Editorial

The Candidates Debate

If you missed the August 6, 2025, debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters between Jorja Marsden and Sally Underwood-Miller for Stockbridge Select Board (SB), you missed a moment of joy in American politics. When was the last time you felt happy about politics or politicians — felt the stress slip away and a smile take its place? When was the last time you heard warm applause, not polite dismissal?

I watched the debate and came away with the strongest conviction of my 50 years in Stockbridge: I support them both. We need them both, and we need them now. They should run until both are elected and in their seats at our Stockbridge Select Board table. After the debate many mentioned wanting both women. If that means Chuck or Jamie steps down, well that’s one idea; others suggested a five-person SB.

We need committed, competent Board members unafraid of work, and able to, you know, talk without creating tension…socially interact without sneering…walk side by side without trying to trip the other one up. Mostly, and immediately, we need a Select Board that is, as intended, the head of our government. By law, the Select Board is our chief executive, we have never chosen to have a mayor.

When was the last time politics made you feel energized? Was it August 6 when you heard a politician acknowledge a problem and suggest solving it together? When was the last time you felt like standing up and speaking out? Was it August 6 when you heard a woman running for office say she wanted to hear public comment first in a meeting because “…the people may have thought of something we didn’t.”

We have been languishing and not without cause. There is a bureaucratic approach in our village now that was never Stockbridge. Someone decided that if something is a SB decision, the SB doesn’t want to hear from the people? Someone decided that if it is legal that is the only obligation of a government to its people and not if it is also kind or nice or just plain friendly?

On August 26, we don’t have to slouch toward the voting booth, hoping we are voting for the lesser of two evils. On the contrary, we have two good, solid choices. Smile!

You know why they agreed on so much? Because actually there is truth and fact and the basics of our form of government. They agreed we have freedom of speech, protection under the law, and human rights. They agreed this is a representative government and our representatives are intended to represent the will of the people. They agreed that Stockbridge has a Town Meeting form of democratic rule wherein the SB is the executive and Town Meeting is the legislature.

One candidate so acknowledged and the other said, “What she said.”

Carole Owens
Executive Editor

by Carole Owens, Executive Editor

News

SU FYI

1. Our warmest congratulations to Jay and Chantelle Rhind on the graduation of their daughter from the Marine Corps Officer Candidates School.

Jay writes, I thought I’d send this to see if you want to place it in the next issue of SU. After six long and grueling weeks (that included Covid, 13 stitches in her leg, a concussion, pinched nerves in her spine) our daughter, Julia, graduated from The Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, VA; Julia is now a US Marine. Next May Julia will graduate from The College of The Holy Cross in Worcester as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps. Roughly 14,100 women out of 183,000 are active duty Marines. Thank you, Jay Rhind

2. Do you know if Stockbridge has a public safety policy? Makes sense, public safety — the safety of the citizens of Stockbridge — may be government’s job #1.

Do you know if our public safety policy has a component related to working with ICE if ICE comes to town?

In addition to the nitty-gritty of coping with a venue as large as Tanglewood in Stockbridge, do you know if we have a policy specifically related to the possibility of an attack in large venues?

Did you know there are cameras all around Town? Do you know where?

There are cameras in Town Offices, do you know in which rooms?

Although there are elements of public safety policy that cannot be shared with the public — it would interfere with effectiveness – most of it is public information and the public has a right to know. In some municipalities the public is involved in the process of creating the policy or at minimum the process is conducted at an open meeting.

SU will invite Town Administrator Michael Canales to write his column “From the Desk of the Town Administrator” on this most interesting subject, and SU will continue its reporting.

3. Our Cultural Council wants to hear from us. Dear Carole, If possible the Stockbridge Cultural Council would like to post the attached information in your newsletter Stockbridge Updates. Here is the survey which can be returned to the town drop box. Thank you very much, Co-Chair Anne Ferril and Treasurer Jennie Bernard.

