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…

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)
Read more…

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 an earlier post on this blog I described how the City of Pittsfield received a permit from the Pittsfield Conservation Commission for work to be done at Wahconah Park, and how the City then put a different plan out to bid. Erik Hoffner read this blog and sent members of the Berkshire Grassroots Network an email with a link to it. Deanna Ruffer, Pittsfield’s Director of Community Development, responded to this email, suggesting that BEAT’s blog contains errors and that readers should contact her for the facts. Jeff Turner of Pittsfield was one of the recipients of this email and did, in fact, contact Deanna Ruffer and she replied. In her reply, Deanna Ruffer apparently agrees that the two plans are different, but says that this is a result of the city choosing to proceed with only parts of the project and not others.

This might sound logical, but it has problems on two fronts. First, it’s not really logical. And second, even if it were logical, it would still be a violation of the conditions of the permit granted to the city by the Conservation Commission. Read more…

Everybody knows that BEAT keeps a close eye on the Pittsfield Conservation Commission. It’s no exaggeration to say that we know the regulations related to the Wetlands Protection Act better than the conservation commissioners sworn to enforce it. So if the City of Pittsfield wanted to slip one of its own projects past our eyes and the eyes of other members of the community, how might they do it? How about this idea. Present one set of plans to the Pittsfield Conservation Commission for public review, but then actually build something else. Read more…

In my last post, I told the story of how the City of Pittsfield decided that instead of having Jim Bouton and Chip Elitzer fund the reconstruction of a renovated Wahconah Park, the City should do it themselves with taxpayer money. My impression is that this allows the money involved in the project to go to the “right” people. The City waited for Jim and Chip to spend lots of money on plans and designs, waited for them to get the necessary permits, and then usurped the project without so much as removing the name of Jim’s and Chip’s business from the plans. When Chip sent the City a cease-and-desist notice forbidding them from using the plans that had been funded privately, Pittsfield said it wasn’t using the plans or permits. But the City had just filed for an amendment to the permit (Jim’s and Chip’s permit) which uses Jim’s and Chip’s plans and designs as its basis.

One of BEAT’s environmental complaints regarding this project began when we noticed piles of fill in Wahconah Park’s parking lot, right near the stadium’s chain link fence. Anyone who knows the area knows that this parking lot floods every year, because the parking lot is actually part of the Housatonic River from time to time. In fact, the piles of fill were soon under water. This is a violation of wetlands laws. The City was required to obtain a wetlands permit to put those piles there, because at least some of the fill could easily end up in the Housatonic River. Did the City get a permit that allowed them to put piles of fill in the river? Well, it depends on when you ask them and which answer they think the situation calls for. Read more…

Berkshire County resident Jim Bouton had an idea.  He would use private funds to renovate Wahconah Park. It wasn’t just a business venture.  It was motivated in part by his and his partner’s, Donald “Chip” Elitzer’s, sheer love of baseball.  Almost as soon as their organization, Wahconah Park Inc.,  had their plans drawn up they sought input from area environmental groups.  BEAT had some concerns, but clearly these were people who were listening and who wanted to do it right.

Enter the City of Pittsfield.  I firmly believe that the purpose of the current city government in Pittsfield is to take tax money and grant money and dole it out to a small number of friends for projects that often don’t make sense to people who have other ideas about what city government is supposed to be. Somehow the Wahconah Park Inc. project that the city frowned upon and disparaged was killed and then taken over by the city, and it is now all-important.  (For the full story on how Pittsfield discouraged Jim and Chip in favor of a more costly city-funded project I would suggest reading Jim’s book on the topic, Foul Ball.) 

Is the city’s project the same as that proposed by Jim and Chip?  BEAT doesn’t think so.  Many of the environmental safeguards are gone.  But some parts of the plan remain; notably the permits and plans that Wahconah Park Inc. had put so much time, effort, and money into.  How do we know?  The City of Pittsfield submitted the plans to the Conservation Commission as if they were their own and forgot to remove the Wahconah Park Inc. title from the plans.  BEAT (yes BEAT) called Jim Bouton and notified him. His partner Chip immediately sent a cease and desist order to the City. It reads in part, “Jim and I are the sole owners of the plans, designs, studies, estimates, and filings that these firms performed at our expense.  Neither the City nor any of its agents are authorized to possess or use any of these materials.  We hereby notify you that the City should cease and desist any such use, and return any and all materials to us as soon as possible.” Read more…