News

Key Notes from the 8 Town Regional School District Planning Board (RSDPB) meeting, August 28, 2023, Hybrid

This open meeting of the RSDPB was well-attended with approximately 60 in person and additional attendees via Zoom. 

Lucy Prashker, RSDPB Chair, called the meeting to order. Prashker explained the group was formed 4 years ago to answer the question: are the two school districts better apart or better together? After study, consultation, and outreach, RSDBP determined they are better together. 

Jake Eberwein, Berkshire Educational Consulting Group, familiarized the attendees with the approved plan for bringing the districts together. The full description of the plan is online: www.8towns.org

Public comment was not unanimously supportive — there were questions, concerns, and disagreements with elements of the plan. Some attendees requested a follow-up meeting. The Berkshire Eagle is organizing a public forum at the Mahaiwe in early October. In addition, SU hopes the RSDPB will also hold a “listening session” before the vote. The session might open to public comment and questions immediately. The answers will be informed by the years of research; the answers will present appropriate parts of the plan rather than a lengthy presentation.

Approval/disapproval will be up to the people at eight Special Town Meetings planned for October. All eight towns must approve the plan. If even one town declines, the 8Town plan fails. What then? There is a 3Town plan (West Stockbridge, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington) or there may be other options.

News

Help Clean Historic Headstones

Hi Carole, 

We’ve had to revise and reduce the number of volunteer work dates for headstone cleaning. Could you reprint this notice in the Stockbridge Update Weekly? And thank you for including the picture of Tom LaBelle in the previous issue! 

The new dates for volunteers to join in and help the cleanup are as follows: 

September 11-14 and October 2-5

The hours will be 10 AM to 4 PM each day, weather permitting. Stay for all or part of a day!

The public (including children aged 12 and up) is invited to come and participate. No experience is necessary. Instructions will be given on site, and supplies will be provided. No sign-up is necessary but emailing intention to participate to ccurrie@stockbridge-ma.gov would be helpful.

On the day and time of your choice, go to the Stockbridge Cemetery Main Street entrance for assignment. Work attire and gloves are recommended. Thank you in advance for helping preserve old Stockbridge history!

Sincerely, Vice Chair Cemetery Commission

News

News from the Red Lion Inn

It’s an inn, it’s a destination point, it’s a restaurant! It’s an art gallery? All of the above. The Red Lion has installed an Exhibition Hall (literally the second-floor hall). From August 15 to October 31, 2023, view the works of Ralph Steadman and the writings of Howard S. Thompson combined to bring you “Ride the Thunder”. 

“It’s an experience that challenges, provoked, and exhilarates.”

Stop at the front desk on the way out and ask when and where the next exhibition will be mounted in the Inn.

News

News at the Board of Assessors’ meeting, September 5. 2023, Hybrid

At the September 5, 2023, meeting, Assessor Michael Blay reported that the valuations of Stockbridge residential real estate went up sharply. The valuations are based on real estate sales prices. In this case, the prices in 2022.

Patrick White, Select Board member, asked if the valuations on commercial real estate went up. Blay said no. Valuations of commercial real estate have been flat for the last two years. 

White said he was not taking a position but was opening the topic for discussion: does that mean the burden is shifting to the residential taxpayer? should the two tax rates be separate? 

Editor’s note: In 2022, in Stockbridge, did residential real estate prices reach a record high? Are the prices increasing or decreasing? Is the number of sales increasing or decreasing?

News

News from the Water and Sewer Comission, September 5, 2023, Hybrid

A director from Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, Kevin Lilley, attended to let the Commission know that they want to be hooked up to the sewer. He was aware that the Master Plan is under way and he wanted “to get in front of it”.

He wanted the Commission to know the Camp wants to be connected to the sewer, that it is good for the Camp, and he thinks it is good for the health of the lake. He is going to contact neighbors who also want to be on the Town sewer, organize, and be present at every Commission meeting from now on until decisions are made.

Patrick While also mentioned Kripalu and its interest in sewer. 

