nov. 17th berkshire beacon

November 17, 2011Volume II, Issue 26

www.berkshirebeacon.comLenox, MA 01240

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1 Local News 6 Editorial6 From the Tower5 College Sports Report12 Fun & Games10 Calendar15 Movies 15 Girl-2-Girl

Urinetown- Page 3

The Berkshire Beacon

Index

Amherst takes rivalryKameron SpauldingBeacon Staff Writer

WILLIAMSTOWN - Undefeated Amherst was a major favorite when they arrived at Williams this week-end. When they received the opening kickoff and proceeded to march down the field and score to take a 7-0 lead, one they never relinquished, it was clear why they were.

In the end Amherst’s strong de-fense and ability to create turnovers wore down the Ephs and Amherst scored the 31-18 win.

The win gave Amherst the NES-CAC and Little Three titles and a locked up a perfect 8-0 season. It was the second time in three years, the Amherst College football team walked off Williams College’s Weston

Bera DunauBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX - The long debated idea of Lenoxology was again central to de-bate at the recent Marketing and Events Committee meeting.

Committee member Richard Wise criticized the Lenoxology campaign itself, which he said had yet to pene-trate the popular consciousness of and gain support in Lenox.

“Most of the people have no idea what Lenoxology is except that they think it’s stupid,” said Mr. Wise

This assertion was disputed by members Bob Romeo, Kim Flynn and Eiran Gazit, all of whom were previous members of the Economic Development Action Plan Steering Committee.

They pointed to the success of the most recent public forum with Bod-den and Hamilton in getting more people to embrace Lenoxolgy.

“I can’t tell you how many people came up to me after that meeting and said, ‘I get it now’,” said Mrs. Flynn.

One part of the committee’s duties will involve overseeing the Lenoxol-ogy marketing campaign and the contract between the town of Lenox and Bodden and Hamilton, the com-panies responsible for the creation and execution of the Lenoxology campaign.

These tasks were previously the purview of the now dissolved Eco-nomic Development Action Plan Steering Committee, which the Mar-keting and Events committee was partially formed to replace.

Selectman W. David Roche Jr. gave emphasis to using marketing and events to increase revenue for the town through lodging and meals tax-

Lenoxology “stupid”?Debate over if

and when to start program high-lights meeting

see EPHS page 5 see LENOX page 14

Kameron SpauldingBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD - When the Berk-shire Theatre Group opens their sixth annual staging of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” on Dec. 17, and the performance will be full of chang-es and some added star power.

That star power will come from the acting debut of James Taylor, a local Berkshires resident. Mr. Taylor will play the abused but still optimistic Bob Cratchit.

Mr. Taylor will be far from alone on stage as his whole family will join him.

Kim Taylor, James’ wife, will be on stage for the second year as Mrs. Cratchit. Their son, Rufus, mean-while, will again play the younger version of Scrooge. Also, their son Henry will return to play the boy to get the turkey for the family.

The other major change this year is

see TAYLOR page 2

A Christmas Carol gets a new star and a new stage

Photo Credit / StePhen FauCher

Williams tried to get the running game going, but could not against rival Amherst.

Photo Credit / Kameron SPaulding

A Christmas Carol will be coming to Colonial Theater this winter.

2 The Berkshire Beacon November 17, 2011


LEE - The Lee Cultural Coun-cil will be showing the 1969 film Alice’s Restaurant at the former Lee District Court in order to highlight the town’s connection with the movie, the song that in-spired it, and the true events upon which both works were based.

Arlo Guthrie’s comedic ballad, Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, is an American classic that chroni-cles a series of events that origi-nate with a fantastic Thanksgiv-ing Dinner, and end up inspiring a protest against the Vietnam War.

It is common knowledge that many of the incidents upon which the song was based oc-curred in Berkshire County in the town of Stockbridge. Indeed, Al-ice Brock, of Alice of Alice’s res-taurant fame, still resides there.

What is less commonly known is that the famous courtroom scene; in both the song, movie, and real life, where Arlo and his friend Richard Robbins are ar-raigned before a blind judge, oc-curred in the Town of Lee.

Indeed, the scene in the 1969 film was shot in the very same courtroom where Arlo and Rich-ard were fined $50 and told to pick up their trash five years earlier.

Chris Collins, Program Direc-tor for the Lee Cultural Council, became fascinated by the connec-tion between Alice’s restaurant and Lee a number of years ago.

A friend of Alice Brock, he be-gan collecting Lee related memo-rabilia related to the movie, the original Alice’s Restaurant, and the events that inspired the Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.

In order to share this heritage with more people Mr. Collins, working with the Lee Cultural Council, has arranged for show-ings of the film, as well as a dis-play of memorabilia related to the film and story behind it, on No-vember 19 and November 20 in the former Lee District Court.

The Lee District Court was the exact courtroom where Arlo and Richard were tried and the court-room scene from the movie was filmed.

Admission and popcorn at these showings will be free, but people must sign up for the event

at The Morgan House beforehand.

Those who attend the showing will also receive a coupon good for 10% off a special Thanksgiv-ing dinner and free desert at the Morgan House afterwards. The popcorn machine for the event will be donated by Carr Hard-ware of Lee.

At the last Select Board meet-ing, Mr. Collins confirmed the details of the showing with the Selectmen.

He also said that his group was issuing a caution to those worried about the content of the film, as the version shown will have an R rating.

Mr. Collins also secured the permission of the Select Board to affix some of the Alice’s restaurant memorabilia he had collected over the years to the walls of the courtroom with removable adhe-sive, and brought out some of the memorabilia that will be dis-played at the screenings for the Selectmen to see.

Alice’s Restaurant will be shown on November 19 at 5:00 PM and November 20 at 3:00 PM at the former Lee District Court.

Photo Credit / Bera dunau

Lee Cultural Center Program Director Chris Collins with a picture from the filming of the 1969 film Alice’s Restaurant.

Alice’s comes to Lee screens this weekend

the play has moved to the much larger 783-seat Colonial Theater in Pittsfield.

Even with the bigger location, the added star power has made the tickets a hot item.

Tickets went on sale last Satur-day by phone and at the box of-fice for Berkshire County resi-dents. The general sale began Tuesday at the same locations and on James Taylor’s personal website. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children.

The tickets on Mr. Taylor’s site though run $100 and include a $75 donation to the theater group.

There will be 11 performances ranging from opening night De-cember 17th to the 30th, includ-ing a performance on Christmas Eve.

Kate Maguire, artistic director of the Berkshire Theatre Group has said that she had to coax the 63-year-old Taylor into taking the role. Finally telling him how much it meant to her to perform on stage with her own daughter.

28 tickets from each perfor-mance will be donated to Charity Partners. Charity Partners tickets are available on www.ticketsfor-charity.com. 100% of the Chari-

ty Partners donations from this community production will be evenly split to benefit Berkshire National Resources Council and Berkshire Theatre Group.

Charity Partners ticket buyers will receive a premium seat to A Christmas Carol as well as guar-anteed parking, a CD/DVD of James Taylor’s One Man Band, filmed at the Colonial, a copy of Nicholas Whitman’s book, The Colonial Theatre: A Pittsfield Resurrection and a special holi-day reception complete with cookies, hot chocolate, and holi-day cheer.

TAYLOR from page 1

James Taylor, scene here at Tanglewood, will return to the stage, this time as a actor.

