image description
Mayor Linda Tyer has activated a part of the contract requiring Spectrum to hold a public hearing.

Pittsfield Schedules Public Hearing With Spectrum On Cable Changes

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

The city welcomed Izinna Lytle as the first black woman in the Police Department.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city is invoking a clause in its contract with Spectrum to get answers about changes to television local offerings.
 
Mayor Linda Tyer has scheduled a public hearing for Monday, March 19, at 6 p.m. at the Berkshire Atheneum with the cable company. The company has encrypted its signal and has changed the community television station channels.
 
A clause in the city's contract with the company allows for it to call a public hearing with the company to address such matters.
 
Last week the community television's three channels -- Access Pittsfield, CityLink, and Pittsfield ETV -- were moved from Channels 15, 17 and 18 to 1301, 1302 and 1303. That is coupled with the company moving to an encrypted digital signal requiring residents to get cable boxes.
 
That change is happening throughout the Berkshires and many residents have voiced frustration with the move. City Councilor Kevin Morandi has also requested that Spectrum representatives attend a City Council meeting as well.
 
"I know they don't have to come here but I think we should still hold their feet to the fire," Morandi said.
 
Morandi is particularly concerned with senior citizens who can no longer watch cable on their existing televisions without renting the box from the company. Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell said he's hearing reports of the company's local office running out of cable boxes.
 
"Even if they have the boxes, to try to get one at their office is like trying to get into a New York deli at noontime," Connell said.
 
The public hearing has been billed mostly to talk about the changes with Pittsfield Community Television stations but Tyer encouraged the councilors to raise any issues they are hearing.
 
Spectrum officials were not available to attend Tuesday's council meeting. But the councilors will still ask them to appear in the future.
 
The council also approved four items related to the Berkshire Innovation Center. The center had been a city project for years and now that is switching to the nonprofit Berkshire Innovation Center Inc. With that, many previous agreements such as leases or acceptance of grant money had to be switched from the city to the organization.
 
"There were some complicated structures in place that make this awkward and unwieldy," Tyer said. "We're just unwinding and rescinding the prior structure so the city's obligations are very simple."
 
The move also relinquished liability the city would have to repay the grant funds should the innovation center fail. It also takes away the city's requirement to borrow for construction before the grant funds are distributed.
 
Izinna Lytle was also appointed to the Police Department. Lytle is the department's first black woman on the force.

Tags: cable television,   spectrum,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

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.

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories