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The City Council expects to take the meters up at the subcommittee level in August.

Pittsfield Council Preps For Parking Meter Analysis

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council is preparing to start its analysis of the parking meters in August. 
 
A petition had been filed to eliminate meters from the newly constructed Summer Street parking lot. Berkshire Nautilus Owner Jim Ramondetta and manager Glenn McBurney have fought the meters saying it will harm their business and asking for the lot to stay free parking for 90 minutes, as it had been when the Columbus Avenue garage was there.
 
Council Vice President John Krol filed the petition on the gym's behalf and it will next be discussed by the council's Ordinance and Rules subcommittee after being rejected by the Traffic Commission.
 
Councilor At Large Melissa Mazzeo sits on Ordinance and Rules and gave a shot over the bow on Tuesday that she wants all of the information possible about not only the meters in that lot but the entire parking management plan.
 
"We shouldn't be afraid to go out and reevaluate this whole parking plan... I just want to have as much information of the past as we possibly can," Mazzeo said. "If it is a detriment to the community we shouldn't be afraid to stop and fix it."
 
Mazzeo would like to know what lots are planned to get metered or not, where they are and how they are used, she'd like a copy of the originally parking study (which is available here), details about maintenance needs of garages, and information about the demand issues at the First Street lot. 
 
Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell wants a report on the usage of each meter to determine where meters would best be placed. And Councilor At Large Peter White would like a report from the Council on Aging about how many seniors are using the Melville Street lot spaces outside of the designated ones for the center.
 
"I really think we need to look at everything. I would like to see the performance of these kiosks and let's make some definite changes," Connell, who has been pushing for meters to be added to Wendell Avenue for a couple of years to no avail, said.
 
And Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi wants "concrete numbers" showing the revenues and expenses. iBerkshires recently took a look at the finances of the meters to date, which can be read here.
 
An updated look at the parking meters has been called for by just about everyone - the public, the council, Downtown Pittsfield Inc., and downtown businesses - to determine the effectiveness of the parking meter plan and make any needed changes.
 
"We hear we don't want to have winners and losers in this but we have that," Krol said, saying the current system is not equitable across the board.
 
The plan the consultants was never fully implemented. Concessions were made on the plan by Mayor Linda Tyer's administration when the meters first went into place to leave some timed parking spots on side streets. Some of the lots were also kept timed but only until renovations happened - both the First Street and the Summer Street lots have recently been redone.
 
The parking plan was created in 2014 and the meters were installed in January of 2017. The council now has two years of data to look at before making decisions as to what changes to make to the meter system.
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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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