“We have a constitutional right to speak up and speak out,” Pittsfield rally co-organizer Robin O’Herin told The Berkshire Edge. “He is stealing our government and turning it into an autocracy and a dictatorship”
“Spring into Reading” is the Great Barrington Libraries’ community-wide initiative to help residents whose experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has been coupled with economic and food insecurity.
Lori A. Robbins, the attorney for Berkshire Aviation, stunned the packed selectmen's room when she announced that her client wanted to withdraw its application without prejudice.
The latest episode saw the public hearing on the airport's quest for three new hangars continued to July 10, but only after the selectboard heard from both sides of the controversial proposal, with noisy airport antagonists drowning out proponents.
The Planning Board decided that it wanted updated renderings and more information on signage and the potential visual impact of the proposed hangars before they voted to approve the site plan. On Monday, June 12, the airport’s application for a special permit will be voted on by the Selectboard.
Monday's hearing looked as if it would be a barnburner, with neighboring property owners ready to oppose the airport's proposed addition of three new hangars, and another nearby property owner poised to suggest the airport was responsible for poisoning his drinking water.
"There is no discernable evidence leading me to conclude future real property values will be negatively impacted by such an occasion and to assert otherwise is speculation."
-- Town Assessor Chris Lamarre
Among other research, the EPA’s findings indicate that where there are small, piston-engine aircraft operating, there is an increase in lead concentrations in air. The FAA says it, along with the EPA, is working to stop the use of lead in the fuel, and backing research to come up with alternatives.
“It essentially will be the same building with a few modifications — these will go back in time,” and make the renovated Searles “much more historically accurate.”
-- Architect Rolph Biggers
The proposed 95-room, upscale hotel on the site of the empty Searles School complex would incorporate the brick facades and outlines of the 116-year-old building.
In his open letter to the Great Barrington Selectboard, Marc Fasteau writes: "Despite assurances to the contrary from the developer, the project is not viable as a high-end hotel."
