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The volunteers did everything from raking to painting to marking trails.

Volunteers Clean Up Pittsfield's Clapp Park

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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The work was focused mostly in the area of the Little League field.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On a cold and windy morning, some 40 volunteers gave up their afternoon to spruce up Clapp Park.
 
Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity organized the clean up as part of its neighborhood revitalization efforts. Lowe's, Habitat for Humanity's national partner, awarded the local organization $40,000 to invest back into west Pittsfield. 
 
"The Lowe's grant is helping to fund the new splash pad," said Dawn Giftos of Central Berkshire Habitat. 
 
The city is about to undertake a massive project at Clapp Park that came together through multiple organizations. The Rotary Club raised money to put in a splash pad, the Buddy Pellerin Field Committee raised money to improve the baseball field, and the state awarded a grant for numerous other park projects.
 
Habitat donated to the splash pad aspect of the project and then got volunteers together to clean up the park on Friday as it looks toward the renovations of the park starting in the Spring. 
 
"They're doing trail building, painting, they're cleaning up the dugouts and raking," Giftos said.
 
Lowe's sent a little more than a dozen people from stores in Hadley and Ware to help. 
 
"We've got 13,14 people here. It is really nice. We're always looking forward to these events," said Steven White of Lowe's. 
 
About a dozen volunteers from the Rotary Club pitched in and Taconic High School carpentry students and All Seasons Realty Group joined the effort.
 
Together the dugouts were repainted, trails were cleaned up and marked, doors and restrooms were repaired, and an array general landscaping projects were done. The city's Parks and Open Spaces Manager Jim McGrath said much of the work was focused on the area near the Little League because for the most part that is kept up by volunteers.
 
"We're super happy to have all of these volunteers here helping at Clapp Park. It is all part of a larger effort to revitalize the park and we are super pleased with the turnout," McGrath said.
 
The effort is just one of many Giftos said is being done as part of the $40,000 grant. She said Habitat for Humanity will be undertaking small projects throughout the western portion of the city with the intent of "improving quality of life" and making the city more attractive.

Tags: cleanup,   habitat for humanity,   public parks,   Rotary,   volunteers,   

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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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