Berkshire County Arc Announces New Senior Employment Manager

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire County Arc has named Kyle Harvey as senior employment manager of Employment Services.

She will oversee the three employment managers, as well as her own caseload of some 35 individuals employed around the Berkshire County region.

"Kyle has a keen sense for matching the people we serve with appropriate employment situations, and growing the relationships," said Kenneth W. Singer, BCArc's president and CEO. "Today we have more than 130 employers who have hired our individuals, and Kyle deserves a lot of credit for identifying and nurturing new partners."


Kyle started at BCArc in 1984, where she worked as a residential director of homes serving individuals with developmental disabilities. At that time BCArc had no more than 15 homes; today it has more than 40. She left BCArc after 12 years to work at her own business as a costume designer for theater companies. After six years she returned to BCArc. Upon her return to BCArc, several of the individuals in her homes were employed, which engaged her in the employment services process, an area of work she found to enjoy. When the opportunity arose, she made the shift to Employment Services (at the time the unit was called Advantage Employment Network).

Today, her work includes overseeing the employment trainers, employment specialists and managers. This includes knowing the employers in the community, understanding the projects and tasks, working directly with area schools for a school-to-work initiative, processing payrolls and troubleshooting any problems with the jobsites.

Kyle is part of a six-generation lineage. The family’s original settlement is marked by the current Harvey Mountain, in Austerlitz, N.Y.

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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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