A Christmas CarolShow Dates

Saturday, Dec 17 at 7pm

Sunday, Dec 18 at 2pm

Tuesday, Dec 20 at 7pm

Wednesday, Dec 21 at 7pm

Thursday, Dec 22 at 7pm

Friday, Dec 23 at 7pm

Monday, Dec 26 at 7pm

Tuesday, Dec 27 at 7pm

Wednesday, Dec 28 at 7pm

Thursday, Dec 29 at 7pm

Friday, Dec 30 at 7pm

November 17, 2011 The Berkshire Beacon 3

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PITTSFIELD – The office of Dr. John George, 553 Tyler St., donated almost $6,000 to the Berkshire County Kids’ Place to support child victims of abuse in Berkshire County, according to a short article in the Kids’ Place Times.

The Kids’ Place is an accredited Children’s Advocacy Center.

His office raised the money through Smiles for Life from March through June.

During those months, hun-dreds of dental practices through-out the United States and Canada professionally whiten teeth.

Payment for teeth whitening goes toward the raising of money for seriously ill, disabled, and un-derprivileged children in their lo-cal communities and around the world, according to the Smiles for Life Website.

It is also noted that the Smiles for Life Foundation is the chari-table arm of the Crown Council. This is an alliance of leading-edge dental teams.

The dental practices involved with Smiles for Life are members of the Crown Council.

They are passionately commit-ted to promoting oral health,

fighting oral cancer, and serving their communities through chari-table work, according to informa-tion on the website.

Children’s Advocacy Centers aim to provide a “homelike atmo-sphere where child abuse victims and their non-offending family members can receive the services necessary to heal from the trauma of abuse.”

More information on Dr. George’s practice can be obtained by going to his website at http://www.berkshiredentalhealth.com/index.html

Local dentist raises nearly $6000 for charity


NORTH ADAMS - The Fine and Performing Arts Department at Massachusetts College of Lib-eral Arts will continue its fall the-ater season with Mark Hollman’s and Greg Kotis' musical comedy "Urinetown".

Performances are Wednesday-Saturday, Nov. 16-19, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 19, at 2 in the Mainstage theater in Venable Hall.

The three-time Tony Award-winning musical for the best di-rector, best book, and best origi-

nal score in 2002, "Urinetown" has been acclaimed as "the most gripping and galvanizing theater experience in town" by The New York Times.

Directed by Laura Standley, as-sistant professor of theater, with the music directed by Christine Condaris, professor of music,

The musical will feature a cast of student singers and dancers.

"Urinetown" is a tale of greed, corruption, love, and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold.

The idea behind "Urinetown" came to Kotis when he was on an tight-budget trip to Paris and ran

out of money. This forced him to choose be-

tween eating dinner and using the public pay-per-use bathrooms.

The script and score's sarcastic tone mocks the format of the all-too-typical American Broadway Musical and reinvigorates the very notion of what a musical can be, catapulting the comedic romp into the new millennium, accord-ing to Standley.

Tickets are $8 for general ad-mission, $5 for faculty, alumni and staff, and free for MCLA stu-dents. To reserve tickets call the box office at 413-662-5123.

MCLA presents Urinetown this weekend

Broadway hit Urinetown is being performed this weekend at MCLA. The performances will take place on the Mainstage in Venable Hall.


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PITTSFIELD - This week the Patrick-Murray Administration approved 23 new MassWorks In-frastructure Program grants to advance local development proj-ects across the state.

Locally both Pittsfield and Florida were granted a combined $1.6 million dollars for infra-structure improvements.

Pittsfield was awarded $1.1 million for improvements to the McKay Street Parking Garage to promote continued business de-velopment and downtown revi-talization, including downtown housing development.

This brings the total Mass-Works program investment in the project to $3.6 million.

The project has been identified as a regional priority in the Berk-shire Regional Planning Com-

mission’s regional plan, and the city has committed $2 million to-ward construction costs.

“We are very excited for the state’s support of the vital project for our downtowns infrastruc-ture,” said Deanna Ruffer, Pitts-field Community Development Director.

According to Ruffer, the proj-ect will be out to bid in early Jan-uary and the city expects to have a shovel in the ground by April.

The town of Florida will re-ceive $528,000 to improve two sections of River Road, which serve both residents and tourists and is a rural connector that sup-ports motorists throughout the region.

