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The spots for temporary parlets were marked out on Main Street. The spaces will be designed and used for Downtown Street Art on July 27.

Jersey Barriers On North Adams Main Street Mark Spots For Parklets

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The parking spots blocked by Jersey barriers bookending Main Street are not for utility work or VIP parking but for incoming parklets.  
 
Artist Jim Peters and his wife Kathline Carr, Director of Makers Mill, have been charged with designing one of the two temporary parklets - essentially extensions of the sidewalk for pedestrian usage - on Main Street for the upcoming DownStreet Art.
 
The parklets are part of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Berkshire Cultural Resource Center DownStreet Art call for an art project. 
 
This year marks the 10th anniversary of DownStreet Art and artists have been selected to create murals, pop-up art, and the parklets.
 
Currently, the parking spaces are blocked off with Jersey barriers and traffic cones. What appears to be a parallel parking nightmare will soon become a temporary interactive green space that will flow from the sidewalk into the road.
 
Peters said he is in the process of building his earth loom park design. 
 
"It is going to be an arch of natural wood… we will bring in stuff with it like weeds, old clothes, paper, and rags," he said. "We will have some trees cut up and stumps so people will have somewhere where they can sit and weave."
 
He said the looms will come in various sizes so kids and adults alike can interact with the park. 
 
The second parklet is at the other end of Main Street near American Legion Drive and will be designed by another artist. 
 
Peters said someone already took to his spot and wrote: "Driverless Car Bomb Parking" in the space – however, Peters changed the wording to something less hostile.
 
"I have no idea who wrote that there but I changed it to ‘Driverless Boar Band Parking’," he said. "It is going to be covered up eventually anyways."
 
He said he hopes to start putting the parklet together this weekend and have it completely ready for DownStreet Art.
 
"I am making it in my backyard right now and I am going to bring it down in pieces," he said. "It should be cool." 
 
DownStreet Art is July 27.
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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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