Great Barrington Man Among Judges at Westminster Dog Show

02:37PM / Sunday, March 19, 2023Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Resident Thomas W. Coen is among the judges at the 147th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City on May 8-9.

The dog show is set to return to New York City at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows –Corona Park in Queens. In his third judging assignment at Westminster, Coen will judge the Herding Group live on FS1 during the evening competition on Monday, May 8. His Herding Group winner will advance to the Best in Show competition held Tuesday evening, May 9, live on FS1.

Coen became interested in the world of purebred dogs at the age of 12 and whelped his first Shetland sheepdog litter in 1964 while still in high school on Long Island, N.Y. Over the past five decades of breeding Shetland sheepdogs, under the Madega prefix, has bred or owned seven National Specialty Best of Breed winners, eight All-Breed Best in Show winners, and more than 20 Register of Merit producers, including the breed's All-Time Top Sire.

After graduating from college, Coen taught art on the junior high level outside of Woodstock, N.Y. He obtained his handler's license in 1970, and that was the beginning of an career that spanned 30 years. In 2000, he retired from handling and received his AKC judging license. He is approved to judge the Herding Group, Dachshunds, and Best in Show.

Coen has had the honor of judging Best of Breed at the Collie and Australian Shepherd National Specialties and twice at the Shetland Sheepdog National Specialty. His judging assignments and his "Quest For Quality" seminar have taken him to Canada, Japan, China, Denmark, Norway, and Brazil.

For 2023, Westminster Week returns to New York City kicking off with Canine Celebration Day on Saturday, May 6, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The day commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Masters Agility Championship and the 8th annual Masters Obedience Championship with new family events like dock diving, a breed showcase, and a demo ring for visitors to see herding, scent work and freestyle obedience.

The breed competitions will take place at the same location on Monday, May 8, (Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding Breeds and Group judging) and Tuesday, May 9, (Sporting, Working, Terrier Breeds, Junior Showmanship Finals, and Group judging followed by Best in Show).

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

05:24AM / Thursday, September 03, 2026

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River.

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said.

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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