This project has also been iden-tified as a regional priority by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.

“Our Administration has made historic investments to help com-

munities improve their infra-structure and create jobs,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “The MassWorks Infrastructure Pro-gram is a great example of our how we can stimulate local econ-omies and support projects that will benefit communities for gen-erations to come.”

The new grants bring the state’s total investment in MassWorks to nearly $61 million.

Through these grants, the state hopes to partner with cities and towns to support housing devel-opments, infrastructure invest-ments, road safety and downtown revitalization projects.

“The MassWorks Infrastruc-ture Program is an efficient and effective resource that supports local and regional economic growth,” said Lieutenant Gover-nor Timothy Murray.

“Through the MassWorks pro-gram, our Administration works

closely with cities and towns to provide municipalities with one-stop-shop services to improve in-frastructure and create develop-ment ready sites that will spur business expansion and job cre-ation,” said Lt. Gov. Murray.

The first competitive Mass-Works grant round was held this September, bringing in 158 ap-

plications for more than $400 million in infrastructure grants submitted by cities and towns from across the state.

Applications were reviewed for consistency with the program’s priorities, including readiness to proceed with construction and the state’s sustainable develop-ment principles.

Pittsfield and Florida win grants from MassWorks


LENOX - The Lenox Library has earned a lustrous award. The library has been named a “Star Library” by the Library Journal, one of only eight in Massachu-setts and 262 total in the United States.

A total of 7,513 public libraries were evaluated by Library Journal to make this years rankings.

The top libraries get five, four, or three stars. The Lenox Library received three stars and was rated the eighth best library in the Commonwealth.

All rated libraries, stars or not can use their scores to learn from their peers, inform their stake-holders of achievements and ser-vice opportunities, and improve library awareness and funding.

Lenox was one of 67 new li-braries to be added to the list this year.

The libraries are rated on four per capita statistics, library visits, circulation, program attendance, and public internet use.

And the rankings use the 2009 data released by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in July 2011.

The Lenox library had a total of 9.9 visits per person in the town, and loaned out 14.6 books per resident.

Where the library really ex-celled, according to the rankings, is in event attendance. The li-brary had an average of five pro-grams attended by each individu-al. This was the second highest rate of attendance in the state.

The libraries are also judged by total budget. Lenox was placed in the $400,000 to $1 million bud-get grouping. Of which only 31 libraries in the nation were named

“Star Libraries”According to the Lenox Li-

brary, their annual budget is $500,000. Of that budget 47%, or $235,000, comes from the town. The rest is made up for fundraising, fines and other revenues.

Other ranked libraries from Massachusetts include Dennis-port, Chatham, Williamsburg, Osterville, Vineyard Haven, Wellfleet and West Tisbury.

Wellfleet received the highest score in the state and the third highest in the nation.

Lenox is home to a “Star Library”

google maP graPhiC / Kameron SPaulding

The space between McKay and Depot Streets is location of the garage to be improved in Pittsfield.


The library, 18 Main Street in Lenox, was named a 3 star library by the Library Journal.


College Sports ReportField as undefeated champions of the NESCAC.

Amherst secured the fourth 8-0 season in program history (1964, 1984, 2009, 2011), while the Ephs who ended the season at 5-3, snapped its streak of 10 con-secutive seasons finishing at 6-2 or better.

Amherst’s opening drive was an 8–play, 66–yard effort capped by a 15-yard run by QB Brian Mc-Mahon at 11:54 of the quarter.

McMahon put the Jeffs on the board with a 15-yard touchdown run to his left after a fake hand-off, and Rawson added the extra point to mark the fourth consec-utive Amherst-Williams game in which the Jeffs scored first.

Williams got on the scoreboard with just 31 seconds left in the opening quarter when sopho-more Joseph Mallock connected on a 41-yard FG. Mallock booted his second FG of the day with 10:38 left in the second quarter when he split the uprights from 23 yards out, cutting the Amherst lead to one at 7-6.

