image description — A resident is asking that the Traffic Commission look into safety issues at the East Housatonic Street intersection outside Nessacus Middle School.

Concerns Raised About Intersection Near Nessacus Middle School

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:05PM / Saturday, September 14, 2024Print Story | Email Story

DALTON, Mass. — The Traffic Commission is looking into safety concerns with the intersection in front of Nessacus Regional Middle School.

On Thursday, the panel voted to send a letter to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation voicing the concerns and providing crash data for the intersection of Hinsdale Road, East Housatonic Street and Fox Road.

"Almost every crash at that intersection has injuries because of the high-speed road," Police Chief Deanna Strout said. "And it is usually a pretty decent collision there."

Resident Paul Tabone brought the item forward after hearing a significant crash from his home in Stonemill Condominiums at the end of August.

He has lived at the condos right next to the intersection for 14 years, seven full-time.

"Always noted the traffic. Didn't really pay much attention to things until we started living there regularly. A lot of near misses but specifically on the 26th of August, there was a direct contact," he said.

"I was not a witness to it. However, I was standing grabbing my coffee. I heard the bang, I got to the window, and watched both the pickup truck and this giant dump truck literally sliding into the intersection, of course, into Fox [Road]."

Tabone said one person was taken away in an ambulance and that "it’s a dicey spot even on a good day." He feels the intersection is poorly designed and drivers speed onto Housatonic Street to avoid going through the town center.

The roads that intersect are both local and state-owned.

A representative from the MassDOT reportedly told Tabone that the accident rate is low and does not justify action. Chair William Drosehn said the commission has a report from one accident and Strout agreed to pull all accidents at the intersection from the last few years.

He said it would be great if the panel could see the types of accidents, such as turning or head-on collisions.

"I’ve been on almost 27 years, we've had a lot of crashes there," Strout said.

Tags: intersection, traffic commission,

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Tina Packer, Founder of Shakespeare & Company, Dies at 87

Staff Reports 06:51PM / Saturday, January 10, 2026

LENOX, Mass. — The doyenne of Shakespeare's plays, Tina Packer, died Friday at the age of 87.

Shakespeare & Company, which Packer co-founded in 1978, made the announcement Saturday on its Facebook page.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company's founding artistic director and acclaimed director, actor, writer, and teacher," the company said on its post and in a press release.

Packer, who retired a the theater company's artistic director in 2009, had directed all of Shakespeare's plays, some several times, acted in eight of them, and taught the whole canon at more than 30 colleges, including Harvard. She continued to direct, teach, and advocate for the company until her passing.

At Columbia University, she taught in the master of business administration program for four years, resulting in the publication of "Power Plays: Shakespeare's Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming Professor John Whitney" for Simon and Schuster. For Scholastic, she wrote "Tales from Shakespeare," a children's book and recipient of the Parent's Gold Medal Award.

Most recently her book "Women of Will" was published by Knopf and she had been performing "Women of Will" with Nigel Gore, in New York, Mexico, England, The Hague, China, and across the United States. She's the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the Commonwealth Award.

"Our hearts are heavy with the passing of Tina Packer, a fiery force of nature with an indomitable spirit," said Artistic Director Allyn Burrows. "Tina affected everyone she encountered with her warmth, generosity, wit, and insatiable curiosity. She delighted in people's stories, and reached into their hearts with tender humanity. The world was her stage, and she furthered the Berkshires as a destination for the imagination.

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