chair declared this a working session and asked any who joined via Zoom to remain on mute and be observers only
4. The Council reviewed, deliberated, and voted on the 38 applications submitted
5. The 38 were resolved into 26 approved and 12 declined.
6. The funds available ($5424) were divided between the 26 approved proposals and equaled about $200/each.
7. The 26 were each awarded $200 and then the list was reviewed for proposals to which the Council might award more. Consideration was given to a Stockbridge connection; e. g., event takes place in Stockbridge or is presented by a Stockbridge organization or person or benefits Stockbridge residents and other factors
8. Council members who had any relationship with an applicant were careful to recuse themselves
9. The list of approved proposals and the amounts awarded cannot be published now. Those who were declined must be informed and two weeks must elapse for them to contest the decision. Then the list of approved proposals and the amounts awarded will be announced in a press release from the Council

Meeting adjourned

Perspective

Congratulations to Carl Sprague

A Special Congratulations to Carl Sprague on completion of the latest Wes Anderson movie and for making past, present, and future movies more beautiful and visually meaningful. Movies on which Carl worked include Grand Budapest Hotel, The Age of Innocence, Amistad, The Social Network, Lala Land, 12 Years A Slave, The Royal Tenenbaums, Isle of Dogs, and now, The French Dispatch, and Asteroid City. Thank you, Carl for always making time to enhance local productions with set designs.

Stockbridge Updates Upgrade

We love to receive email! Happily, the SU email box was full this month. Sadly, that means some emails did not get through. Here is what we have done: the SU inbox is now bigger and hopefully this will prevent it being full again. We answer every email without fail, so if yours was not answered, we probably did not receive it; please resend. Thank you.

Correction

Jay Bikofsky sent the following: Carole: Great visiting with you this morning at the Post Office. As Gary Johnston and I mentioned, it would be most appreciated if Stockbridge Updates could issue a correction as to the current Town Finance Committee Membership.

This will acknowledge their voluntary time commitment in the service of our Town.

The roster is as follows:

Jay Bikofsky, Chairman
James Balfanz
Neil Holden
Pamela Boudreau
Diane Reuss
Stephen Shatz
William Vogt

Many Thanks as always,

Jay B.

Hi Jay,

Thank you for being an SU reader and for taking the time to alert us to oversights. Stockbridge Updates inadvertently omitted the name of your newest member and my good friend, Pam Boudreau. We thank her and all who work on behalf of Stockbridge. We send each and every one our best wishes in 2022,

Carole

Perspective

Special Congratulations

To Stockbridge and all of its residents who worked on the Ice Glen Old Growth Forest Project to treat, protect and preserve a very special part of our village. Smithsonian Magazine is saluting the efforts in its feature story: “The Old Man and the Tree

Read the Smithsonian Magazine article online by clicking here.

“Ecologists thought America’s primeval forests were gone. Then Bob Leverett proved them wrong…”

Special Birthday Wishes

Special birthday wishes to Vernon (Vern) D. Reuss, who was 17 in the 1940 Census, born in 1923, 99 years old.

Welcome to Stockbridge

Congratulations to the new owner of Once Upon a Table, Averneile Maloney. She is folding all the napkins and tucking in the chairs and will open soon.

Perspective

The Power of the Press

First, apologies for not getting back to you and your readers within 30 days of my last letter about ‘Beavers and Bureaucracies’. My piece in Stockbridge Updates was meant to be a call to action for the bureaucracy. Guess what? It worked. Now that the words of the press have been heard and acknowledged I need to give you the update you are due.

For a while, nothing I did worked. Hands went up in the air with perplexed faces attached. The beaver dam is on private property and not the town’s property, not any highway department’s property, no one wanted to trespass on that sanctity. Even though the property owner would gladly have allowed any trespass to relieve the concerned property owners who were also her friends. Dead end.

Then at a Conservation Commission meeting I brought it up again. But this time mentioned that the dam was backing up water into Kampoosa Bog and the “endangered” plants — the vegetative mat that makes the Bog unique (and endangered) were being uprooted and would die as a result. Credit here needs to be given to our Con Com Chairman Ron Brouker and especially Sally Underwood Miller both of whom suggested that I write to the MA. Endangered Species folks and alert them to this matter. I did. Low and behold the solution to this matter of ten years ago unfolded! And another ‘low and behold’: they may have funding available to the town to remedy the situation. Amazing!