Tony Campetti, Superintendent Stockbridge Sewer, offered to contact the consultant preparing the Master Plan and asking for a schedule showing when steps will be completed. He will present the schedule at the next meeting.

News

National Grid Closes Main Street and That’s Not All

The repair work National Grid did on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, blocked the entrance to the Mews as well as Once Upon A Table. 

Owner, Avie Maloney told Stockbridge Updates, “For me it’s the lack of information. The surprise of showing up to massive construction; that’s intrusive and having to cancel our guests and my staff for the evening felt odd all around. What could you do? Nothing but keep going…”

The Town reached out to National Grid to ask why we had no heads up. According to Michael Canales, both our local government representative and her direct report recently left the company. He discussed the matter with the state head of government affairs to register the town’s concerns.

Retropolis

The Mail Carrier Was a Woman 

The Curtisville post office was operational for 125 years from 1832 to 1957. For 58 of those years, Florence Markham Boyd (1871 — 1947) was the mail carrier in Curtisville and later Interlaken. Visit the Stockbridge Library Historic Room exhibits. Always something fun and fascinating. 

Florence was not the only one. My grandmother (Ruth Lillian Ingemunson 1895 — 1995) was the mail carrier in Farmington, Minnesota, complete with horse and buggy, from 1914 to 1918 while the boys were gone to war.

Perspective

An Exchange of Views on an Important Issue

Carole Owens: According to a recent data collection by the Affordable Housing Trust, most houses in this village were built before 1980. That means older houses with older septic systems all over the village. If the septic system fails, replacement can be $60,000 or more. This is a concern in all the Stockbridge homes without sewer. 

If folks around the lake want to be sewered first, is there a trade-off to be made? Is “fairness” a swap: part-time residents support the Residential Tax Exemption in exchange for full-timers recognizing the needs to sewer the lake and protect it? 

That swap is not a suggestion for how to fund the sewer expansion. There are multiple sources for funding sewer extension, and as always, a vote at Town Meeting approves one. That is an example of how we must be looking out for one another. A community is us; a community is not us and them. 

In a community everyone has needs and their needs differ. We can depend upon there being disagreements. The question is not if there will be disagreements, but how do we handle them? How about with mutual understanding and regard; never with anger and division. We have to swap ideas with respect and without personal attacks. We have to come to decisions that are in the best interest of the Town. Those who feel they lost; accept loss with grace. The winners – acknowledge the legitimacy of neighbors’ needs and plan to address them.

Patrick White: In my conversations recently with Michael [Canales], we’ve been focused on policies that create a “sustainable future” for Stockbridge. This touches so many areas: conservation (thank, you Stockbridge-Munsees and MVP), staffing, fire/EMS, building inspection, and yes, the health of the lake.

The Lake is of particular concern, because its sustainability impacts three critical needs: ecological, recreational, and economic with its importance to the tax base. The sad fact is that cyanobacteria has come to the Berkshires: there has been a prolonged cyanonbacteria outbreak at Lake Onota all summer long. Simply put, we must do everything we can to ensure the health of the lake.

Going back decades, the plan was always to add sewer connections up Route 183 to cover both homeowners along Interlaken Road and Lake Drive, as well as Berkshire Country Day and Kripalu. Similarly, the last expansion of sewer on the Bowl’s eastern shore stopped at Bean Hill Road, leaving White Pines, Oak Street, Hawthorne Road, Emerson Lane, and Wheatley Drive, as well as commercial properties at Wheatleigh and Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, on septic.

These septic systems feed nutrients into the lake. Cyanobacteria thrives in warm, nutrient-rich waters. We can impact water temperature with targeted hydraulic dredging, and we must deal with nutrients by removing them from the watershed.

I believe that asking the question, who should sewer expansion benefit, in the context of full-time vs. some-time residents, is the wrong question. The right question is, what is the compelling interest of the town as a community? We still have time to anticipate the impacts of climate change on our community. Now is the time to act to do whatever we can to protect this community from these impacts that we know are coming.

There’s a lot of sand around the Bowl. Let’s not use it as a place to stick our heads.