Amherst running back Eric Bunker then started to take the game over. Bunker rushed for only 21 yards against Williams last year, but he gained 107 yards on 27 carries (4.0 ypc) this time around.

Amherst assumed control of the contest over the final 7:15 of the second quarter when they put 17 unanswered on the board. Bunker’s touchdown, that made the game 13-6, set the school re-cord for career touchdowns.

Less than five minutes later the Jeffs caught a big break when the Ephs were whistled for pass inter-ference on third down, which kept the drive alive and led to a 10-yard touchdown pass from McMahon to a wide open Mike Samela in the left corner of the end zone.

The final three came off a 39-yard FG from Matt Rawson with 1 second remaining in the half.

First Rawson attempted a FG that went wide, but Williams had called a timeout just before the snap, but Rawson was true on the second attempt.

EPHS from page 1Amherst took a 24-6 lead into

the halftime break.11 Eph penalties accounted for

141 yards and those miscues combined with untimely turn-overs put Williams in a hole too deep to dig out of.

Amherst’s Kevin Ferber record-ed a TD at 9:35 of the third pe-riod when he pounced on a fum-ble that came off a sack of Eph QB Adam Marske. Amherst now boasted a lead of 31-6.

Ferber finished with the game 4 sacks to give him 11 on the sea-son, surpassing the previous re-cord of 9.5 that had been held by Alex Niefer ’99 and Pat McGee ’02.

“Amherst is a very good team,” commented Eph head coach Aar-on Kelton. “Best in NESCAC this year. Their defense kept us off balance and then we added to our problems with turnovers and penalties.”

Williams did notch two TDs over the game’s final 24 minutes on a pair of one-yard runs by Tommy Wohlwender, but the Ephs were unsuccessful on both PATs, resulting in a final score of 31-18.

The win marks the first time Amherst has won consecutive

games on Williams’ Weston Field since 1983 and 1985.

The balanced Amherst attack featured 165 yards on the ground and 147 through air. Williams rushed for 115 yards and totaled 238 yards in the air.

Amherst’s Eric Bunker led all rushers with 107, registering one yard more than the Ephs’ Tommy Wohlwender (106).

Amherst QB Brian McMahon hit on 14 of 27 passes, while be-ing intercepted once. McMahon’s aerials were good for 147 yards and 1 TD.

The Ephs employed both se-nior Chris Cleary and sophomore Adam Marske at QB and Markse had the most success, completing 18-25 passes for 171 yards.

The Ephs’ J.C. Stickney topped all receivers with 8 catches for 73 yards, while Amherst was led by Ben Kettering hauled in five pass-es for 58 yards.

Defensively the Lord Jeffs tal-lied five QB sacks, with Kevin Ferber collecting a game-high four. Doug Gephardt led the Jeff defense with a game-high 14 tackles (10 solos). Junior LB Em-manuel Whyte led the Eph de-fense with 9 tackles (8 solos).

NORTH ADAMS - The visit-ing Sage College Gators used a 14-4 run to close out a tight game, rallying past MCLA 70-67 in the season opener for both teams.

The host Trailblazers had a shot to tie the game at the end of regu-lation, but Tim Fish's three point attempt at the buzzer fell short.

MCLA placed four players in double figures, with sophomore forward Ramon Viches tallying a team high 13 points.

Sage was led by senior forward Ian Austin-Michaud, who col-lected a game high 19 points. Dalton Austin-Michaud finished with 17 points as well.

MCLA would increase a five point halftime advantage (39-34) to as much as eight points at 61-53 with 7:44 to play.

The Gators would begin their run at that point, outscoring MCLA 14-2 over the next three minutes to grab a four point lead at 67-63. The run would set off a frantic final few minutes.

