Letter: Elect Buerger for School Committee

Letter to the Editor12:31PM / Wednesday, October 22, 2025Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

It is with great joy that I write this letter surrounding the upcoming election, particularly the School Committee election.

I sit here as an 18-year-old recent graduate of Pittsfield Public Schools, preparing to vote and I look at this candidate pool and say wow! There are so many great and amazing options, but one comes to mind that definitely has my vote, Dr. Geoffrey Buerger.

For those of you who don’t know Dr. Buerger, he will introduce himself to you as a fossil who is older than the state of Alaska, exactly how he introduced himself to me when he became my long-term substitute in chemistry my sophomore year of high school. From this point, he never stopped checking in even after I didn't have him for class.

He would reach out at lunch, or even just a nice chat in the hallway on my way to and from the bathroom. He truly cares, and he works very hard to understand everyone's circumstances and helps to keep so many kids in check with both schoolwork and emotionally. And I must add, these conversations were so insightful. He always had advice, words of wisdom, or even the occasional joke.

I will be voting for Geoffrey Buerger for School Committee on Nov. 4, and I encourage everyone to do the same!

Tanner M White
Pittsfield, Mass.

Tags: election 2025, municipal election,

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EPA, GE Conducting Vernal Pool Study on Housatonic River

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
11:44AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A pilot study will determine the best way to remediate PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, from vernal pools in the Housatonic River.

Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric held an open house for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border. Despite the rain, several people attended the event at the Berkshire Athenaeum.

EPA project manager Josh Fontaine explained that it is an evaluation of which remediation method to use for the remaining vernal pools in Reach 5A.

"We're going to be testing two different methods. One is an excavation method, which we already know has been very successful with another vernal pool cleaned up much earlier in the project," he said.

"And then the other is the application of two different carbon amendments. It would be the application of powdered activated carbon and the application of granulated activated carbon."

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned using these methods: five with excavation and five with active carbon; 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.

Fontaine said there is no frontrunner for methodology.

"We know the excavation method is effective, but we would like to see if the less invasive method of using the amendment will be as effective for potential use," he said.

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