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Clarksburg Sets Candidate Interviews for Town Administrator

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CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The two finalists for town administrator will be interviewed on Monday night. 
 
The search committee has recommended Lisa Blackmer, treasurer/tax collector in the town of Buckland, and Rebecca Stone, town administrator in Otis, as candidates to the Select Board. 
 
Blackmer will be interviewed first, at 6 p.m. on Monday, and Stone at 7 p.m. Both interviews will be in the Select Board's meeting room and will be open to the public. 
 
The town has been without an administrator since the resignation of Carl McKinney in May. The former Select Board member had been in the post since 2014. 
 
In the interim, board Chairman Ronald Boucher has been covering the day-to-day needs of the town. 
 
Blackmer is a former North Adams city councilor who is running again this year after two years off the council. She is a former president of the Massachusetts Municipal Association and also was a town administrator in Sandisfield.
 
Stone was formerly the town administrator in Readsboro and Guilford, Vt. She lives in Jacksonville, Vt., and has experience in municipal government in both Vermont and Massachusetts. 
 
Boucher said each candidate will be interviewed for about a half hour by the Select Board and then department heads and residents will be allowed to ask questions. 
 
He said he hoped the board could come to a decision that night but if not, the members will determine their choice at the regular meeting on Wednesday. 

Tags: candidate interviews,   town administrator,   

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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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