BEAT’s Blog

Last week I wrote about a Pittsfield official telling the City Council that the City of Pittsfield had “elected” not to comply with state-mandated environmental monitoring regulations in an effort to save money.  In case you think this is an isolated incident, let me tell you about a few things that happened over the course of the last couple weeks and are still going on. Read more…

Why is it that people, whether in an office in Pittsfield or on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, always think they understand public safety issues better than the regulators. Recently, Bruce Collingwood, Pittsfield’s Commissioner of Public Works and Utilities, stood before the city council during budget hearings to discuss the mayor’s new budget. Mr. Collingwood was asked by a councilor to explain the fact that his department had asked for $106,000 for environmental monitoring but had received only $30,000. Why did this happen and what were the implications of the mayor not putting the full amount in Mr. Collingwood’s budget the councilor wanted to know.

Mr. Collingwood explained that the city had “elected” not to do this monitoring although it is required by the state.
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A recent Pittsfield Gazette story highlighted the controversy surrounding flooding in the area around Deming Park in Pittsfield. Local residents are angry over mistakes made by the Pittsfield Parks Commission and the Pittsfield Conservation Commission. A second, seemingly unrelated story has me concerned.

According to the Gazette, “Ontario Street homeowners led by Dan Miraglia have challenged the city’s activities at the park, which they feel have violated the law and contributed to an ever-worsening flood problem impacting their residential properties. ‘There is a constant flooding problem in that particular area,’ he said.” (1)

Part of the controversy centers on a new batting cage that was built for the Babe Ruth baseball league in Deming Park. There was no permit issued for this work by the Conservation Commission even though the work was in the floodplain.

According to the Gazette, “The parks commission approved the batting cage — paid for by the Babe Ruth league — in February, during a meeting when all votes were illegal because a quorum was not present. The cage was then installed and in March, the commission ‘corrected’ the votes by voting as a package to reaffirm all February actions, without any deliberation. (1)
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Pittsfield has suffered from an unusual amount of flooding over the course of the past year. Of course nobody is blaming the City for the recent heavy rainfall. But the kind of extreme storms we have been experiencing lately may become more common in the future. Global climate-change models have been saying for years now that climate change in our area will mean more rainfall and more extreme and intense rain storms. (1)

Although nobody is saying that Pittsfield caused all the recent flooding, I believe that the decisions made by the Pittsfield Conservation Commission have made the flooding worse than it otherwise would have been. For example, take their decisions regarding the reconstruction of Wahconah Park. Read more…

Guess what! You know that nice, new grassy area that the City was in such a hurry to put in at Wahconah Park, just outside the stadium? The work that BEAT complained was being done against existing environmental regulations? That grassy area is going to be torn up soon by the City. It seems a storm-drain pipe under Wahconah will have to be dug up so that a new one can be put in. The new grassy area (already dead from being constantly under water) and the new pavement that the City just put in are about to be torn up by the City.

The interesting thing is that the City had planned this storm-drain work before they started the work at Wahconah. In other words, the City performed the work at Wahconah knowing that it would just have to be undone by a later City project. As a matter of fact, the state certificate to perform the work at Wahconah “strongly encouraged” the City to coordinate these two projects. BEAT pointed this out to the City at an open meeting before the work at Wahconah Park started. But the funds were available, so they did the work anyway. Your tax dollars at work. It’s amazing how many problems could be solved just by following existing laws and regulations, but our leaders always seem to have a better idea. I’m just glad we didn’t need any of that wasted money for other things, like social services. We didn’t, did we?

If you have been following BEAT’s Blog, you know that we have a few themes.

1. All BEAT asks is that the City of Pittsfield follow existing laws and regulations.

2. The Pittsfield Conservation Commission does a poor job of protecting Pittsfield’s lakes, rivers, streams, and other wetlands.

3. The purpose of Pittsfield City Government seems to be to take in tax money and grant money and control its distribution.

All three points came into focus for me recently as I looked at two engineering plans related to the work being done at Pittsfield’s own water theme park; Wahconah Park. Read more…

To say Wahconah Park was flooded last week would be an understatement. People were actually kayaking and swimming in the parking lot. I guess even pumping the overflow into nearby wetlands (which the City of Pittsfield has done) couldn’t help. Of course, it wasn’t just Wahconah Park that was flooded. Pittsfield is seeing an unprecedented amount of flooding. Can anything be done? BEAT has been saying for some time now that the Pittsfield Conservation Commission does a poor job of protecting the city from flooding. Read more…

In my last posting, I suggested that perhaps the Pittsfield Conservation Commission was relying too heavily on the expertise of the applicants who come before them for advice on regulatory and technical issues.  In this posting I would like to propose a solution to the problem.

Pittsfield’s Conservation Commission holds hearings every three weeks to consider applications for permits to perform work in and around wetlands.  Although the commissioners are asked to familiarize themselves with the relevant regulations, primarily the Wetlands Protection Act, it is understandable that members of the commission, who are volunteers, sometimes find themselves in over their heads.

This is why the City of Pittsfield has provided the commission with a full-time (37.5 hours-per-week) technical consultant who has a background in environmental science.  This salaried city employee with a degree in environmental science is supposed to be the commission’s go-to guy.  So how is this working?  Read more…

A few months ago enginneer James Scalise, representing Valley Mill Corporation, appeared before the Pittsfield Conservation Commission. He was there because Bonded Concrete wanted to build and operate a cement plant in Pittsfield, and since Valley Mill already had been issued a permit to operate a waste transfer station at the same site, couldn’t they just amend Valley Mill’s permit and avoid all those tedious delays and reviews. The commission said “fine with us.” How this was allowed to happen is an exercise in dysfunctional civics. Read more…

I recently toured the facilities of County Concrete in Dalton. I’m not the easiest person to please environmentally, but I have to say, County Concrete’s operation impressed me. Their chemicals are behind double-walled structures in case of spills or leaks, their trucks are washed down before they are allowed to go out on the roads, and the water from the wash is captured in such a way as to protect the nearby stream. County Concrete has been a Dalton-Pittsfield business for a long time. They’ve recently been purchased by a larger parent company, but they are still under the same local control.

So why is it that the City of Pittsfield is bending environmental rules to the point of breaking in order to allow an out-of-state competitor to move in right across the street from County Concrete? Read more…