Nov. 03 Berkshire Beacon

November 3, 2011Volume II, Issue 24

www.berkshirebeacon.comLenox, MA 01240

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1 Local News 6 Editorial6 From the Tower5 College Sports Report9 Fast Picks12 Fun & Games10 Calendar15 Girl-2-Girl

Fall Beer- 4

The Berkshire Beacon

Index

Snow Fall Totals

All trick no treatEarly season storm

shocks The Berkshires with lots of snow on Halloween weekend

The legacy of

a manJanel Harrison

Beacon Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - How does one begin to tell the story of a selfless man who had a wonderful life and was struck with a horrific illness?

It is difficult to express the magni-tude of such a man, but after speak-ing with his strong, forthright, and loving wife, I feel I know him some-how.

John Francis Xavier Keator had many friends and was loved by all.

He grew up in Lenox, Mass., at-tended St. Joseph’s High School, and finished at the New York Military Academy.

“You know how you hear of par-ents threatening their kids with mili-tary school,” said his wife Georgette. “Well John actually went!” And she laughed.

With a love for the great outdoors he later attended Colorado Moun-tain College where he embarked on many adventures including archeo-logical digs!

He finished his education at Eastern Washington University as a Recre-ational Therapist, and it is there that his life began.

Stepping off the elevator after just arriving from San Diego, Ca., and sporting a golden tan, Miss Georgette Kolesar struck him described like “a beam of sunshine in the hallway.” Georgette said, “I thought he looked like a cool guy with his long sleeved tie-dye shirt.”

It wasn’t long while Miss Kolesar was unpacking in her dorm room that there was a knock on the door, and it was John.

They fell in love and were married for 19 years. Together they have two beautiful daughters, 18-year-old Cas-sidy and 16-year-old Alex.

John worked for 14 years as the recreational therapist for Berkshire

Kameron SpauldingBeacon Staff Writer

It took days for parts of The Berk-shires to dig out after some areas got close to two feet of snow Saturday evening and overnight.

The Berkshire County town of Peru came in with the most snow with a total of 32 inches, according to the National Weather Service in Albany, the most of any town in the commonwealth.

The massive storm will be remem-bered for more than just the huge to-tals, but more so for how early in the season it came, and the millions it left without power.

The October nor’easter left more

Peru - 32

Lenox - 22Beckett - 21

Pittsfield - 18

North Adams - 15

Source: National Weather Service

in inches

Photo Credit / Kameron SPaulding

The Town of Lenox had several crews out cleaning up the roads and sidewalks by Sunday morning, after seeing more than 20 inches fall.

Hoff ’s Mobil again places request to remodel station

After months of discussion project moves forward with unanimous approval from the Historic District Commission story on page 10

see SNOW page 8 see JOHN page 14

2 The Berkshire Beacon November 3, 2011

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Erik SokolowskiBeacon Staff Writer

LEE - The average assessed val-ue of a single-family home dropped for fiscal year 2012, from $254,689 to $246,539.

But due to the proposed in-crease in the FY12 tax rate, the average single family tax burden will rise to $3,370, an increase of $44, according to findings pre-sented to the Lee Board of Select-men recently.

The Massachusetts Depart-ment of Revenue is expected to approve the proposed rate of $13.67 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Using FY11 figures, Lee is 10th regionally, and 231st on the state level, in average single-family tax burden, and 17th in average as-sessed home value.

The town has developed two programs, in addition to the cus-tomary abatements and exemp-tions, a Senior Citizen Property Tax Write-Off Abatement Pro-gram and the Elderly and Dis-abled Tax Fund.

Information for both of these programs will be included in the tax bills, which are expected to be sent Monday, Nov. 14, with pay-ment due by Dec. 14, and can be paid online at lee.ma.us.

In other news:- The gears are turning on Lee’s

application for an EPA Brown-

fields Cleanup Grant. The grant, a maximum of

$200,000, would be used to clean petroleum contamination at 25 School Street only.

The amount has not yet been approved.

Cleanup attempts at the time were unsuccessful, and no addi-tional attempts have been made since 2004.

The grant would require the town to hire licensed environ-mental professionals to plan, su-pervise and carry out the work.

Questions arose over what to do with the remaining structure at the site, and what could be done in the future with it.

The Selectmen will hold a pub-lic hearing on the issue at their next meeting, and check next week’s issue of The Beacon for more.

- Selectmen heard from Harold Sherman on the results of the three-foot draw down of Laurel Lake.

The drawdown, which fell a half foot short of its goal of three feet due to a late start and adverse weather conditions, still showed promising results in the battle against zebra mussel infestation.

According to the report pre-sented, “the results support the conclusion that the winter draw-down greatly decreased zebra mussel abundance in water less than two-feet deep.”

The next drawdown begins in late November/early December.

The projected cost for next year is $13,000, and a greater draw-down to five feet is sought to “… greatly reduce zebra mussel abun-dance in the near shore zone.”

Mr. Sherman expects the cost to Lee to be $2,500, and stressed how supportive businesses, citi-zens and the towns of Lee and Lenox have been.

-The Lee Cultural Council has a special celebration in the works for Thanksgiving.

To commemorate the Arlo Guthrie classic Alice’s Restaurant, the council plans a showing of the 1969 film of the same name, in the courtroom where scenes from the movie, and life, took place.

The movie will be free, Carr Hardware will be supplying the popcorn, and attendees’ tickets will be good for discounts on Thanksgiving dinner and a free dessert at the Morgan House.

Details regarding seating and occupancy are still being fleshed out, but interested film buffs can find the Lee Cultural Council on Facebook, and check next week’s edition of The Beacon for com-plete details on the event.

The Lee Board of Selectman will meet Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in the first floor courtroom.

For information about advertising in The Berkshire Beacon Call 413-637-2250

George C. Jordan IIIBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX - Crews from Dodge Construction and Verizon Com-munication worked Tuesday into Wednesday preparing to install a 900 pair cable, which was dam-aged over the weekend in the nor’easter, causing an outage to more than 300 landline phones.

“We’ve seen a spike in trou-ble reports in some parts of the Northeast, including western Massachusetts and Berkshire County, that bore the brunt of the storm,” said Phil Santoro, Verizon Media Relations. “Our crews are working to restore ser-vice, repair downed poles, and do any other necessary work.”

Personnel said electricity to its substation on Walker Street was cut off for a number of hours Saturday and Sunday due to the storm.

Parts of the Lenox Historic District were without electricity for more than 12-hours.

Verizon crews were working on restoration of service by drying out copper lines within the cable that had become soaked.

“We’ve assigned additional field technicians and customer service reps to ensure repairs and installations are tended to,” said Mr. Santoro.

“Of course, we do have to wait for the power companies to get their work done first in many cas-es, so we’ll continue efforts as long as necessary to ensure all repairs are complete.”


Verizon workers replacing 900 pair cable on Walker St. in Lenox on Wednesday.

Verizon OutageStorm cuts service to 300 phones

Lee home values drop 3.5%

November 3, 2011 The Berkshire Beacon 3

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LANESBORO- Picture an ex-pansive room stuffed to the raf-ters with beautiful, colorful, unique, and whimsical items, all lovingly handmade.

That’s a preview of what a cus-tomer will find in Lanesboro Junction, a country craft store. The building it’s housed in used to be the Wright Wheelwright Shop that made wheels for cov-ered wagons.

It is located at 1 North Main Street (Route 7), just past St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on the left side of the street, when com-ing from Pittsfield.

Just about any craft a person loves can be found in this store that has been managed by Chris-tine Larrow since its beginning in the spring of 2008.

Reversible quilts in numerous patterns and every color of the rainbow are a feast for the eyes. Many women have quilts for sale at the shop so the variety is im-mense and impressionable.

Crafters associated with the store can also custom make mem-ory quilts out of various pieces of clothing that belonged to a per-son who has died.

Also available are hand cro-cheted dresses and hats in light blue, green, pink, yellow, or white, for baby girls.

Cheerful and brightly colored baby bibs are also available.

Handcrafted jewelry sparkles from glass cases and hangs against black velvet. There are fancy neck-laces, earrings, rings, and so on.

