Demise of Olivia's Overlook garden in Lenox generates interest

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It was a quiet little garden about which not many people seemed to know until it was about to disappear. Since news of its demise, scheduled to take place this week, what its volunteer creator calls Your Hearts Garden at Olivia’s Overlook in Lenox has attracted quite a lot of attention. The 1,000 bulbs were donated over a seven-year period by several area businesses— including Ward’s Nursery, Wal-Mart, Taft Farms and Richmond Nursery — and yearly bloom on top of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline right-of-way. These perennials are part of a structure that the company says has become too big and could create a problem, says Mel Scott, spokesperson for the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, which is owned by the El Paso Corporation and headquartered in Houston, Tex. The creator of the garden began planting bulbs there in 1995 while living at Kripalu. That was three years after he legally changed his name to Heartman, to reflect a mission: to promote the use of what he says is a universal symbol, the heart. He has since built a stone structure around the heart shaped garden. The heart is a universal ancient symbol he says, which kids draw all over the world. He would like to see the symbol replace the other well-known symbols: skyscrapers, pyramids. He says the heart symbolizes wisdom, the kind that gets overshadowed by other cultural values. He planted his first heart garden while in high school, for a day care located at his school in South Windsor, Conn. Kids and teachers loved it and he was inspired by the response. “It’s not a lover’s thing,” he says of the heart, but it’s a good symbol because “it doesn’t threaten anybody; it’s non-denominational.” But the garden is more grass-roots than all of that. He says kids come to sit there, adults visit on their way to work. It turns out, he says, that “people get it” — they come to collect themselves and then move on with their day. Heartman planted the first bulbs after consulting with Berkshire Natural Resources Council, which owns the land, he says. Now that it seems the garden will be destroyed, he hopes he can move the garden to another spot. He’d prefer to keep it here, but he says Tennessee Gas Pipeline representatives say they won’t bend the regulations. They stretched regulations for the creation of the overlook and for the parking lot, so why not for the garden, he asks. The garden must go because of the excavation work that he did in recent years, says Scott. Scott says the company probably should have stopped the project years ago. It was when they learned of the excavation that they decided to put a halt to it. Scott says that in some rural areas, farmers harvest land on a pipeline right of way, but such a project would be negotiated with the landowner at the time of the right-of-way agreement. No such gardening plan was made with the Berkshire Natural Resources Council which owns the land. He said he doesn’t know how far below the ground the pipeline is located on that spot. Scott suggests that Heartman put it elsewhere, such as in one end of the parking lot. He says the beauty of the overlook won’t be jeopardized by the removal of the garden. Meanwhile, several garden enthusiasts plan to be on hand when the bulldozer comes.
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North Adams Public Schools To Host Grade Configuration Forum

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — North Adams Public Schools will host a community forum to discuss updates on grade configurations and logistics for the 2024-2025 school year.
 
The forum will take place on Wednesday, May 15 at 6 PM. The forum will take place in a hybrid format at the Welcome
Center at Brayton Elementary School and via Zoom which can be accessed by going to napsk12.org/ZoomLinkMay15.
 
Forums are open to anyone interested in learning more about the logistics planned for the upcoming school year, including, transportation, arrival and dismissal times, class sizes, and school choice updates. The forum will also allow participants to ask questions and provide feedback.
 
For questions, please contact the Family and Community Outreach Coordinator, Emily Schiavoni at 413-412-1106 or at eschiavoni@napsk12.org.
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