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Taconic Community, Pittsfield Residents Asked to Weigh in on New Mascot

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Taconic High School is seeking a new name and mascot and is looking to the community for inspiration. 
 
The School Committee a year ago voted to change 50-year-old team mascot and begin the process of determining a new, more culturally acceptable identity for the vocational school.
 
The Taconic teams had been known as the Braves and used a logo with a Native American. Officials decided it was time to retire the outdated mascot, following the lead of numerous other schools and professional teams that have used Native American imagery.
 
The school district has enlisted the services of Heard Strategy & Storytelling, a marketing and communications services agency, which offered pro bono rebranding services to any Massachusetts high school that made the decision to change its mascot. To date, five schools, including Taconic, have taken the offer.
 
"We're thrilled to begin the important work of making our school and our mascot representative of everyone in the district," said Principal Matthew Bishop. "We're excited to see what ideas the community has during the open survey portion of the process."
 
Working with members of the Taconic High School Mascot Subcommittee, Heard recently helped engineer a strategy of compiling community input for a period of time, with the goal of distilling that data into actionable items so the subcommittee can make further decisions and recommendations.
 
The online public survey opens Wednesday, Oct. 7, and will remain open for two weeks. The survey can be accessed via the link on the Taconic High School website or here.
 
Following the collection of responses received from the survey, the subcommittee will begin narrowing the choices to a smaller list of finalists in anticipation of presenting them to the student body and School Committee for an eventual vote.
 
The rebranding process will take several months to complete. Starting with the community survey, school officials are hopeful to have a new mascot unveiled by the end of 2021.
 
Students, alumni, and Pittsfield community members are encouraged to participate in the survey in an effort to reach the goal of establishing a new name and mascot that is relevant and relatable to both current students and alumni, as well as portray a positive, uplifting image.

Tags: mascot,   Taconic High,   

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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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