Doll clothes for 18-inch dolls are ready to be presented as gifts for the holidays.

Wooden birdhouses, small rocking chairs for little people, and even multi-colored cloth chickens can all be found.

Also available are adult night-gowns for moms and matching little girls’ nightgowns for daugh-ters. Multi-patterned aprons for moms and smaller versions for daughters are also available. There are stylish hair bows, too.

“The girls do such beautiful and custom work,” Mrs.Larrow said of the 75 crafters who have items for sale. They pay $10 a

month plus 10 percent of any sales in order to sell their wares in Lanesboro Junction.

Everywhere one looks in the shops there is something amazing to see. A sunflower table runner vies for attention with fragrant soaps and all kinds of dolls, in-cluding one with a shock of pink yarn hair.

The crafters who sell things at the shop are from throughout Berkshire County, including the hilltowns. In addition, Mrs. Lar-row carries items made by artists in Arizona, California, Iowa, New Hampshire, and several oth-er states.

There are warm mittens, lined with fleece, in colorful, zany pat-terns. One woman makes woolen pocketbooks, some with spar-kling brooches attached.

Some of the crafters who make things as well as volunteer in the store include Cathy O’Brien, April Jenks, Dyanne Winn, Mi-chelle Vasquez Slack, Daryl Wheeler, and Mrs. Larrow’s hus-band, Dick, who makes birdhouses.

Their daughter, Kristy, weaves multi-colored placemats out of cloth strips. Looms are sold in the shop for $30.

Some people donate supplies to Lanesboro Junction. The crafters use all they can and then find homes at organizations in the community for leftover materials, Mrs. Larrow said.

“It’s been great sharing,” she said.

Mrs. Larrow, a nurse by profes-sion, has been making primitive dolls for years. It can take up to a week to create one of them. She and her sister, Bonnie Carlotto, used to sell their creations at area crafts shows.

Mrs. Larrow’s brother, Thomas Delphia, owns the building Lanesboro Junction and, his oth-er business, American Garage Doors, are housed in.

When he first bought the 30-by-60 foot building, he suggested his sister establish a business do-ing something she loved. Hand-made crafts fit the bill.

Mrs. Larrow is a warm-hearted, very friendly woman with short hair and brown eyes. She said meeting people has been the best part to date of running Lanes-boro Junction.

In addition to people from throughout Berkshire County, the store has been popular with tourists. They have been from several states as well as Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Germa-ny, Ireland, Israel, Russia, and many more countries.

“A lot of local people come in to the store and say ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know you were here,’” Mrs. Larrow said.

Once they see the red, white, and blue “open” flag out front and discover the treasures that await them in Lanesboro Junc-tion, they are almost sure to be-come repeat customers.

Photo Credit / SuSan WiCKer guererro

Christine Larrow, manager of Lansboro Junction displays one of the hand-made quilts they have for sale.

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Answers to Oct. 27Puzzles:


PITTSFIELD - Have you been known to keep your library books too long? Well if you do, some-thing good might come from it.

The Pittsfield Public Library will be offering a modified fines amnesty for the month of No-vember. During this four-week period, the library will accept non-perishable food items in lieu of paying fines for overdue books.

“This has become an annual tradition at the Berkshire Athe-naeum,” Library Director Ron Latham said, “which has linked an extended food-for-fines period to the Thanksgiving holiday.”

“While overdue fines are in-tended to encourage people to bring their library books back on time,” Cathy Congelosi, Supervi-sor of Adult Circulation at the Athenaeum, said “Sometimes our fines generate the opposite reac-tion, and borrowers become re-luctant to return library books because of the fines attached.”

The food-for-fines program is the library’s attempt to create a more positive feeling about get-ting overdue library materials re-turned, and to get library borrow-ers to clean out their bookshelves and bring back library items that have been long forgotten.

“With a Thanksgiving holiday coming up that encourages Americans to reflect on all we have to be thankful for, donating food in lieu of fines is a feel good solution that’s a perfect fit for this

holiday,” says Mr. Latham. “It’s a win, win, win situation because the borrower wins by clearing up an overdue fine record, the library wins by getting our items re-turned, and area needy win by getting donated food at a time when the food supply is short.”

Food will be collected in boxes located at the Adult Circulation Desk and at the Children’s Ser-vice Desk.

When “paying” off a fine with a donated food item, a staff librari-an should be alerted prior to de-positing the item into the collec-tion boxes. Food will be accepted not only for payment of overdue fines for items currently in circu-lation but also to outstanding overdue fines from other transac-tions, starting this year.

In the Athenaeum’s previous food-for-fines programs, the li-brary only accepted food for books and other borrowed items that were currently checked out but overdue.

As before, however, the replace-ment costs of lost or damaged materials may not be resolved by donated food.

During the amnesty period, in addition to food brought in lieu of fines, the Athenaeum will en-courage general donations of food not associated with overdue library books.

All donated food will be turned over to the Rotary Club of Pitts-field as part of their annual food collection drive that distributes non-perishable food to area food banks providing services to area needy.

Food for finesPittsfield library renews annual

fall food drive program

Susan Wicker GuererroBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD - Literally thousands of used hardcover and paperback books, including books for children, will be available this weekend at the Fall Book Sale, sponsored by Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum at 1 Wendell Ave.

The two-day event will also offer journals, miniature books, CDs, DVDs, records, and so much more.

All proceeds from the sale go directly toward programs, supplies and other library essentials.

It will be held Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Members of the Friends are invited to come Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. Anyone can become a friend Thursday by paying for a membership at the door. Individual memberships cost $10.


The Berkshire Athenaeum will have a book sale this coming weekend with over 20,000 books.


LANESBOROUGH - The Berkshire Ex-Smokers Hall of Fame will present an exhibit of people who quit smoking be-cause of pregnancy or to protect their children from secondhand smoke.

The exhibit will be displayed at the Community Baby Shower on Saturday, Nov. 5, from 10 a.m. until noon at the Berkshire Mall.

The Hall of Fame celebrates the stories of local residents who quit smoking. Included in the baby shower exhibit are Dawn Blondin and Lois Daunis, both of North Adams, and Gail Botto of Pittsfield, who quit smoking when they became pregnant.

Also profiled is Bonnie Der-away of Clarksburg, who saw her daughter's asthma disappear when she quit smoking.

Pregnant smokers have an in-creased risk of serious pregnancy complications, including still-birth and low-birth weight. Chil-dren exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer

acute respiratory infections, ear problems and more severe asthma.

According to the group quit-ting smoking is the No. 1 path to a healthy family.

Organizers added that most smokers have to try a few times before they quit for good and us-ing support and medicines to-gether make you more than twice as likely to stay smoke-free.

By sharing their stories, these ex-smokers hope to inspire par-ents who smoke to make a quit

attempt. The Ex-Smokers Hall of Fame

is a project of the Berkshire To-bacco-Free Community Partner-ship and a joint effort of the Berkshire Area Health Education Center and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

To bring the local Ex-Smokers Hall of Fame to your community or organization or to add your success story, contact Joan Rubel at [email protected] or 413-447-2417.

Two Berkshire ex-smokers, Corrine Case of Adams and Gra-cie Vincent of North Adams with MA DPH Commissioner John Auerbach and Joan Rubel, Coordinator of the Northern Berkshire Tobacco Free Community Partnership.

Ex-Smokers Hall of Fame present new exhibit on parents who quit

Berkshire Athenaeum to host major book sale


College Sports Report


Chiara Del Piccolo '14 was named the women's NESCAC Most Outstanding Performer of the Year after the 2011 NESCAC Cross Country Championships at Amherst College on Saturday, Oct. 29.

The annual honor is given to the individual who finishes first at the conference championship meet.

Del Piccolo has had an impres-sive October for the Ephs. After winning the annual Little Three Championships on Oct. 15, Del Piccolo was among the favorites for medalist honors at this past weekend's league meet.

Gaining the lead just past the midway point on Saturday, Del Piccolo pulled away from the field as she finished the 6-kilome-ter course in 21:58, nearly 30 sec-onds ahead of the next harrier and over 90 seconds better than her 2010 performance that earned her 22nd place. Del Pic-

colo also received All-NESCAC First Team recognition.