MCLA would sandwich a pair of layups, one each by Viches and the other by Tyrell Mosley, around an Ian Austin-Michaud free throw to cut the margin to

68-67 with 52 seconds remain-ing. MCLA would hold on de-fense, giving them a chance to take the lead.

Senior Chris Harris drove to the hoop, but missed from close range with nine seconds left. Af-ter immediately being fouled, Dalton Austin-Michaud con-nected on the first free throw. Following a missed second at-tempt, MCLA's Vernon Cross was fouled, sending him to the line for a one and one.

The junior missed the front end and Dalton Austin-Michaud rebounding and calmly sank the first free throw. After missing the second, MCLA's last gasp at-tempt from Fish was well short.

The Gators held a command-ing edge at the free throw line, going 29-42 from the stripe. MCLA was 14-17 at the line. The Trailblazers were doomed by 33 fouls.

Harris would finish with 11 points and 6 assists, while Cross and Mosley each finished with 10 points.

MCLA will travel to Endicott this weekend, where they will meet Suffolk in the Endicott Classic.

MCLA drops openerSoph. Ramon Viches lead MCLA with 13 pts.


Over 8000 fans came out for the Williams-Amhers game.


Editorial:We need to

be open

View From the Tower

George C. Jordan III

The Open Meeting Law has been broadcast to the new Lenox Wind Energy Re-search panel and, hopefully to any and all Lenox town board members.

The Goal: That each mem-ber of a board becomes ac-quainted with the Open Meeting Law and abide by its goal of transparency.

The Berkshire Beacon filed a complaint with the Attor-ney General’s office to inves-tigate whether or not the Kennedy Committee, acting as an adhoc committee to the selectmen, and if the se-lectmen, themselves, failed to follow the Open Meeting laws during their delibera-tions.

Questions have been raised whether officials looked into the Scenic Mountain Act and/or what permits were needed before the erection of the Belvedere.

The complaint noted that no one outside of members

of each group apparently knew of the planned Belve-dere makes the case that both the Kennedy Commit-tee and the selectmen did not adhere to the Open Meeting law and thus there was no attempt to alert the public.

The posting of an agenda or discussing the issue in and of itself does not qualify for full disclosure.

At the very least, both groups should have had pub-lished a legal notice noting that they were going to dis-cuss plans for the Belvedere on public land owed by the town.

The appearance of a closed meeting-executive session-gives rise to the fact that both groups operated below the level of public dis-cussion and out-of-camera.

As an official town committee, board members are subject to

WILLIAMSTOWN - Home-coming on most college campus is a big weekend for administrators, faculty, stu-dents and alumni. Also the community-at-large.

Williams College is no dif-ferent or maybe it is.

Cheering, laughter, warm handshakes and hugs greet-ed passersby either along Spring Street or at the en-trance of Weston Field and on to field.

A bright sunny chilly fall day.

This is small college Amer-ica. What makes Williams College unique besides its academic achievements is that town and gown, where-by everyone is admitted free to support their team.

Today it was Williams vs. Amherst College a rivalry that began years ago. A ri-valry that continues today. A tradition.

One headed over to the left side of the field could see many in the grandstand, oth-ers wandering around greet-ing old friends while others sampled many of the food cooked on grills. Still others looked at campus grub un-derneath several tents.

Meanwhile on the right hand side were the cheers and adulating as Amherst football team started to drive the football into the Williams end zone and ultimately win the game. Under large tents the crowd roared at each touchdown. The cheers on the Williams side were some-what muted.

This is small town America where people are able to bring their own beverages and food, drive their vehicles inside the gate at no ex-pense and set up shop for the afternoon activities.

This is Williams College homecoming. This is family. This is where individuals be-come members of the Wil-liamstown family.

This is where the faculty entertains returning alumni. This is where the president showcases the campus and makes a pitch for new reve-nue to fund a building, a de-partment or one of the de-partment’s chair.

This is where the alumni come to donate. To celebrate their own good fortunes.