Online Community Survey for Stockbridge Cultural Council 2025

Click here to access the survey. Print out — Fill out — Drop in Town Drop box

News

Events

1. Norman Rockwell Museum presents interactive programming inspired by the art of Norman Rockwell and Walter Wick, creator of the I Spy books for children. Try your hand at making art inspired by these beloved illustrators. You’ll want to return again and again with a variety of fun and engaging experiences for the whole family; it’s the perfect way to spend some quality time together! Free with Admission, Drop-in – no reservation required.

First look — Early Announcement Norman Rockwell Museum is pleased to announce the presentation of Jazz Age Illustration, opening at the Museum on November 8, 2025. Organized by the Delaware Art Museum and premiering there last year, this groundbreaking exhibition is the first major survey of American illustration from 1919 to 1942—a vibrant and transformative era of innovation, evolving styles, social change, and expanding popular media. Featuring more than 120 original works by the era’s most influential illustrators, Jazz Age Illustration captures the sights, sounds, and spirit of a nation in transition. The exhibition explores a wide range of themes—from the glamour of flappers and jazz musicians to the rise of cinematic stardom, and the vibrant cultural flowering of the Harlem Renaissance. It highlights how illustration both reflected and influenced the evolving identity of modern American life between the two World Wars, including the emergence of publications created for and by Black audiences during this dynamic era.

2. The Berkshire Waldorf High School announces the sale of all furniture at the former location of the school at 14 Pine Street. BWHS is also planning a GRAND OPENING on October 19, 2025, 12pm — 3pm. Contact Steve Sagarin, Executive Director, 298-3800 for more information.

3. Pickleball Tournament to Benefit Berkshire Bounty Registration is open from August 1 through September 13, 2025, with the tournament taking place on Sunday, September 21, 2025, at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Kilpatrick Athletic Center (Rain date Sunday, September 28). Players may register as a team in either of two Divisions: Advanced-Beginner/Intermediate OR Advanced Intermediate/Advanced Division. The entry fee is $100 per team, with all proceeds benefiting Berkshire Bounty. REGISTER: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/202picklt/event/25pickleball/

4. A timely tip from Berkshire Botanical Garden — This week in the garden: sharpen those mower blades, sneak in a late pea planting, and save your best garlic for fall — your future self will thank you! And if your tomatoes are cracking up (literally), blame the weather, not your green thumb — just slice around the scars and enjoy them anyway.>5. In July, 140 people attended the Chesterwood Ice cream social. If you missed it — there is a repeat performance — August 24, 2025 — 3pm – 4pm www.chesterwood.org

6. Berkshire Natural Resources Council is excited to partner with Wild Med to bring you the 21-Day Challenge — a certification CPR and First Aid Course.

Learn to prevent & treat the most common and most serious issues

Engage for 10-15 minutes/day (can be done anytime, online and at your own pace)

Join two live online skills labs (multiple times available to choose from)

Receive a CPR + First Aid certification

Register by September 1 to participate. The course is $97, and all proceeds are donated back to BNRC. Gain the peace of mind that comes from being prepared, while also supporting BNRC’s mission.

News

Notes from Stockbridge Bowl Stewardship Commission, July 24, 2025, Hybrid meeting

1. Jamie Minacci called the meeting to order and began by reading an announcement she said would be read at the start of every meeting – Pursuant to Mass General Law:

Meetings may be recorded by anyone after informing the Chair

Anyone wishing to speak must first receive permission from the Chair before speaking

Members attending remotely must be announced

An agenda contains the items the Chair reasonably assumes will be discussed — all may not be discussed

People may bring up an item for discussion as permitted by law

2. Minacci then announced who was present remotely and repeated the imperatives about speaking without permission from the chair. The public may bring up a subject not on the agenda if permitted by law.