Del Piccolo currently owns the fastest recorded 6-kilometer race time for the New England region in 2011, her 21:58 performance from this weekend.

The NESCAC has also an-nounced their annual All-NES-CAC teams for the 2011 cross country season. All five scoring women for the Ephs have earned first- or second-team accolades, including Anna Spiers '15 who, on top of first-team selection, has been named the NESCAC Rook-ie of the year on the women's side.

Olivia Delia '12 is the third Eph to be on the first-team list, while Shayna Barbash '14 and Celeste Berg '13 are second-team members.

Head coach Pete Farwell was named the NESCAC Coach of the Year, his third as the women's coach.

To see the complete list of hon-orees, visit the NESCAC cross country website.

Piccolo wins multiple awards

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Williams College (4-2) made two Adam Markse to J.C. Stick-neyfirst quarter TD passes stand-up in downing Hamilton (2-4) 14-7. The game ended with a heavy snow falling on Weston Field.

Williams senior LB Dylan Schultz ended Hamilton’s final possession when he sacked Ham-ilton QB Jordan Eck and forced a fumble that was recovered by Eph LB Chris Cameronon the Hamilton 15-yard line with 50 seconds left. Schultz’s sack of Eck was the sixth of the game for Williams.

The Ephs gained 282 total of-fensive yards highlighted by the scoring strikes from Marske to Stickney.

The Continentals ended with a net loss of 30 yards on the ground, and 217 yards gained in the air. The -30 yards rushing is an Eph single game record, break-ing the previous record of -9 gained by Bates (10/9/93)

“We really got off on the right foot today offensively,” said head coach Aaron Kelton.

A short punt by Hamilton’s Garrett Hoy was returned 18 yards by the Ephs’ Tom Cabarle-to the Hamilton 14. From there it took the Ephs four plays for Marske and Stickney to connect on a pass form six yards out for the TD. A successful PAT by Jo-seph Mallock put the Ephs up 7-0 just 5:49 in.

With less than two minutes re-maining in the first quarter, Eph senior captain Dan O’Maraintercepted a pass by Hamilton QB Jordan Eck and darted up the field, 56 yards. “O’Mara is a talented player and I expect a lot out of him each week. This game especially, he delivered,” Kelton noted.

After a 1-yard rush by Marco Hernandez Marske found Stick-ney with a high pass to the right side of the end zone that Stickney

caught falling into the end zone. The Ephs took a 14-0 lead after another successful PAT by Mal-lock with 1:19 left in the opening quarter.

At that point the Williams of-fense was unable to solve the Hamilton defense and for most of the remaining time the Ephs’ defense shackled the Continen-tals’ offense surrendering only a two yard TD run by James Stan-nell with 7:27 left in the final quarter.

“We played well and we just kind of slowed down for some reason,” stated Kelton. “We’ve been getting off to a great start at the beginning. I think part of it is that we couldn’t stay on schedule, we got away from what we want-ed to do,” Kelton said of the of-fensive drop-off after the first quarter.

James Stanell topped the offen-sive charts for the Continentals with a net gain of 11 yards. Mar-co Hernandez contributed 56 yards on the ground for the Ephs.

Hamilton QB, Jordan Eck, completed 18 of 48 passes with two interceptions and 217 yards. For Williams, the QB position was split between Marske and

previously injuredChris Cleary. Marske connected on 10 of 20 at-tempted passes, with one inter-ception and a total of 144 yards. Cleary completed five of eight for 38 yards.

Kelton explained that he’d wanted to explore this trade-off between Marske and Cleary ear-lier in the season. “We were hop-ing to do that earlier before Chris got injured,” he said. “We’ll look at the film and we’ll get it worked out. When it comes down to it, whoever plays well during the week will see the field.”

Defensively, Mike MacDonald dominated for the Continentals, with 12 solo tackles and one as-sist. Chris Cameron and Dylan Schultz led the defensive effort for the Ephs, Cameron had six solo tackles, while Schultz added five; both players had one as-sist. “That’s the defense I’ve been looking for all week long,” Kel-ton said of today’s performance. “It introduced itself in the second quarter last week and continued throughout this game.”

The Ephs are traveling next Saturday to take on Wesleyan in the first of two consecutive Little Three games.

Williams pulls out big football win over Hamilton


Editorial:

View From the

TowerGeorge C. Jordan III

On Oct. 29 a freak snow storm dumped upwards of 30 inches on parts of Berkshire County including the highest town hall measured by elevation in Massachuseetts: Peru.

This nor’easter will go into the record books as the storm that curtailed fall cleanup and in retrospect brought a lot of limbs and trees down from Berkshire County east.

The storm whose white fluffy stuff hit Berkshire County Satur-day afternoon offered a picture-postcard remembrance to win-ter as noted on our double page color spread.

We also included many of the pictures on our website: www.berkshirebeacon.com

The storm put a damper on planned Halloween activities much of which were postponed until Monday and later depend-ing on decisions by local officials.

The effects of the storm were felt throughout much of New England with Connecticut getting a brunt of power, telephone and TV cable outages. As with many parts of Western Mass from the Pioneer Valley east to central Massachusetts, the snow became heavy and tore down power lines putting many homes in darkness and without heat.

Rest stops along the Mass Turnpike were still closed Tuesday, according to one traveler, who noted the gasoline stations were open but not the food courts in central Massachusetts.

Meanwhile Berkshire County utility personnel remained on the job. State and some local highway plow personnel were caught short when equipment was not operational. Both private plow personnel and state workers were unable to get their re-spective trucks mobilize to handle the snow and icy road surfaces.

In Berkshire County, we were fortunate to have been by-passed by the storm’s eventual thrust of devastation to man-kind and property and for the most part we were able to enjoy the scenic beauty of a winter snowstorm even though it was early in our fall calendar.

And for the men and women, who serve our needs-police personnel, highway workers, utility personnel and others like ambulance drivers and medical personnel, our thanks for help-ing make our Oct. 29th weekend memorable and offering a word of caution to be safe.

George C. Jordan IIIEDITOR & PUBLISHER

Kameron Z. SpauldingEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Janel M. Harrison, Susan M. Wicker Guerrero Bera B. Dunau, Erik M. SokolowskiCONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Susan RobinsonGRAPHIC DESIGNER

Janel M. Harrison, Jacqueline WendlingADVERTISING SALES

The Berkshire Beacon is published weekly. The Beacon is distributed throughout Berkshire County, MA. The Berkshire Beacon assumes no financial responsibility for failure to publish an advertisement, incorrect placement or typo-graphical errors published. Advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertising and claims and offers contained within their advertising. The Berkshire Beacon reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason. All contents copyright ©2011 The Berkshire Beacon. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

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Safe during a freak storm

The Lenox Historic District Commission (LHDC) Tuesday night by a vote of 3 to 0 granted approval to Hoff’s Mobil at 90 Main St. for a Certificate of Appropriateness with-out a sign on the building and void of an air pump in a designated location.

Glenn Hoff, owner of Hoff’s Mobil appeared before the commission to seek permission to change the outside of his building from a gas-oline station to a gasoline/convenience store.

Interestingly, he did not object to having only one sign (Mobil) yet the surprise was that there was no plan announced for place-ment of an air pump, which most conve-nience stores provide for a fee.

Jason Berger, chairperson, along with Elaine Steinert and Steve Sample, voted approval.

Some members of the commission sought to have the petitioner make some changes that might be in keeping with Lenox’s Main Street and Historical District.

Harry M. Pisila, architect for Mr. Hoff, ex-plained reasons for the functionality of the plan to remodeling the building noting that their goal was not to try to blend in with the architecture of Main Street.

Ms. Steinert urged the petitioner to try to make the building a little bit “softer” noting that it appeared to be a “cold building with a flat roof” and not in keeping with the charac-ter of Lenox.

Mr. Sample argued for smaller windows to reduce the reflection of internal light to the neighbors.

Mr. Berger said the plan was an improve-

ment of the 60-by-30 foot building.There has been much discussion locally

about two convenience stores to be located next to each other.

This was not in the preview of the LHDC-only the outside of the building.