It was not an easy matter. It just took being persistent until the solution was found.

Credit here also needs to be given to (the also persistent) Selectman Patrick White and Town Administrator Mike Canales both recognized the stress on the homeowner whose property was being encroached upon and sought solutions.

Bureaucracies can in fact work but in my experience they all need an “undeniable” push to get a job accomplished.

Author’s Note: I am a member of the Stockbridge Conservation Commission and what is written above is my opinion only and in no way reflects on the Conservation Commission other than to say thank you.

by John Hart

Perspective

The 20 Housatonic River Bridge Crossings in Stockbridge

Part One

Stockbridge — with the accent on “bridge” — is appropriately named with more bridges over the Housatonic River than any of its neighbors: a remarkable 20 highway, foot, trolley, and railroad spans. That’s as many as Great Barrington and Sheffield combined. Ten of Stockbridge’s bridges are still in use.

Starting at the east end of town at Stockbridge Industrial Park off Route 102, near the Lee boundary, we’ll travel downstream. Dwight D. Hopkins constructed a private bridge here in the early 1900s so he could reach his extensive sawmill and railroad tie factory on the south side of the river. Concrete foundations of the old business remain visible to those passing on freight trains or who venture beyond the limits of the Laurel Hill Association’s Mary V. Flynn Trail to follow the old Berkshire Street Railway roadbed to the river.

The Hopkins business failed after his death in 1944 and the bridge went into disuse and was removed. A bridge pier still stands in the river. It was an unusual bridge, the only wooden truss in the entire street railway, situated on the river in such a way as to frequently trap flotsam and branches floating downstream.

Immediately downstream and also crossing from the industrial park was a Berkshire Street Railway bridge. The trolley line was active from 1903 to 1930, after which that bridge closed. An abutment survives.

A pedestrian bridge crossed the river from the foot of Lincoln Lane to the south side of the river to connect with a woods trail. There’s still an abutment on the south bank.

Next is the double crossing at Park Street. There’s long been a footbridge across the river for hikers climbing to Ice Glen or Laura’s Tower. That side of the mountain was for years the property of David Dudley Field Jr. When he hosted Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others at Laurel Cottage (where the tennis courts are today) in 1850, several of the group followed a trail behind the house, forded the river and went up to see the sights. Eventually a footbridge was installed.

The first wooden bridge to Ice Glen wore out and was replaced in 1869. In 1895, German engineer Fritz von Emperger designed a new reinforced concrete arch bridge, one of the first ever built in this country and elegant to the eye. When the bridge was nearly finished, workers placed heavy barrels on the span to see how strong it was. The concrete wasn’t yet dry. The bridge twisted and fell in. Rebuilt, it was used by hikers to Ice Glen until about 1931, when an inspector said it was unsafe.

End Part One

Editor’s note: Bernie Drew, Gary Leveille, Rick Wilcox, all local historians, are more than story tellers. They are preservationists. They preserve in word what cannot be preserved in fact.

The bridges have been part of the infrastructure and the beauty of Stockbridge. As wear and tear takes its toll, what we do next is important and Drew’s words become important. This is a long article and will appear in SU in three parts. Thank you, Bernie and Gary, for preserving in word and picture.

by Bernard A. Drew

Perspective

The Laurel Hill Association and The Olmsted Bicentennial

It has always seemed to me that these two memorable advocates for parks, planning, and beautification must have met at some time after the Laurel Hill Association was founded in 1853. Frederick Law Olmsted and Mary Hopkins Goodrich were both children of a rapidly growing, prosperous nation.

Olmsted and Goodrich were prescient and recognized that, left unchecked, urban sprawl would dominate the landscape and destroy the green spaces which provided refuge, beauty, and recreation. Olmsted developed a philosophy of natural design and founded a firm that literally transformed the American countryside. Goodrich’s goals were more modest-her primary focus was on Stockbridge. I suspect she would have been pleased and amazed to read in the New York Times nineteen years after her death that “the Laurel Hill Association has provided the model for 1500 similar organizations across the country.”

