Guest Column: Bans on Plastic Bags Gaining Ground

I am pleased to announce that at last night's town meeting (Monday, June 20), Adams banned single-use plastic bags. (Article 25). It was a remarkable unanimous vote by the members of the town meeting.
 
Recently, there have been a series of single-use plastic bag bans. There has been a ban in Lee, a ban in Lenox, and last night a ban in Adams. Lenox was done by the Board of Health. In Lee, the ban on single-use plastic bags was done by town meeting — where it won by a considerable margin. In a similar manner, Lee and Lenox banned the use of Styrofoam.
 
What is less commonly known is my role in these bans. The ban on Styrofoam and single-use plastic bags in Lee and Lenox, and the ban on single-use plastic bags in Adams all started out with citizen's petitions initiated by myself and filed in 2015 with the respective town clerks. Citizens' petitions were also filed in Dalton.

Three out of four ain't bad, I am still hopeful about Dalton.
 

In Lee, Peter Hoffman, chair of the Lee Recycling Commission, took over the reins and the guy was a maestro.  In Lenox, Eric Federer of the Environmental Committee was the workhorse. In Adams, Board of Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey Snoonian and Town Moderator Edward Driscoll were the driving forces. I am so grateful to all these heroes for taking my tabled petition, investing such large amounts of time as I know these things take, and being such an inspiration to their communities. All of these people should also be recipients of the Hero of the Ocean Award as I was.
 
Last year, with my advice and inspiration, Brad Verter was able to get both Styrofoam and single-use plastic bags banned in Williamstown. I was able to have Pittsfield ban Styrofoam, and these activities are chronicled here.
 
In March 2014, I filed a petition to ban single-use plastic bags in Pittsfield, a petition that is now still in front of the Pittsfield Green Commission.

Rinaldo Del Gallo is a local attorney and civic activist. He is currently a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state Senate.

Pittsfield Celebrates Robert 'Bob' Presutti on Arbor Day

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:33PM / Friday, April 26, 2024

Bob Presutti, right, is presented the Hebert Award in 2017 for his volunteer efforts at Springside Park. He died in 2023 at age 88.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A tree has been planted next to the Berkshire Athenaeum in honor of local "giant" Robert Presutti.

Officials celebrated Arbor Day on Friday by installing a commemorative plaque next to the American elm sapling. This is a tree that James McGrath, the city's park program manager, said Presutti would have been particularly proud of.

"Today is a day where we yes, celebrate trees, but today is also a day where here in the city we intentionally try to acknowledge the good work of folks in our community who spend their time and their efforts and their talents to make Pittsfield a more beautiful place," he said to a crowd of about 20 people.

"Today we are honoring a longtime community volunteer named Bob Presutti. I'm sure a lot of you here know Bob and know his contributions to the city, not only when it comes to trees and parks but also to the Retired Senior Volunteer Program."

The longtime volunteer passed away last year at the age of 88. He contributed more than 10,600 hours to RSVP and had great impacts on the Parks Department over the years from sharing his knowledge and talents to ensuring that workers were safe when working on trees.

"This morning I went through my emails to see how many emails Bob Presutti sent me since the year 2001 when I started with the city. Bob Presutti sent me 14,000 emails and nearly every single one of those was about trees," McGrath said, prompting laughter and smiles from attendees.

One thread struck him as particularly important because it showed Presutti's empathy when it comes to the safety of city workers while caring for trees.

"There were multiple emails from Bob about the need to get the Parks Department maintenance guys into a program learning about chainsaw safety and learning about ladder safety. He was really into making certain that our city workers were well cared for and had all of the instruction that they needed and in fact, he even offered his own time and services after he became certified to teach our city workers," McGrath said.