Pittsfield Looks Toward Brattle Brook Park Road Repairs
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Commission of Public Services Bruce Collingwood said any work done at the park needs to be approved by the Conservation Commission. That board will meet on Wednesday. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Alexander Bertelli can tell you the entire history of Brattle Brook Park.
But he still doesn't know why he can't get anybody to fix the road, which is in the worst condition it has ever been.
Bertelli has been asking everybody he can - from the mayor on down- in city government to fix the road into the park to no avail.
He says the ruts and potholes make it nearly impassable, even for emergency vehicles should they need to get back there. He said dust is kicking up and piling on people's land. When it rains, the road washes out.
"The road up there is bad. It is an embarrassment," Bertelli told the City Council's public services subcommittee on Monday in his quest to fix the road.
It doesn't take a lot of work either he said. Bertelli says last year the city trucked in "garbage" material - material loaded with tree roots, chunks of blacktop and metal, and carries a stench - and then graded it poorly.
"The material was wrong and the way they spread it was wrong," the Longview Terrace resident said.
He wants the city to contract with a skilled grader operator to fix the road.
"You could have done it for a lot cheaper if you did it right the first time," Bertelli said.
But, alas, Bertelli hit yet another brick wall. Both Commissioner of Public Services Bruce Collingwood and the subcommittee members say they don't have jurisdiction.
"This is the Conservation Commission's jurisdiction," Collingwood said. "We don't do anything unless they've said 'this is what you are allowed to do.'"
On Wednesday, the Conservation Commission will discuss the issue of the road. Ward 3 City Councilor Nicholas Caccamo said he's been in conversation with the conservation agent and the Department of Public Works. Caccamo says they'll be working to determine a plan to fix that road.
"I think there is a better plan that will address some of your concerns," Caccamo, who too has a long history with the park and couldn't ever remember the road being in such poor condition, said.
Bertelli, however, says whenever anything has been done on that road in the past, it wasn't done through the Conservation Commission. Collingwood said everything had gone through the conservation agent.
Collingwood said once he acted on his own and did work on conservation land and "got his hands slapped" so he won't do that again.
"The conservation agent has to approve any improvements we do there," Collingwood said.
However, Collingwood said he was "disappointed" in hearing Bertelli's reports on the type of fill brought onto the road.
Bertelli said the park was bought by the city in 1969 for three purposes: recreation, a park, and conservation. For a number of years the city's Parks Department oversaw the facility and at some point relinquished control to the Conservation Commission.
John Bowling is an engineer and says if the city would simply remove the guardrails, that would allow for easy access and cause less harm to the road.
"This alley way used to be open when I was a kid. It was never restricted like this," he said.
The guardrails were installed a number of years ago to help put a half to illegal dumping and teenagers spinning doughnuts in their vehicles on the park's grounds.
The subcommittee is hoping the Conservation Commission will give the approval to improve the road and city workers will get right to it. The hope is that when the petition reaches the City Council in two weeks, the work will have already been done.
" We are supportive of the petition. We are supportive of getting that road up to speed where it is not a danger," said subcommittee Chairman Anthony Simonelli.
Krol said for the subcommittee, "it is all about making it a priority."
With any luck, the road could receive the Conservation Commission's approval to do the work in the coming weeks. Bertelli wants the work done as soon as possible.
