Heating Oil Leaks Into Dalton Brook

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
03:08PM / Thursday, March 13, 2025Print Story | Email Story

DALTON, Mass. — A residential oil tank at Wahconah Falls Mobile Home Park leaked heating oil, which entered Wahconah Falls Brook on March 10.

Approximately 200 to 250 gallons of heating oil leaked from the tank, Fire Chief Chris Cachat said.

The department responded to the report of gasoline in the brook on Cleveland Road at 6:43 p.m. Wahconah Falls Brook flows underneath the roadway.

Cachat, squad one, engine three, and utility 11 arrived on the scene where they detected "a strong odor of fuel and upon inspection of the brook a sheen was visible."

The crews were directed to start working their way upstream to search for residential and commercial sites along the brook. The state Department of Environmental Protection was also requested, Cachat said.

The leak was found and the area contained and firefighters remained onsite until the DEP representative arrived on scene

Upon the arrival of the DEP, the incident was turned over to them, and the department cleared the scene at 9:30 p.m. The DEP is currently managing the situation.

The DEP has been contacted for comment.

Tags: contamination, DEP,

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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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