If I have sounded like a broken record these past months, it is because these developments in American public health are as important as they are horrifying.
Retailers and other business owners often complain about is the thin labor pool that makes staffing difficult in southern Berkshire County. The problem is caused in no small measure by the lack of affordable housing
With the remediation that has already been conducted, along with ongoing and future clean-up, potential sale of the Main Street property could put it back on the tax rolls, thus generating revenue.
“As a property owner in a beautiful little town there’s nothing I’d rather see than that property cleaned up. That’s helps my property value, it helps the town.” -- Mike Arnoff, owner of property adjacent to Ried Cleaners on Main Street.
In the meantime, an environmental report says postal workers exposed to basement air are at “chronic risk” due to naphthalene, tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE).
“There is a chronic risk to current postal workers exposed to basement air at the [Great Barrington] Post Office due to naphthalene, PCE and TCE” left from the adjacent Ried Cleaners, an environmental consultant concluded.