3. Harvesting is commencing

4. Flotation devices (sometimes called buoys or bubbles) must be used when swimming off boat ramp or in other areas where a swimmer and a boat might be in proximity. Sally Underwood-Miller reminded the Commission that if state law were enforced no swimming would be allowed off boat ramp

5. A discussion of the infeasibility of enforcement followed and there was agreement that education was important

6. Michael Nathan was elected new Chair

News

Notes from the Cemetery Commission, July 29, 2025, Hybrid meeting

The Chair announced plans for a Revolutionary War monument across the street from Town Cemetery where the other stone monuments are (near Children’s Chime Tower). The invitation referenced “residents and stake holders”

Peter Williams “assumed” the stake holders were “the Munsee’s.”

Each member offered the same opinion: they wished to thank the committee for their invitation but thought it more appropriate to decline as it was beyond the scope of the commission.

The cost of restoration of two buildings on the grounds of the cemetery was too high. Alternative plans, for example, replacing the roof and lentels was discussed.

Editor’s note: The goals of the Committee appear to be to create a Revolutionary War Memorial and celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary. It does not appear these meetings are public. SU will inquire and if taped request a recording. Important matters that relate to our relations with the Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation, in what form the names of those who fought will be recorded for posterity, which names and whether they will by listed by ethnicity, are being discussed as well as the all important if mundane topic of parking. The public may like to be informed and join the discussion. SU will inquire.

News

Notes from the Select Board meeting, August 7, 2025, Hybrid meeting

The Select Board interviewed two candidates for Highway Superintendent.

On August 13, the Select Board offered the position to Robert Navin.

News

Notes from the Affordable Housing Trust, August 7, 2025, Hybrid meeting

The Chair read a proclamation thanking Construct’s Jane Ralph for her nine years of service. She is retiring at the end August 2025.

The Chair reviewed a $20,000 grant request from Riverbrook to reline a sewer pipe using trenchless technology. It was conditionally approved 6-0 pending review by Town Counsel.

The Board reviewed two requests from Construct for a total of $70,500.

A. The Chair reviewed a $25,000 rental assistance proposal from Construct, modeled after existing programs in place in Lee, Lenox and Great Barrington. The Board expressed general support, interest in learning more about the program’s administration and regulatory eligibility framework.

B. The Board discussed a funding request from Construct for $45,500 to replace four aging roofs that are over 20 years old and due for replacement, with a possible vote at the August 21 meeting.

The two new members are Jamie Minacci, who is representing the Select Board and newly appointed member Coke Forbes.

Watch Now!

SU TV

The Tutorial – How Local Government Works

An interview with Chris Brittain and Bob Jones

Perspective

From the Desk of Peter Dillon, Superintendent, Berkshire Hills Regional School District (BHRSD)

Changes to Berkshire Hills’ Out-of-School Program

For the past fifteen years Berkshire Hills Regional School District received a federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant to fund its afterschool, before school and summertime programs. In addition to providing essential childcare for working families, its primary aim was to extend instruction in core subjects. This year’s program, called CLEO, will be operating without those federal funds and with an additional goal.

CLEO’s Program Coordinator JP Okin says that thanks to belt-tightening and a new tuition structure, the program will still be able to serve 60 students in grades one through eight, and to do it over a longer time. (While CLEO had historically run for 30 weeks, it will now go all year.)

It will also continue to partner with local nonprofits such as Flying Cloud, Greenagers, and Berkshire Botanical Garden. Responsiveness to local conditions rather than to official mandates is the secret to CLEO’s success.

“The state office was saying that we needed to be doing lessons that looked like school,” Okin says, “but overwhelmingly the feedback that I’ve been getting from parents, students, and teachers is that that is not what our students need.”

A growing body of evidence affirms that among the long-term consequences of Covid era deprivation is a sharp decline in interpersonal skills. “We’ve decided that we need to be focusing on plain old fashioned socialization,” Okin explains. “Kids need to be engaged together in fun, structured activities, the skills that kids have learned for generations from games, playing baseball or soccer or Monopoly.”