Shannon (Hoff) Reber, reminded those present that commission was only dealing with the aesthetic value of the property and not the proposed use.

Only one person offered comments on trying to create “harmony” within the historic village.

The commission in retrospect should have used 3.3 of the Historic District Bylaw to en-sure fairness to the petitioner as well as to Daniel O’Brien, the next-door neighbor and owner and operator of O’Brien’s Market.

“In passing upon matters before it, the commission shall consider, among other things, the historic and architectural value and significances of the site, building or structure, the general design, arrangements, texture, material and color of the features in-volved, and the relation of such features to similar features of buildings and structures in the surrounding area.”

In retrospect, one wonders if a better more compatible plan could have been construed to help make what is probably the most at-tractive intersection next to the Paterson Monument in Lenox.

Perhaps as Mr. Hoff goes forward with his plan he may yet see the advantages to mak-ing his new convenience store appear in har-mony with Lenox the beautiful.

Lenox the beautiful

The Berkshire Beacon is looking for our own readers to help us identify people in the commu-nity who may be the subject of Beacon profiles.

The reason for the profiles is for the readers of The Beacon to get to know better the people in their own community.

They may be the average person, they may be leaders in a small community, they may work for a utility company, a bank, a grocery store, an insur-ance company and/or in the courthouse.

The editorial staff asks that you recommend

such a person for consideration. He or she may be in the political limelight and have done something extra ordinary for you and your family. Also, the in-dividual may have been instrumental in bringing a grant or monies for the improvement within he community.

Please take a moment to e-mail [email protected] with your selection, and offer within one hundred words reasons you selected this person. Described him/her as your would your friend, spouse or child. Let’s see what happens.

Beacon Profiles


Got something you want to say? Send your letter to the editor: email [email protected]. No guarantee can be made that a letter will be published.

It’s time to set the record straight about Dan Bianchi’s commitment to Pittsfield.

On June 5, 2001 the people of Pittsfield exercised their right to vote on the issue of whether or not they wished to create a Civic Authority, a Civic Authority not a Stadium!

Nowhere on that ballot did I, or anyone else, see the word “Stadium.”

As structured, the Civic Au-thority would have been com-prised of nine appointed, (un-elected) members that would have had the power of eminent domain, the power to issue bonds and borrow money on behalf of projects for the City of Pittsfield.

Dan Bianchi, along with two other city councilors raised objec-tions to a Civic Authority being created without first having the benefit of majority opinion from the people it would serve. A steadfast group of eight “rubber stamp” councilors repeatedly vot-ed against giving the people the right to vote on the issue.

Consequently, it was necessary for a handful of private citizens to gather enough signatures on a pe-tition asking that the issue be placed on a ballot in a special election.

It would have been easy for Dan Bianchi and his two col-leagues to just throw in the towel and go along with the others, but

that’s not the Dan Bianchi I’ve come to know after all these years.

Dan Bianchi has more integrity and conviction to commitment than any person I know. I’ve learned some valuable lessons from watching and listening to Dan Bianchi over the years.

One of those lessons was to al-ways ask yourself ‘to what end am I doing this” and “what positive result will it have?”

Those lessons are currently be-ing demonstrated by Dan himself in his campaign to become Pitts-field’s next Mayor.

That’s why you’re not seeing any dirty, mud slinging, character assassination remarks coming from Dan or his campaign staff.

It would be all to easy for Dan to get down in the mud with the ‘good ole boys’ and attack his op-ponent on issues such as family values or who’s really behind that opponents effort to defeat him.

Dan Bianchi doesn’t play that game and he never will because he’s above it. If Pittsfield really wants a mayor they can trust to act in their best interests and not for the ‘business as usual crowd’, they need to get out and vote on Nov 8. Vote Dan Bianchi the next Mayor of Pittsfield.

David PottsPittsfield, MA

Bianchi a public servant

Letter to the Editor

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Accustomed to digesting the political somersaults of its resi-dent pols, the Beacon Hill chat-terati found themselves this week doing the math on two glaring flip-flops, and they weren't even talking about Mitt Romney.

Facing potentially significant electoral hurdles next year, both U.S. Rep. John Olver and City Year founder Alan Khazei entered the week determined to put their names before voters in 2012 - un-til they weren't.

The days also dropped off the calendar with little movement on major policy proposals, including pension and parole reform, casi-no gambling, and anti-human trafficking bills, though leaders expressed sustained optimism that pre-Thanksgiving deals could still be struck.

With just 19 days - 13 business days - until the Legislature goes into holiday hibernation, word of Gov. Deval Patrick eyeing an ear-ly December trip to sunny Brazil on his third international trade mission came to light - a fact that Sen. Marc Pacheco let slip and the governor's office reluctantly confirmed, though details are not yet finalized.

The governor also inked a $169 million spending bill that divert-ed $350 million in surplus reve-nue from fiscal 2011 to the state's

recession-depleted savings ac-count, and sent $65 million in lo-cal aid back to cities and towns.

Patrick, however, drew fire from AARP members for vetoing a policy change that would have held nursing home beds for up to 10 days if residents were hospital-ized, calling it "unnecessary" after an unidentified audit listed 4,000 vacant beds across the state.

While the House and Senate struggled to clear their plates of agenda items stacking up, a new crop of bills that will likely de-mand action surfaced, including crackdowns on prescription drug abuse and education collabora-tives, and a proposed deal to avoid a ballot question that would ban insurance companies from using credit scores, educational background and other socioeco-nomic factors when setting auto insurance premiums.

The headline of the week, how-ever, was written in a matter of minutes on Wednesday when both Olver, a 20-year veteran of Congress, and Khazei, a Demo-cratic U.S. Senate aspirant, pulled the plug on their immediate elec-toral careers nearly simultaneously.

Both men had been insistent up until that moment they were staying in their respective races, redistricting and Elizabeth War-

ren be damned.While Khazei's withdrawal

from the U.S. Senate race may do little to alter the final outcome, Olver's cannonball into the re-tirement pool sent waves crashing over the bow of the U.S.S. Redis-tricting captained by Rep. Mi-chael Moran and Sen. Stanley Rosenberg.

Both men were either popping champagne, or contemplating the reality that one should be careful what they wish for.

In an indication of the appar-ent level of importance the chairs assign to incumbency, they called Olver's plans as a "dramatic change" with impacts that would require days to assess.

Olver's decision to retire as his wife, Rose, battles ovarian cancer ostensibly made the job of re-drawing the state's Congressional districts a simpler calculation.

With nine seats, nine incum-bents and a shoehorn, Moran and Rosenberg should be able to craft a map that would make Amerigo Vespucci proud, right?

The news spawned no shortage of pronouncements, albeit pre-mature ones, that Olver's retire-ment solved the conundrum of pitting two incumbents against one another.

New districts and resignations highlight state political news

Susan Wicker GuerreroBeacon Staff Writer

Everyone’s heard of the frost being on the pumpkin in late fall.

Who ever dreamed of both frost and snow being on the pumpkin even before Thanksgiv-ing, way before Thanksgiving?

Snow frosted the autumn leaves before they even had a chance to tumble through the air to the ground.

Snow shovels replaced rakes and garden hoes faster than speeding bullets.

In order to plant my spring flower bulbs, like daffodils and tulips, I now have to dig under layers of snow.

Everything seems to be racing towards us in advance.

In August, as people started shopping for the new school year, witches and pumpkins began ap-

pearing in the stores. It was enough to make me do a double take.

When October finally arrived, I went into a store to pick up some pumpkin-covered napkins and they were nowhere to be found.

Instead, a zillion Santa figures and made-in-China reindeer and baubles took the place of pumpkins.

Whatever happened to Thanksgiving?

Thankfully, I found some din-ner napkins with fall leaves on them and snatched them up be-fore red and green bells and holly covered them.

No way do I feel “holly jolly” when that happens. It kind of makes me want to smash the re-cording. That’s not going to spread holiday cheer, now, is it?

What is the reason for the fast-forwarding of holidays? It’s al-

most impossible to remain in the moment when that happens. We miss the “now” in favor of prepar-ing for “the future.”

We can plan ahead for the fu-ture. Certainly big ticket events, like weddings, usually need a lot of careful, advance planning.

