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Pittsfield Schools Considers Using Indigenous People Day, Not Columbus

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Department may join the growing movement behind switching out Columbus Day with Indigenous People Day.
 
School Committee member Cynthia Taylor suggested the school change the name when written on the school calendar. The change may be small but the gesture is part of a growing movement to use the weekend to celebrate the original natives of the Americas instead of the person whose "discovery" lead to an invasion of their land.
 
"I've come to realize really, there is nothing to honor about this man. The only thing I can come up with as a positive is I get a day off from the bank," said School Committee Daniel Elias.
 
Taylor said the change of the holiday would line up more with the social studies curriculum and that numerous towns, colleges, and universities throughout the country have been making the change.
 
"Williams College has already done this. A lot of colleges and public schools have already goes this way," she said.
 
The second Monday in October has been recognized as a federal holiday since 1937. It was created to honor Christopher Columbus for discovering the New World — then populated by anywhere from 10 million to 50 million people. But, historical research shows that he wasn't the first European to step foot in the Americas. But when he did get to America, he was atrocious toward Native Americans.
 
In 1992, Berkeley, Calif., first changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People Day. But it has only been in the last three or four years when the trend caught on. In 2016, the Massachusetts towns of Cambridge, Amherst, and Northampton all made the switch. As did the entire state of Vermont (which had never observed Columbus Day as a state holiday).
 
Superintendent Jason McCandless said many states don't celebrate Columbus Day. He hadn't 
 
"We are here now and we know what we know from history, it seems very appropriate," McCandless said of the change.
 
The move won't change the calendar. The schools will still be closed — and the holiday is written into the school's collective bargaining contracts — but the wording will change. So while the day to day impacts are non-existent, it is a symbolic gesture of the school district to honor the indigenous tribes that were here well before Columbus.
 
Along the same lines, the School Department has considered changing the name of the Taconic Braves and the mascot depicting an American Indian. There has been a growing movement among schools and sports teams to rid them of derogatory Native American terms and logos. 

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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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