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The firefighters delivered the gifts Friday morning.

Pittsfield Firefighters Donate Christmas Gifts to DCF

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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The union members loaded a truck full of presents for 25 children.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The firefighters union wants children under DCF's care to have a merry Christmas.
 
The Fire Department's IAFF 2647 members donated and delivered presents Friday morning for the state Department of Children and Families to give to 25 children.
 
The social workers will now take those presents out and deliver them to the families.
 
"Every year, the firefighters union takes $2,000 out of their own money, goes out and shops, and tries to help 20 kids in need," said firefighter Jim Heath.
 
Heath was joined by fellow union members Tim Conroy, Matthew Bainbridge, and Devon Whalen to deliver the nicely wrapped gifts. The union had shopped for every child, making sure they got a mix of clothing and toys.
 
"They usually get about four or five gifts each," Conroy said.
 
The specific presents are exactly what the individual children need. According to Jen Gokey, who organizes the program on behalf of DCF, the social workers make the Christmas list for their clients. Those are then compiled, with each child being assigned a number. Those numbers are then sent out to community partners, like the firefighters, to shop.
 
"We do it for most of the kids on our caseloads and we do it anonymously with names and numbers that aren't associated with the family," Gokey said. "We have so many different people who do it in the community. There are so many people who do it and the firefighters are just one."
 
Gokey said the relationship with the firefighters has been a longstanding one, dating back at least a decade. 
 
"They've done this for a number of years and it is a great program," Gokey said.
 
Overall, DCF works with an array of community partners and thousands of gifts for the children. The social workers now get to do the fun part of delivering them.

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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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