Molly Murray, CLEO’s Muddy Brook Elementary Site Coordinator, agrees after assessing last year’s program. “The more hands on, the better outcomes and the more happiness we saw.”

CLEO’s summer camp was so much fun that some of the 52 participants lingered after the final dismissal, unwilling to leave.

“There were lots of games, lots of fun, and lots of tears on the last day,” said Okin.

Eleven more BHRSD middle schoolers just wrapped a CLEO-organized summer program at Greenagers’ April Hill campus in Egremont, gaining gardening skills. No one was turned away this summer, an open door policy they hope to maintain.

The program can sustain itself without 21st CCLC funds mostly through Title 1 funding, federal support which is targeted toward school districts with a high percentage of low income families. (BHRSD’s low income rate for the 2024-2025 school year was 43%, the first time that number exceeded the state average.)

Additionally, Berkshire United Way has increased its support for CLEO to $50,000, and BHRSD expects to be re-allocated a state After School and Out of School Time (ASOST) grant.

But while the program will remain no-cost for low-income families, others will be asked to pay $10 per day for afterschool and $5 for before school. (Actual costs run to about $26 per day per student.) The program is achieving cost-savings by reducing Okin’s role from full-time to half-time, locating all activities at Muddy Brook Elementary rather than across campuses, limiting the number of community partners and, most significantly, by cutting back late bus offerings from four to two.

With the picture uncertain for so many public entities, creative adaptability is in order, and Berkshire HIlls’ CLEO program is, fortunately blessed with that quality. Butterfly Lionel

Perspective

Health Care in Berkshire County — An Octogenarian’s Point of View

By Harold French

I keep hearing people say they want more development. These are the same people who are “concerned” about Global warming. You can’t have both. Every time someone develops a piece of land some more green space is lost. Build a house and pave the driveway and you have developed a heatsink to add to the warming.

We are all domed by the current state of high-cost housing. We have a great shortage of medical people. New medical providers can’t afford to buy a house here and set up a practice. Remember that you are not going to get an established doctor to drop his practice and start over here. We need newly minted doctors who can come and stay for years before retirement, but we can’t get them because of the cost of housing plus the cost of repaying student loans.

On a recent visit to Baystate Hospital, every person in the large waiting room was from Berkshire County. All had the same story. They couldn’t find a doctor in Berkshire County or didn’t trust the ones they found. They were concerned about the reputation of Berkshire Medical Center.

Perspective

The New Kid on The Block

By Carole Owens

Berkshire Preservation Inc (BPI) — who we are and what we are up to.

Preserving Life — Land — Heritage

We are here to help — in whatever way we can. It is as simple as that. We are blessed with a skilled Board and a commitment to preserve our land and our heritage for the next generations so they might enjoy, and feel pride in, what we have. To explain, here are four examples of what we are doing.

Preserving Life

BPI helped secure “star power” for an upcoming fundraising event.

When, following a stroke, 20 minutes is the difference between life impaired or life unimpaired, every minute is precious.

Emergency medical service workers are the unsung heroes of the Berkshires. They are there when we need them. Now they need us.

Southern Berkshire Ambulance needs ambulances. Did you know – primary 911 service to 6 towns, advanced paramedic intercept to several additional towns, and mutual aid coverage for all 18 towns of South County. These pros need state of the art ambulances. Ambulances can be more than transport — they can serve as emergency rooms on wheels, delivering life-saving care en route.

Preserving Land

BPI is actively raising money to purchase land for conservation.

It is time for a local landowner to sell a very special piece of land here in Stockbridge. It is land filled with beauty and history. At the same time he, like other locals, is anxious that it be preserved rather than developed. Even if he is sacrificing a greater profit in the open market. BPI salutes the effort and is raising money to purchase and preserve the land.

Preserving Heritage

An officer and board member of BPI, a great gentleman, facilitated purchase of an outbuilding at an historic site to restore the original “look” of the grounds and also generate rental income for the nonprofit.

