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Volunteers clean up Fred Garner Park.

Riverfest Promotes Use of Housatonic; Cleans Up Pittsfield Park

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Various organizations brought out display tables to educate people about the ecosystem.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — To celebrate Earth Day the Housatonic Valley Association did what you'd expect: they cleaned up a city park and promoted use of the river.
 
The group held a river festival on Saturday, when dozens of volunteers and numerous environmental groups cleaned up Fred Garner park, provided information and education about the Housatonic River, and welcomed paddlers canoed all the way to the Long Island Sound to promote the river.
 
"We started out with about 21 boats yesterday. ... We expect to have 126 boats in total joining us. We'll get to Long Island Sound by May 1," said Lynn Werner, executive director of the Housatonic Valley Association. "It's to bring awareness to the river and how it has come back from abuse."
 
From natural beauty to the wildlife, the entire ecosystem along the river is being promoted to show people the benefits of the natural resource. The river is the focus of the Housatonic Valley Association, which has worked to preserve the system for the last 75 years. 
 
"We work from the top of the watershed all the way to the Long Island Sound," Werner said.
 
The trip hasn't been easy so far. In just the first day, the paddlers ran into dozens of beaver dams. And when they get to the end, the final stretch goes against the current. 
 
There will be an array of events coupled with the canoe trip all the way south. Pittsfield's stop on Saturday included the festival, in which other conservation groups joined. The groups had informational tables, the city provided recycling bins to give away as well as two compost bins and two bulky waste stickers. Coupled with those informational tables, the volunteers cleaned up the park.
 
"We wanted people to do something as well as learn something," Alison Dixon, community engagement manager for HVA, said. 
 
Dixon said the group teamed up with Berkshire Environmental Action Team to organize the event. The tables focused on providing information about the water ecosystem as well as simple things residents can do to improve water quality.
 
"The idea was to get across some good habits to adopt," Dixon said.
 
The river weaves through the city and has a well known history of pollution from the Pittsfield's former industrial years. But, the river has been becoming healthier and is still a resource. 
 
In promotion of the river, Werner said the organization runs other program beyond trying to protect the watershed. She said there are organized canoe trips for both adults and children to experience what the outdoors has to offer.
 
"We do paddling trips for adults and we've started to do the same for kids and many of them have never been on the river," Werner said. 
 
She said it is "transformative" for many of the teens who take the trips. For those who are younger, seeing and handling river critters — collected by environmentalist to assess water quality — does the same. Werner said when the young boys feel the critters in their hands or girls kiss a frog, the technology so many children bury their face is becomes an after thought.
 
The river is a natural resource that the Housatonic River Association wants others to appreciate it and protect it.

Tags: cleanup,   Housatonic,   riverfest,   

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North Adams Regional Reopens With Ribbon-Cutting Celebration

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz welcomes the gathering to the celebration of the hospital's reopening 10 years to the day it closed. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The joyful celebration on Thursday at North Adams Regional Hospital was a far cry from the scene 10 years ago when protests and tears marked the facility's closing
 
Hospital officials, local leaders, medical staff, residents and elected officials gathered under a tent on the campus to mark the efforts over the past decade to restore NARH and cut the ribbon officially reopening the 136-year-old medical center. 
 
"This hospital under previous ownership closed its doors. It was a day that was full of tears, anger and fear in the Northern Berkshire community about where and how residents would be able to receive what should be a fundamental right for everyone — access to health care," said Darlene Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years. It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated county wide system of care." 
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and closed on March 28, 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC was able to reopen the ER as an emergency satellite facility and slowly restored and enhanced medical services including outpatient surgery, imaging, dialysis, pharmacy and physician services. 
 
But it would take a slight tweak in the U.S. Health and Human Services' regulations — thank to U.S. Rep. Richie Neal — to bring back inpatient beds and resurrect North Adams Regional Hospital 
 
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