Berkshire Carousel Breaks Ground On Permanent Home

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Jackie and Jim Shulman tossed the first shovel full of dirt at the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Jim and Jackie Shulman decided a decade ago what gift they wanted to give to the Berkshires. 

On Tuesday, the couple took a momentous step toward completing the Berkshire Carousel project with a groundbreaking for its new home on Center Street.
 
The carousel features 33 hand-carved and painted horses in what grew to become an art and community project - which is the present to the community the Shulmans wanted to give.
 
"This is a historical event. It is the fulfillment of the dreams of many," Jim Schulman said.
 
"Ten years ago we said together we can make it happen. And we made it happen."
 
The carousel project began in 2005 out of a one-car garage on Merrill Road where community volunteers began carving the pieces to the merry-go-round. Over the next decade, more than 400 volunteers chipped in to help. Funding to support the project came from residents and area businesses. 
 
The workshop moved nearly a half dozen times, as has the location of the finished product. The idea was for the carousel to be in Pittsfield, but when that fell through, the organization toyed with the idea of housing it at two different locations in Lanesborough and then one in Dalton.
 
Eventually, a private donor gifted the organization the money to build a home for it on Center Street in Pittsfield.
 
"It's a great location. People can walk to it, and if not, they can drive. It has great accessibility," Executive Director Maria Caccaviello said.
 
Tuesday's ceremony signified the start of building a permanent home for it. Caccaviello says the first phase of the construction is set to start in July and the carousel should be up and running early next year. The first phase will install a small building for bathrooms, a snack bar and a gift shop. A pavilion that once stood at Ponterril will cover the carousel.
 
"It'll be a small carousel, but it's ours," Caccaviello said. 
 
The volunteers will be trained to operate it safety, and the organization expects to be up and running year round.
 
Concurrently, the Berkshire Carousel has launched yet another fundraising campaign to grow the size of the space. Two other phases are planned to open up event space, a larger concession operation, and space for a fully functioning workshop. Although the horses for the Berkshire Carousel are already built, the organization discovered a new revenue stream through the restoration of carousel horses from all over the country.
 
"It's taking a while to sink in that this is actually happening," Caccaviello said of all of the fundraising, planning and work that has gone into building the project.
 

State Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier and Paul Mark both spoke highly of the project.

The project is characterized as a community project because of the large number of donors and volunteers. Some of the funds came from state grants. State Reps. Paul Mark and Tricia Farley-Bouvier were both on hand to help with the groundbreaking.
 
"This has been a long time coming and it is a great project," Mark said. "It's such a beautiful community project that embodies everything this community is about."
 
Farley-Bouvier said she is a carousel "goofball" in that when she goes to amusement parks that's the first ride she goes toward.
 
But, the Berkshire Carousel is even more than just a ride. She remembers seeing all of the raw materials when they first arrived, and she said she is in awe of how the material turned into each piece.
 
"Perseverance does pay off," she said.
 
While state grants and donors - like the Berkshire Bank Foundation, which is providing a grant for the pavilion - helped buy the materials and location, and volunteers put in the work, the project's inception stems from the Shulmans, who came up with the concept and started the organization.
 
"I loved growing up here and I wanted to give back to the community," Jim Schulman said, remembering the days his father ran Jim's House of Shoes on North Street. 

Tags: berkshire carousel,   carousel,   Downtown Pittsfield,   

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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