Even with weddings, however, we have to take it easy. A lot can happen between now and next year. Plans change, people move, or die, and prices of just about ev-erything fluctuate.

Out on our front porch, quite a few scarecrow “kids” have been welcoming fall visitors. Recently, snow covered their pigtails and soaked their felt outfits. They looked forlorn and wet.

Now that Halloween is over, it’s time for Tom Turkey, right? I’d better hurry up and plan the menu before the Easter Bunny hops in.

Could this be global warming?


than three million homes and businesses across the Northeast in the dark by Sunday morning.

Power was restored to most of The Berkshires by Monday eve-ning, but to the south and east outages could take up to a week to repair.

“The damage to the system is like what we have never seen,” said Sandra Ahern, spokeswomen for WMECO. “This is easily the largest storm in terms of damage and customers out that we have ever seen.”

In the same year that Irene caused massive damage and out-ages, that statement carries a lot of weight.

“The utility companies need to remember the lessons of Irene, and keep customers informed about when they can expect pow-er restored,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “Running a household or

a business with the lights out is hard enough without being in the dark on when to expect relief.”

Lenox and Sheffield were the hardest hit towns as far as power outages, combined the towns had over 2,000 customers without power on Sunday. By late Mon-day both towns had their power restored.

Most of the outages in The Berkshires, and the entire North-east, happened below I-90. Much of Connecticut is expected to be without power until late in the week or possibly the early weekend.

The power is slowly coming back on for nearly 300,000 homes and businesses still in the dark after the worst October snowstorm on record in Massachusetts.

Down from a high of 670,000 outages, Massachusetts Emergen-cy Management Agency spokes-man Peter Judge says it could be a

couple of days before all power is restored.

While working quick to repair the lines National Grid has come off as uncaring at times.

“We do live in New England and this is what the weather is,” Marcy Reed, a spokesperson for National Grid said during a con-ference call with reporters.

In these tough economic times a storm this large this early in the year can be devastating to town budgets.

Following the storm, Governor Patrick has already requested an emergency declaration from the White House to get federal assis-tance for local communities.

The governor signed a letter Monday afternoon seeking the emergency aid that would make cities and towns eligible to recov-er up to 75 percent of cleanup costs from the storm.


The steps of St. Mark’s Church in Pittsfield on Sunday morning.


Putnam Ave. in Pittsfield was covered with deep heavy snow by early Sunday.


Many flocked to Carr Hardware in Lee for shovels, salt, and even generators.


The bridge over the Housatonic River on Golden Hill Rd. in Lenox was covered.

SNOW from page 1


Imagine a gigantic cactopus (part cactus and part octopus) named Pat that yearns for nothing simpler than friendship. Pat lives in a potted pet store, where year in, year out, the smaller, cuter plantimals are whisked away to attractive suburban homes. But no one wants Pat.

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The only thing to eat at Pittsfield parks was snowballs this weekend.


The village of Lenox Dale was dug out by early Sunday morn-ing from the over 20 inches that fell.

So do all of us at The Berkshire Beacon.

Our writers care about what’s on your mind and they care about your children.

We want you to be able to clip articles to send to friends and family members,

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THE GUIDING LIGHT OF THE BERKSHIRES

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Community Calendar THurSday, Nov. 3rd

TASTE OF THE BERKSHIRESPittsfield, 5 - 8 p.m.The Junior League of Berkshire County is hosting its 4th annual fall event, Taste of the Berkshires, on Thursday, at the Masonic Temple in Pittsfield. The event is sponsored this year by LP Adams Co. Restaurants from throughout Berkshire County will be repre-sented at this benefit and will be serving “tastings” from their fall menus.

FRIENDS OF THE BERK-SHIRE ATHENAEUM BOOK SALEPittsfield, 5 to 8 p.m.Fall Booksale Friends member night. Friends members only. You may join at the door. Family Au-dio books, CDs and DVDs included.

BERKSHIRE UNITED WAY’S LIVE UNITED BREAKFASTPittsfield, 7:45 a.m. to 9 a.m.Highlighting results, sharing pro-gram recipient success stories, and recognizing corporate and individual supporters will be the focus of Berkshire United Way’s LIVE UNITED breakfast held on Thursday, at Berkshire Hills Country Club, 500 Benedict Road. All are invited to attend.

FrIday, Nov. 4TH

THE ART OF AUTISMLee, 5 to 9 p.m.The Art of Autism. This event is lovingly sponsored by the Good Purpose Gallery and The Art of Autism Foundation. The two-day show is a collaborative effort that brings awareness to the general public of the artistic abilities of people with autism.

INDEPENDENT FILM STRONGMAN AND DIRECTORWilliamstown, 7 p.m.Images Cinema will host a screen-ing of the independently pro-duced documentary, Strongman, on Friday, The film will be fol-

lowed by a talk by director Zach-ary Levy. The film was a New York Times Critics’ Pick and won the Grand Jury Prize at Slam-dance Film Festival in 2009. Ad-mission to the film is free and open to the public.

SaTurday, Nov. 5TH

RICHMOND CRAFT & COUNTRY FAIRRichmond, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.The Richmond Craft & Country Fair will be held Saturday, at the Richmond School on State Road (Rt.41), There will be over 40 Crafters and Artisans, a Silent Auction, the Kids’ Fair, a Chinese Auction, the Book Fair and deli-cious homemade lunch and baked goods.

ST. HELENA’S HOLIDAY BAZAARLenox, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.St. Helena’s Annual Holiday Ba-zaar St. Helena’s Chapel 245 New Lenox Rd., Saturday, Holiday Ba-zaar features: A Raffle with items generously donated by area res-taurants and local merchants Hand-made crafts, perfect for holiday gifts and a bake table with yummy home-made desserts Toy Table for the kids.

FIFTH ANNUAL VNA & HOSPICE BAZAARNorth Adams, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.The Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice of Northern Berkshire will hold its fifth annual VNA & Hospice Bazaar on Saturday, The event will be held at the VNA & Hospice Community Room, 535 Curran Highway, proceeds from the annual bazaar benefit the VNA’s Hospice Fund.

WELCOME HOME DANCEPittsfield, 6:30 - 11 p.m.The Here at Home Committee, who welcome home heroes, Ma-sonic Temple, 116 South St., Swing Lesson at 7 p.m., DJ’s Es-ther & Irv Mindlin with Ball-room Dance Music, DJ Joe Minding with 50’s-80’s and Rock n’ Roll Music, Bistro Buffet & Chinese Auction.

NUTSHELL PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS ‘PIRATES’Lee, 11a.m.Saturday, ‘Family First Saturday at the Spectrum Series’ sponsored by NTB Banks. Nutshell Play-house presents ‘Pirates’. A swash-buckling hour long adventure featuring bold buccaneers, a mys-terious map with a riddle, cursed treasure, a visit to an island that you can’t see, a pirate ghost, and a magical journey to the bottom of the sea.

TRY HOCKEY FOR FREE DAYNorth Adams, 9 a.m.The Northern Berkshire Youth Hockey League invites boys and girls ages 4-10 years old to the Pe-ter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Skating Rink for the Try Hockey for Free clinic. Expe-rience hockey for the first time and learn the basics of the sport in a fun and safe environment.

SuNday, Nov. 6TH

READING & SPEAKING SERIES FOR ANIMAL DREAMSLee, 3 – 5 p.m.The Energy that Heals: Reiki for Animals - Mary Calabrese Gentle and noninvasive, Reiki is an ideal complement to Western medi-cine – both human and veteri-nary. Ms. Calabrese will talk about the history of Reiki and her work using this ancient form of healing with her many animal clients.

THE BERKSHIRE HU-MANE SOCIETY HORSE SHOWLenox, 9 a.m.The Berkshire Humane Society Horse Show has been rescheduled to Sunday, at Overmeade Farm, 940 East Street,. The event was postponed due to Hurricane Irene. The 19th annual event be-gins at 9 a.m. rain or shine. Spec-tators are invited to come and watch area riders compete in the day-long event.

Bera dunauBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX - The Lenox Historic District Commission has reluc-tantly voted to approve a request by Hoff ’s Mobil to remodel the Hoff ’s building from a full service gas station into a combined gas station and convenience store.