Another board member is studying the possibility to convert a large historic structure into affordable housing — a double win for our community.

Later this month we will meet with Kripalu and investigate saving an original Shadowbrook building on the grounds.

There are many ways to help. Money is one. BPI is willing to try them all — raising money, lending manpower, equipment, and expertise. Join us in preserving our health, heritage, and habitat.

by Carole Owens

The Last Word

Reader to Reader

Carole,

My husband Mike and I had so much fun with you and Patrick eating lobster at Stockbridge Bowl.

I also want let you know that we purchased four peaches at the Stockbridge Farmers’ Market earlier in the week. They were best peaches I’ve ever tasted in my life.

Brenda Arsenault-Carr
Dighton, MA

Dear Carole,

I became concerned after not being permitted to turn on my Zoom video when speaking at a Select Board meeting. I don’t always keep the video on but prefer to turn it on when I am speaking. I followed up with an email to Michael Canales our town administrator and so as not to take it out of context I am forwarding the email exchange that we had about the newly adopted select board practice of not allowing participants to turn on their video. Will this apply to all committee meetings? Please note that e-mails to and from municipal officials are considered public records by the Secretary of State. Confidentiality should not be expected.

How do you feel about this?

Anita Schwerner

—-Original Message—–

From: ANITA SCHWERNER

Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2025 3:38 PMy

To: Canales, Michael

Subject: Zoom video

Hi Michael,

Are Zoom participants on Select Board meetings permitted to turn on their video?

Thanks in advance for your response,

Anita Schwerner

On Aug 15, 2025, at 11:08?AM, Canales, Michael wrote:

?Hi Anita,

No. While I have enabled the security setting that prevents participants from turning on their video themselves, we do not actively permit it during Select Board meetings. This security measure was adopted after two prior public meetings were disrupted by the display of pornographic images. I have also recommended to the secretaries of the board that they consider enabling this setting instead of using the default, which allows participants to turn on their video.

Thank you for your understanding.

Michael J. Canales
Stockbridge Town Administrator
P.O. Box 417
50 Main Street
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Email: TownAdministrator@stockbridge-ma.gov
Phone: 413-298-4170 ext 100

Please note that e-mails to and from municipal officials are considered public records by the Secretary of State. Confidentiality should not be expected.

—–Original Message—–

From: ANITA SCHWERNER

Sent: Friday, August 15, 2025 11:35 AM

To: Canales, Michael

Subject: Re: Zoom video

Michael,

I don’t understand or agree with this. Why now? Weren’t those incidents several years ago? When was the last incident? Video can be shut down quickly if something is inappropriate. It seems like your actions are overkill and demonstrate a lack of trust in the public. No public comments, no video, what’s next?

Anita Schwerner

Begin forwarded message:

From: “Canales, Michael”

Subject: RE: Zoom video

Date: August 15, 2025 at 3:12:35?PM EDT

To: ANITA SCHWERNER

Anita,

The most recent incident occurred during a Finance Committee meeting in spring 2025, not “several years ago.” While participants can continue to watch meetings live and provide input during designated public comment periods on agenda items, the practice of disabling participant video was adopted to prevent disruptive incidents and protect the integrity of the meeting.

I respectfully disagree with your assessment that this measure is “overkill” or reflects a lack of trust in the public. It is not a matter of mistrust, but a reasonable safeguard informed by actual experience, including instances where inappropriate content was displayed during public meetings. The ability for participants, including yourself, to be visible on video is not essential to meaningful participation, and this approach ensures meetings proceed without interruption while still allowing full public access and engagement.

Michael J. Canales
Stockbridge Town Administrator
P.O. Box 417
50 Main Street
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Email: TownAdministrator@stockbridge-ma.gov
Phone: 413-298-4170 ext 100

Please note that e-mails to and from municipal officials are considered public records by the Secretary of State. Confidentiality should not be expected.