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Wally, a 26-foot fiberglass Stegosaurus, is spending the summer at his birthplace for restoration work.
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Wally the Stegosaurus Departs for Restoration Summer

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Wally was hoisted from his Berkshire Museum home and onto a flatbed Friday morning to take a trip to his birthplace in New York for some freshening up. 
 
The 1,200-pound Stegosaurus sculpture is a favorite feature of the local museum and has stood guard near its entrance since 1997. Created by Louis Paul Jonas Studios in Hudson, N.Y., Wally spent his first 30 years at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Cleveland commissioned a twin, "Steggie II," to take his place from the original casts.
 
Wearing a mask just in case, the fiberglass Wally was carefully lifted by Berkshire Crane and Logistics onto a trailer for the 40-mile trek back to the Hudson studio for some much-needed repairs of his 50-year-old body. He's expected to stay in quarantine for most of the summer before returning to the museum in the fall.
 
A number of people — keeping careful social distancing — took pictures or watched from their cars on the cold, rainy morning.
 
The museum posted Wally's journey on its Facebook page so people could catch a glimpse of him driving by. Banners that read "Thank you for doing your part to make COVID-19 extinct" were attached to both sides of his 26-foot-long body. 
 
"We hope that catching a glimpse of Wally in the wild provides a brief respite for everyone who comes out to see him. It’s not every day that a Stegosaurus roams the Berkshires," Executive Director Jeff Rodgers wrote in announcing the trip. "Wally will be missed, but we are happy he will be receiving a much-needed restoration so that our community can enjoy him for many years to come."
 
Wally is only the second sculpture made from the mold created for the Sinclair Dinoland pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1964-1965. Dinoland was sponsored by the Sinclair Oil Corp., known for its green brontosaurus logo. Jonas is known for his work on natural history exhibits and worked with paleontologists to craft the Dinoland sculptures that later ended up in museums around the country. Another of Wally's brothers is at the Quarry Visitor Center in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. 
 
When he arrived in Pittsfield in 1997, a contest was held to name him. The museum chose Levi Bissell's suggestion of Wally because of the Stegosaurus' walnut-sized brain. 
 
This is Wally's second return to the Jonas studio, where he was reconditioned in 1997 before being placed on the museum's front lawn on South Street. The museum is currently closed to the public during the novel coronavirus pandemic but hopes to reopen in May.

Tags: Berkshire Museum,   

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Pittsfield CPA Committee Funds Half of FY24 Requests

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A few projects are not getting funded by the Community Preservation Committee because of a tight budget.

The projects not making the cut were in the historic preservation and open space and recreation categories and though they were seen as interesting and valuable projects, the urgency was not prevalent enough for this cycle.

"It's a tough year," Chair Danielle Steinmann said.

The panel made its recommendations on Monday after several meetings of presentations from applications. They will advance to the City Council for final approval.  

Two cemetery projects were scored low by the committee and not funded: A $9,500 request from the city for fencing at the West Part Cemetery as outlined in a preservation plan created in 2021 and a $39,500 request from the St. Joseph Cemetery Commission for tombstone restorations.

"I feel personally that they could be pushed back a year," Elizabeth Herland said. "And I think they're both good projects but they don't have the urgency."

It was also decided that George B. Crane Memorial Center's $73,465 application for the creation of a recreational space would not be funded. Herland said the main reason she scored the project low was because it didn't appear to benefit the larger community as much as other projects do.

There was conversation about not funding The Christian Center's $34,100 request for heating system repairs but the committee ended up voting to give it $21,341 when monies were left over.

The total funding request was more than $1.6 million for FY24 and with a budget of $808,547, only about half could be funded. The panel allocated all of the available monies, breaking down into $107,206 for open space and recreation, $276,341 for historic preservation, and $425,000 for community housing.

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