The request that was presented to the commission at their last meeting was identical to one that was pulled by the applicants ear-lier this year due to a technical is-sue with the paperwork, as in the original application; the owner of the property was listed as Glenn Hoff, instead of the actual owner, Shanlen Realty.

Architect Harry M. Pisila, the designer of the remodeling, made a presentation to the commission explaining the project and asking them to sign off on it.

The remodeling would involve the re-bricking of much of the Hoff ’s building, as well as putting in new windows and replacing the bay doors of what is currently the garage with windows.

The purview of the Lenox His-toric District Commission is to preserve the historic quality of Lenox’s Historic District.

As such, they have authority over the exterior aesthetics of buildings in the historic district, but not over their interiors, or use.

The commission must approve any construction in the Historic District before it can go forward.

After presenting the proposed changes to the building Mr. Pisila took questions from the commis-sion and the public.

Three of the commission’s four members were in attendance: Elaine Steinert, Steve Sample and Chairman Jason Berger.

Alex Glover, a Lawyer repre-senting O’Brien’s Market, which is located adjacent to Hoff ’s Mo-bil and the proposed new conve-nience store, objected to the ap-plication primarily on the grounds that the large windows of the re-modeling would flood the street with fluorescent lighting from in-side the store, and urged the com-mittee to reject the plan.

This contention was disputed by Mr. Pisila.

Some other concerns that were raised by members of the public were that the remodeling didn’t match the “character” of the Town and a concern that the large win-dows might be used to display signs.

Mr. Pisila assured the commis-sion and the public that Lenox’s sign laws would be obeyed, and that the windows wouldn’t be used to display signs of any kind. Mr. Pisila also asserted that as a modern building with no histori-cal value, remodeling Hoff ’s along functional lines was appropriate.

The Committee also had their own concerns with the proposal. Commission member Elaine Steinert repeatedly asserted that the redesign could have been “softer,” and more in keeping with the character of Lenox. She also characterized the remodeling as an opportunity to “Do some-thing nice,” for downtown.

Commission Member Steve Sample suggested that the win-dows in the new building might be reduced in size in order to low-er the amount of light emitted from them, and suggested that perhaps shutters could be added to the windows for aesthetic purposes.

Mr. Pisila was receptive to the idea of shrinking the windows, but rejected the idea of adding shutters as meaningless and “gingerbread.”

In the end, however, Commis-sion Chairman Jason Berger made the point that the remodeling was a significant improvement over the current condition of the building, and that there was only so much that could be changed about the current structure.

This argument ended up carry-ing the day, and the request for re-modeling was unanimously ap-proved, albeit unenthusiastically, by the commission, with an ad-dendum that a sign on the side of the building in the current plans be removed. This stipulation was added because Lenox only allows one sign per property, and the Hoff ’s property already has a Mo-bil sign.

The next step for the Hoff’s re-modeling will be to go before the Building Inspector with the pro-posed changes, although Mr. Pisila has no idea when this will take place.

Hoff RevisionsAfter pulling plan,

Pisila again proposes changes

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The decision of Massachusetts Congressman John Olver to not run for re-election is sure to have a far reaching political impact, that may effect western Massa-chusetts’ for years to come.

By choosing not to seek re-elec-tion, Congressman Olver (D-Amherst) has extricated the Mas-sachusetts Democratic Party from what could have been a potential-ly painful situation.

Because of its low population growth, Massachusetts will lose a congressional seat next year, go-

ing from 10 seats to nine. Cur-rently, all 10 of Massachusetts’ congressional incumbents are Democrats, and both the gover-nor’s mansion and the legislature in the Bay State are under Demo-cratic control.

Every 10 years, in response to national census data, the Massa-chusetts legislature must draw new district lines for its legislative and congressional districts. Be-sides making sure that each dis-trict has an equal population, and that minority-majority districts are preserved, the legislature has the freedom to draw these dis-tricts in any way it sees fit. The new map must then be passed by

both houses of the legislature, and can be signed or vetoed by the governor like any other bill.

The dilemma for state Demo-crats in this round of redistricting was that, with the loss of a con-gressional district, the Democrat-ic Party, would be forced to dis-trict out one of their own by putting two Democratic Party in-cumbents into the same district, potentially setting the stage for a very nasty fight.

The retirement of Congress-man Olver, due to the 75-year-old Congressman’s wife Rose be-ing diagnosed with ovarian cancer earlier this year, has averted this dilemma. However, this new real-

ity may prove problematic for Western Massachusetts.

Congressman Olver has repre-sented Massachusetts’ 1st Con-gressional District since he won the seat in a 1991 special election. The largest in Massachusetts, the 1st District has expanded signifi-cantly since Olver first won it, and currently stretches from the New York Border to Northern Worcester County, covering ap-proximately 40 percent of the state.

It is comprised of all of Berk-shire and Franklin Counties most of Hampshire County, and Parts of Worcester Middlesex and Hampden Counties. A district of

small cities and towns, Pittsfield is the 1st District’s largest community.

Some political commentators believed that because of Con-gressman Olver’s seniority, and the seniority of western Massa-chusetts’s other Congressman, Richard Neal (D-Springfield) who represents the 2nd Congres-sional District, the 1st District might have stood a chance of re-maining largely as it is now, al-lowing Western Massachusetts to keep being represented by two districts; one comprised of small towns and cities and the other

see OLVER page 15

Rep. Olver’s retirement stirs the pot as districts are redrawn across the commonwealth


Farm Center, helping troubled adolescent boys and their families to lead healthy, productive lives together.

‘Together” is a key word in John and his family’s life. His wife Georgette spoke of the be-ginning of the Pumpkin Walk. “It all started behind John’s par-ents’ (Mr. and Mrs. George and Sheila Keator) home in Lenox, near Ventfort Hall when it was still dilapidated.

There was a path that led to a place in the woods where they had campfires, a big party spot.” She laughs. John thought one day, “Hey, let’s carve some pump-kins!”

So it was initiated that at the beginning of the path a carved lit-up pumpkin sat on a tree stump, as a beacon leading to the campfire.

Soon more and more pump-kins were placed all along the path each year where themes were created, Pumpkin Master’s designs were used, and friends all gathered under trees of gold, eat-ing, drinking and having a good time for Halloween.

Today John’s Annual Pump-kin Walk has moved to John and his family’s hometown of Wash-ington at the Washington Town Park where it has been part of the community’s tradition for 13 years.

Living out in the country in a cozy, yet spacious log home with very few homes spaced out on the road, Trick or Treating was near impossible.

John’s wife, Georgette Keator, member of the Becket-Washing-ton Recreation Committee said, “Why don’t we set up Trick or Treat stations on the Pumpkin Walk. The kids can have fun, go wild and be contained in the park, and they could go around as many times as they want.”

Today you’ll find the town of Washington’s trick-or-treaters playing and zooming around the path of illuminated pumpkins gathering sweets. And just as they start to feel the chills of autumn, they can warm up with fam-ily and friends by the monstrous bonfire bursting with red-hot flames in the center of the park.

Each year volunteers just “step up out of nowhere”, pumpkins are donated and sold inexpensive-ly, and donations are freely given. “Even in such hard, economical times,” said Georgette, “people just come up in the grocery store and say, “Here, take this for the

kids,” as a $100 dollar bill lays in her hands.

Mr. Craig Willis owner of White Wolf Excavating has been a huge supporter for all 13 years organizing and using his tractor for exciting hayrides! Other vol-unteers are good friends Mr. and Mrs. Tom and Phebe Wehner, Mrs. Lisa Guthry, Ms. Jane Pitco, Mrs. Debbie Sawyer, The Kin-derhook Farm, and many others.

Thanks to men like Mr. John Keator, great traditions such as this happen. So on April 1, 2010 at the age of only 44 years old when diagnosed with ALS or better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, family, friends, and the community were awestruck that such a thing could happen to such a man.

But his illness didn’t stop him from “giving” or from partak-ing in all that he could. His wife Georgette said, “We watched many rapid changes happen to him and it was so hard to see him deteriorate.”

