image description — In addition to fresh coats of paint, the Landing's lobby carpeting was pulled up and flooring put down to make it easier for those using walkers and wheelchairs.

Landing at Laurel Lake Celebrates Renovations

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:38PM / Wednesday, April 02, 2025Print Story | Email Story

The stovetops were removed from some of the kitchenettes as safety measures.

LEE, Mass. — The Landing at Laurel Lake has made renovations to its assisted living building to better help residents continue living with some independence.

Some of the changes include carpet removal, shifting tubs to walk-ins, and taking out some stovetops.

The Landing hosted an open house last Thursday for the community to come in and see the renovations.

"It's really bringing people in to see the renovations so they know that we have something really cool in our community," said Executive Director Matthew Pinto, a dementia specialist who was hired about six months ago.

"The importance of the new renovations is to modernize some things to make it simpler for them. Like the rooms, we are trying to do away with the transitions in the rooms for people that have wheelchairs."

Residents sometimes had trouble with the carpeting if using a walker or wheelchair, it's easier for some to walk into their shower, and the stovetops would sometimes be left on.

Pinto said the residents had a hand in the renovations, like helping choose paint colors and what they would like the facility change, which will help future residents with their stays.

"All the renovations had one thing in mind, how the residents can feel part of what's going on so really they were part of the decision making," he said.

The Landing at 600 Laurel St. has 53 units, 13 of which are special care. It houses a memory care unit that assists individuals with Alzheimer's and other dementia-related illnesses. It works in conjunction with adjancent Lee Healthcare, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center.

Both for-profit facilities are owned by Next Step Healthcare, which operates more than a dozen assisted, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers in the eastern part of the state.

This isn't the last of the renovations, said Pinto, the facility is also looking to add a spa area and salon/barbershop for residents to enjoy.

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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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