Olmsted’s legacy is being celebrated this year as 2022 is the Bicentennial of his birth. It was exciting for me when I discovered that there was a deep tie between Olmsted’s firm, The Berkshires generally, and the Laurel Hill Association in particular. In 1912 a Mr. Lakin, representative of Laurel Hill, contacted the Olmsted firm with the request that they design the landscape around the Stockbridge Railroad Station. In those days railway stations served as triumphal entrances; towns across the Berkshires and the Nation vied to create the most beautiful entryway.

Olmsted’s design influence was felt throughout the Berkshires. Here’s a short list of his work in our region.

The Laurel Hill Association has been designated a sponsoring partner for the Olmsted Bicentennial and big plans are afoot for speakers and special programs. Make sure to save-the-date for Laurel Hill Day Saturday August 27, 2022. LHA will recognize Olmsted’s contributions to the region and our special tie. I hope that some of our Dear Readers might be willing to help with planning, logistics and implementation of lectures, displays and special events. Please contact Laurel Hill if you would like to help on this special project.

Frederick Law Olmstead Projects in The Berkshires

Hilary Deely is President of the Laurel Hill Association.

by Hilary Somers Deely

The Last Word

Reader to Reader

Hi Carole,

The photos in all the SU issues have been FABULOUS! Stockbridge is lucky to have such talented photographers. But I have two comments:

1. I view SU on my desktop computer, with window maximized. The rectangular photos usually fit on one screen. But the other aspects, the majority, do not. I have to scroll through each photograph to see the whole image, which decreases the impact for me. Maybe one of your readers can help with how to resize so I can see each image on one screen. Or maybe SU can decrease the size?
2. It would be great if the outside-scene photo credits also included WHERE it was taken. For privacy reasons, I understand why inside-scene credits probably should not.

Keep great photos coming!

Thanks,

Pat Flinn

Hi Pat,

Thank you for writing. I don’t know the solution. I am not tech-savvy, but I sent your question to Patrick White who is. Hopefully there is a solution. Patrick’s response: Unfortunately, a portrait-oriented photo might not fit on your screen. It’s formatted to look best when considering both smart phones and computers.

Happy New Year,

Carole

Hi Carole:

Happy New Year!

I appreciated your Editorial this morning. Ideals and Goals struck close to home for me. When I visited Stockbridge late in the summer of 1981 I fell in love with the town and couldn’t have imagined changing anything. As a New Yorker by way of the Jersey Shore I wanted to figure out a way to make a life here. My first house purchase was in West Stockbridge in 1986 and then into Glendale in 2002. I was a part timer until 2011 when I embraced the fact that my business could be run from my front porch and Jersey was effectively in my rear-view mirror.

Your words triggered a memory of a conversation with my former wife while sitting in a restaurant in Ridgewood, NJ. In passing conversation she noted how great it would be to “have a restaurant like this in Stockbridge”. It took but a moment wherein I replied, ‘f-ck no; then it wouldn’t be Stockbridge. It’s clearly not a feeling held by many of the 60% of second homeowners; some of whom do want to reshape/remake the Berkshires in their own image. I do hope that more of that majority read your words and take them to heart.

My personal journey took me to a marriage with a woman born and bred here in Stockbridge so I’ve embraced the title of ‘local’ by marriage. I often joke that if my car still had Jersey tags when I pulled into her driveway for the first time she might have turned off the lights and locked the doors. Instead I learned that she saw Springsteen at the Music Inn almost as early in the 70’s as this Jersey Shore kid saw him. I wonder how many of your readers know that the third stop on the Born to Run Tour was in Berkshire County?! At that moment I realized that maybe I was born in the wrong state and county and I had finally found my way home.

Historically and otherwise, let’s not change a thing!

David (Sauer) Rosenthal

Dear David,

Thank you and happy New Year to you and Martha, Carole

Dear Carole,

I found your letter today to be an eloquent, understated, but utterly clear description of what Stockbridge stands for. And you didn’t even mention Norman Rockwell! One passage was particularly telling. You wrote: [The rich] … came to be with us because of our smallness, simplicity, and niceness. I’m not sure how you define “rich,” but I am sure that those who gravitate here do so because, despite being rich, smallness, simplicity, and niceness are hard-wired into them and what they’re really doing is reconnecting with themselves.

Kind of a homecoming they never anticipated.

Thank you

Larry Ackerman

Dear Larry,

How kind of you.

Thank you,

Carole