ALS is a fatal disease that at-tacks nerve cells in regions of the brain and spinal cord that gradu-ally die, taking away the ability to move limbs, eat, speak, and breathe. “It’s like falling off a cliff,” said his wife.

In his last days John FX Keator

was “surrounded by the love of his family and friends.” said good friend Mrs. Phebe Wehner.

There by his side were his daughters, his wife, even his niece from Alaska made it to say her goodbyes, and Sara Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion sang and took requests.

Many people came to see him again. “He was a much loved man, happy to be with people,” said his wife Georgette. “I can say he wasn’t judgmental, and he gave from the heart.” He passed away peacefully Saturday Eve-ning, October 22nd.

The family remains communi-cants of St. Ann’s of Lenox, and Fa-ther Warren Savage of Westfield became more to them than a priest, coming to visit John and his family each week during his illness, and offering support and words of the Gospel, he became their friend. Father Savage still calls to offer “donuts” which Georgette smiled and said, “It’s a little joke we have.”

Her pride in her husband shone through.

Mr. John FX Keator was a tall, thin charismatic man with smil-ing eyes, a warm face, and a gift, to bring people and communities together in love. Perhaps we can all learn from his lessons.


PITTSFIELD - With the Pitts-field Mayoral race in its final stretch, residents of the city will soon have to make a decision be-tween two impassioned and dedi-cated candidates, Dan Bianchi and Pete Marchetti, each of whom is certain that he is the right man for the job.

A notable element of this race is how much the two candidates have in common. Both Mr. Bian-chi and Mr. Marchetti are Demo-crats (although the mayor’s race is non-partisan). Both of them have backgrounds in finance and have served on the city council. Both have impassioned bases of sup-porters, and have received the backing of key political figures.

Even their policy positions are quite similar, with both politicians supporting setting aside some of the GE Economic Development Fund to aid small businesses.

Indeed, the two candidates are differentiated less by their stances on the issues, and more by their personal style, and which parts of their platforms they choose to emphasize.

Mr. Bianchi portrays himself as an outsider running against the political establishment.

“There’s a small group of old time politicians and political ac-tivists that would not want to see me shake up the status quo,” said Mr. Bianchi.

Perhaps nothing gives greater credence to this claim than the fact that the three candidates who lost to Democratic Party Candi-date Tricia Farley-Bouvier, who was heavily supported by Mayor Ruberto, in the recent special election for the 3rd Berkshire District; Green-Rainbow Party candidate Mark Miller, Indepen-dent Candidate Patricia Malumphy and Republican Party Candidate Mark Jester are all actively back-ing Mr. Bianchi’s campaign.

This support may also prove significant, as while all three of these candidates were defeated, collectively they received approx-imately 67 percent of the vote.

On the issues, Mr. Bianchi em-phasizes his background in fi-nance and municipal manage-ment, and expresses a strong

desire to find innovative solutions to control taxes and make gov-ernment run more efficiently. Some of these solutions would involve sharing services with oth-er towns, while others would in-volve partnering with private busi-nesses to help fund new programs.

One such program that Mr. Bi-anchi would like to work with private businesses to resurrect would give a laptop to every Pitts-field Middle School students. Mr. Bianchi sees reviving the laptop program, which was first intro-duced by former Representative Paul Mark.

Mr. Bianchi would also be in-terested in conducting similar communications with currently employed state workers on how to make city government run better.

“We’ve got to have input from our employees,” said Mr. Bianchi.

Still, Mr. Bianchi made certain to emphasize that such efforts would not involve lay offs. “I think with sound fiscal manage-ment you should never have to worry about a layoff.”

While Mr. Bianchi is running as a dynamic and efficient man-ager, Mr. Marchetti’s campaign is based more off expanding and re-inforcing the policies he credits with helping to put Pittsfield back on the right rack in recent years.

One of Mr. Marchetti’s notable qualities is his strong advocacy for Pittsfield’s art and cultural centers, which he credits with helping to spearhead economic growth in Pittsfield.

“We need to continue that growth and put more resources into the Office of Cultural Devel-opment,” said Mr. Marchetti.

One of the reasons Mr. Mar-chetti is a strong supporter of Pittsfields’s artistic programs and industries is that by bringing more business into the city, they help increase city revenues, by way of additional restaurant and hotel taxes.

On education, Mr. Marchetti wants to work with the business community to help set school curriculum.

Pittsfield mayors race to the wire

JOHN from page 1


Girl-2-GirlAre men

and women different?

Janel HarrisonBeacon Staff

Did I stutter? The question is clear and most of us know the an-swer… Ah yeah-ah!

We sure are! We women are like beautiful flowers, and men are like the weather…that’s how much they influence our behav-iors, moods, ways of life, goals, and dreams. Some days it’s sunny, B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L, and we’re dancing in the breeze, and some days… it’s like a flippin’ blizzard, we’re freezing, and our petals are blowing off! Truth.

I have since learned that the boys are reading this column too so… great! I will try to make it worth both genders while and throw some important words into the air, then check in every now and then. But be assured this is still Girl 2 Girl.

When in a relationship we need to communicate! And it’s not always as easy as it seems be-cause we are so different, but with effort and commitment we will rise and triumph! There is a good side to being different from our spouses or significant others.

American Author and relation-ship counselor John Gray’s 1992 book states, “Men are From Mars and Women are From Venus”. The book sold over 7,000,000 copies and is reported to be one of the best selling self-help books of all time.

We can learn from one another! That’s right. According to the book relationships are a lot of give and take, and it states that men and women keep score, sometimes subconsciously, and when one finds that he or she is giving more, resentment sets in, and that’s when communication is critically important.

We can be driven completely nuts, ready to yank our hair out… turn and feel cozy-warm next to a crackling fire or pellet stove, there ya go, that’s just the way it is baby!

I think it’s important for a man to be sensitive to our needs, just as it’s important for us to try to

understand their sometimes ri-diculous thoughts. Just kidding! If there is a man reading this…James?

How are you in a relationship? Is there give and take? Are there double standards? I hope not; or hypocritical philosophies? Not good. I say be who you say you’re going to be and do as you hope he is. If you follow that rule, you’ll be better, and life will be good.

You know that saying “A happy wife means a happy life.” Well it holds a lot of value, but under-stand it’s just as important for us to make our men feel happy, and when we know how much he cares by the little things he does, that let us know he’s thinking of us. Take notes!

Things like taking our hand on a walk, being at the store and thinking, “Hey, she likes this.” Music is huge and he doesn’t al-ways have to be musical; make a mixed CD, a flower and it doesn’t have to come from a florist either, it can be as simple as walking by a bush or in a field and hand pick-ing one, then offering it up.

Weaving it in our hair is an added bonus and will deem you right up there with Don Juan and Cyrano de Bergerac! But remem-ber it needs to be genuine!

Some of us are just a touch more maintenance, may have been hurt by some nincompoop and require speeches, serenades, poetry, and jewels. Climb the mountain boys!

It’s all in getting to know the one you love and not just telling you care, but showing with action and gestures!

Relationships can be exciting and new, or aged like fine wine, habits can form, people can be taken for granted, life gets in the way and confuses us, but it’s when we hold to our convictions and the love we share with each other, we can soar to the highest peaks and never want to come down… or at least free fall into tomorrow.

Ciao Bella


The weather this last week sure did feel like winter, but we should all remember it’s the last week of fall.

Which means we still have time to get a few more of those malty and rich fall brews.

Sierra Nevada, most famously known for their Pale Ale, makes some wonderful seasonal crafts.

Tumbler, their fall brown ale, is one of the best they bottle. As you sit back, sipping this beer and watching the color on the leaves change, a magical feeling will come to you, one that just screams “fall.”

Well all right, maybe all the trees that held those leaves came down under all that snow, but you know where I am going.

This beauty of a brew pours into the glass and quickly forms a thick, light-tan head, revealing a brown ale that matches the bottle in its color.

You instantly can taste the rus-tic and earthy flavors of this beer, as the malts are strong with its flavor.

Sierra Nevada uses four differ-ent types of malts in this craft: two-row pale, crystal, chocolate

and smoked. The chocolate and smoked

malts come through the stron-gest, with a slightly bitter after taste.

I also found that this beer does not have a very strong aroma at first, other than the slight smell of the malts in the brew, but if you really stick your nose in it you’ll find a sweet smell, with nice hop crispness.

But if you want to grab one of these bad boys you better move

fast. Most stores will take their cue from the weather, and the fact that you always change “beer seasons” after Halloween, and will have the winter beers on the shelves very soon.

Don’t worry though, if you did miss Tumbler, Sierra Nevada has a great winter beer for you to drink by the fire.

I’ll get more into that next week when I give you my preview of winter beers, and a deeper look at the style.

One last fall beerSierra Nevada Tumbler is a great Brown Ale to end the fall beer season even as the snow piles up


Tumbler, by Sierra Nevada, can be found in most package stores in the area.

based in Springfield. However, the slow population

growth of Western Massachusetts relative to the rest of the state meant that even with Olver in the Congress, there was still a signifi-gant chance that the 1st District would be absorbed into another district.

Indeed, some have speculated that the possibility of facing off against another incumbent con-tributed to Congressman Olver’s decision not to seek re-election.

With Congressman Olver choosing to retire, the disman-tling of the 1st District, as we cur-rently know, is almost a virtual certainty. The only question that remains is which district(s) will the 1st be combined with?

The two candidates for this merger are the 2nd Congressional District, based in Springfield and represented by Congressman

Neal, and the 3rd Congressional District, based in Worcester and represented by Congressman Jim McGovern, (D Worcester). Both possibilities have received signifi-gant speculation, but many com-mentators now believe that it is more likely that most of what makes up the current 1st District will be in the same district as Worcester when the new map is unveiled.

A third possibility would in-volve dividing the 1st District be-tween the 2nd and 3rd, with the 2nd gaining additional parts of Hampden County, including the communities of Holyoke and West Springfield, while Berkshire and Franklin County get incor-porated into the 3rd.

Whatever incumbent inherits the remains of the 1st District, they will not be running unop-posed in 2012.

State Senator Stanley Rosen-berg (D Amherst) co-chairs the

legislature’s Joint Committee On Redistricting, and has been ru-mored to have congressional ambitions.

If he wanted to help draw a dis-trict in which it would be favor-able for him to run in, he is in the perfect position to do so. State Senator Ben Downing (D- Pitts-field), a former member of Con-gressman Olver’s staff, is also ru-mored to be interested in a congressional seat, although he has stated that his primary con-cern at the moment is seeing that a district composed of western Massachusetts’ small cities and towns is preserved.

Berkshire Middle District Reg-ister of Deeds Andrea Nuciforo, a Pittsfield Democrat and Former State Senator, has already thrown his hat into the ring, having an-nounced his intention to run be-fore Olver’s decision to retire.

OLVER from page 11



LENOX - Undeterred by the Christmas season levels of snow and cold, hundreds of children and their guardians marched in costume in Lenox’s Halloween Parade.

The parade began at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, and made its way up Main Street onto Walker Street and past Town Hall, end-ing at the Lenox Community Center.

The parade, organized annually by the Lenox Community Cen-ter, was led by the Lenox Police and Fire Departments and the Middle School Band of Lenox High.

The band played music from atop a float throughout the pa-rade and a popular selection was The Adam’s Family theme song, which drew enthusiastic cheers of “Clap clap,” from the marching

children every time the theme’s refrain was repeated.

At the Lenox Community Cen-ter, the kids lined up to collect candy that was handed to them through slots in Halloween themed cutouts, in a haunted house style take on trick or treat-ing, before dispersing with their guardians, presumably to knock on the doors of their friends and neighbors for trick or treating the old fashioned way.

Lenox community center di-rector Kim Graham has been with the center for 10 years, and estimates that the Halloween pa-rade has been going on for 10 years before that.

The parade was organized with the help of both Parks and Recre-ations and the Council on Aging this year.

The Lenox Community Cen-ter’s next event will be Breakfast with Mr. And Mrs. Clause on Dec. 11.


LENOX – Months of conflict over the addition of wind tur-bines to Lenox Mountain have begun to come to a head.

The Lenox Wind Energy Re-search Panel held its first meeting this week, days after a presenta-tion by Preserve Lenox Mountain, a group against the addition.

The purpose of the panel is to gather information about the possibility of wind power on Lenox Mountain. The panel con-sists of three opponents of the wind power on Lenox Mountain; Chris Magee, Warren Archey, and Channing Gibson, three supporters; Eric Vincelette, Jaime Cahillane and Dr. Michael Ka-plan and an alternate from each side.

Lenox Selectman Ken Fowler is the group’s non-voting modera-tor. The panel is set to present its findings to the Lenox Board of Selectmen on Jan. 15.

All members of the panel were at the first meeting, with the ex-ception of Chris Magee, who was filled in for by his wife and anti wind alternate Joanne Magee.

Most of the meeting was spent setting up the panel’s schedule and determining what its priori-ties would be.

Moderator Ken Fowler, as well as Sustainability Coordinator Adele Gravitz and Lenox Town Manager Gregory Federspiel helped facili-tate this task.

The Panel decided that Thurs-days at 6 p.m. would work best for a regular meeting time. The Panel also decided to meet once a week.

On the suggestion of the facili-tators, the panel also decided that a site visit to Lenox Mountain, the proposed location for wind power that the panel is exploring, would be appropriate.

This site visit was scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 5 at 1 p.m.

Weston Solutions, a Concord, N. H., based company complet-ed a study on the possibility of installing wind turbines on Lenox Mountain in March of this year, and determined that Lenox Mountain had “excellent wind resources.”

The panel decided that they would ask representatives of

Weston Solutions to accompany them on their Nov. 5 site visit, but determined that they would not postpone the visit if represen-tatives from the company could not make it.

The Weston Company’s report on the feasibility of wind power on Lenox Mountain can be found on the home page of the Town Of Lenox’s website.

The panel also discussed visit-ing other sites, such as the Brodie Turbines in Hancock and the Fal-mouth Turbines in Falmouth, as well as the possibility of studying some sites without physically traveling to them. No decision on which sites the panel would visit was reached, however.

In terms of what issues the panel would explore, the possible eco-nomic benefit of wind turbines, the impact of turbines on water resources, shadow flicker, noise, and whether turbines on Lenox Mountain would be municipally operated or operated by a devel-oper on land leased from the town, were just some of the issues brought up by panel members for further exploration later on.

“I think it went very well,” said Moderator Ken Fowler after the meeting, Mr. Fowler said that he was pleased with the exchange of ideas.

“I think it was a very good start,” said Harley Keisch, a Rich-mond resident and member of the anti wind group Preserve

Lenox Mountain. Mr. Keisch lives a mile away

from the site of one of the pro-posed turbines in the Weston Study, and addressed the panel at a number of points during the meeting.

At one point saying that if the town really wanted to raise mon-ey, they’d be better off building condos on Lenox Mountain.

Preserve Lenox Mountain brought Elanor Tillinghast to Lenox only days before the meet-ing to express their concerns with the project.

Tillinghast, the Green Berk-shires President and cofounder, gave a wide ranging presentation on wind energy and the wind power industry.

“I do not think landscapes should be destroyed for energy production,” said Mrs. Tilling-hast. “Regardless of our good in-tentions, energy is a commodity based market so your going to have companies come in and do whatever they want and we have to have strong laws,” said Ms. Tillinghast.

The next meeting of the Wind Energy Research Panel will be on Nov. 10, at 6 p.m. at Lenox Town Hall. A site visit to Lenox Moun-tain will meet on location on Nov. 5, at 1 p.m.

After the site visit, the commit-tee will reconvene at Lenox Town Hall at 3 p.m. to discuss their thoughts.

Photo Credit / Bera dunau

Back Row: Left to Right: Zoe Nadig, Claudia Maurino, Liat Friedman, Jane Schamess Phoebe CarryFront Row: Left to Right: Tyler Nadig, Theo Maurino

Through the snow kids hit the streets for

Halloween

Lenox wind finally coming to the forefront

Photo Credit / Bera dunau

Elanor Tillinghast spoke to Preserve Lenox Mountain before the meeting.

Nov. 03 Berkshire Beacon

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