There is no hand-ringing, this is the grateful art of giv-ing back to one’s alma mater in the show of good faith for an education that helps pro-pel the individual into a good paying job.

It might even be to honor an alumnus marriage to a fel-low student joined by the in-stitution and coming back helps them reflect on anoth-er time where studying, ex-ploration of the campus, community and Berkshire County remains implanted in their own minds.

And before the weekend is over, a trip to the top of Mount Greylock to view what some have come to call Wil-liamstown: Paradise.

One graduate reflects on

what homecoming tradition means:

Iliyana Hadjistoyanova writes in the Williams College Record, the student newspaper, on Nov. 9th “Homecoming has a different meaning for me than it does for most other seniors.”

“Since my actual home is not even on this continent, in the four years that I lived in the purple bubble, the Col-lege became my second home in every possible sense.”

“The College really felt like home; a place where I felt comfortable and safe, but one where I also struggled. I was happy, I was angry, I fell in and out of love, and I met people who I now consider family. This is why it was so hard to let go.”

“Being nostalgic about col-lege is okay, but we need to accept the fact that we do not belong to the College anymore.”

“Williams is our home, our family. This is what we should remember during the Home-coming festivities.”

Amherst fans left this years game with a lot to be happy about after the win.

see OPEN page 7

George C. Jordan IIIEDITOR & PUBLISHER

Kameron Z. SpauldingEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Susan M. Wicker GuerreroCOPY EDITOR

Janel M. Harrison, Bera B. Dunau, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Susan G. 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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View From the Tower

all provisions of the Open Meeting Law along with oth-er rules, according to Grego-ry T. Federspiel, Lenox Town manager.

In an effort to provide greater transparency, Attor-ney General Martha Coakley announced that all of the Di-vision of Open Government’s Open Meeting Law (OML) determinations will now be available through an interac-tive online database.

“Since assuming enforce-ment of the Open Meeting

Law, our office has made continual efforts to educate and inform public bodies and members of the public about the new law and its provi-sions,” according to Coakley.

“By making our determina-tions available online, we hope that this resource will ensure transparency and clarity in the law for all public bodies, the news media, and members of the public.”

Discussions and votes, if taken, are to accomplished in a public setting, so there will not be a lot of communi-cation via e-mail, and one

shouldn’t be trying to assess another’s opinions which should be something ex-pressed at a meeting, Feder-spiel said.

The law bars private dis-cussions among a quorum of three or more members. As a public board, one’s delibera-tions, decision-making pro-cess should be transparent and ”the public has a chance to witness that process, so the intent is to avoid strate-gizing or coming up with opinions outside the public eye,” Federspiel noted.

Staff and Wire Reports

PITTSFIELD – A one time Pittsfield entrepreneur was sen-tence to five-years in a federal prison for fraud and tax evasion and saddled with more than $6 million in fines and restitution. Armitage must report to prison by Jan. 12.

Michael J. Armitage, a self-made millionaire by the time he was 30; convinced a dozen so-phisticated investors to bankroll many energy companies includ-ing Berkshire Power Develop-ment Corp. of Agawam, accord-ing to The Springfield Republican.

In Pittsfield, nearly 12 years ago, he was granted $250,000 by the city council from the GE Fund of $10 Million to develop hydrogen batteries for buses, ac-cording to City Council Presi-dent Gerald Lee.

“Armitage fulfilled the goal by hiring a number of employees be-fore the company went out of business. At one point, he was looking at the E.D. Jones Lab on Hubbard Ave.,” according to Lee. He was sentenced in U.S. District Federal Court, Springfield on Tuesday.

Armitage, 58, formerly of Pitts-field now of Agawam, told U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor that he and his investors have a nickel-hydrogen battery that will be used in cars and trucks across the country and pleaded for a reduced sentence.

He was the founder of the for-mer Berkshire Power Develop-ment Corp. in Agawam, Armit-age last year pleaded guilty to embezzling $4.2 million in fed-eral grant money intended for the development of a battery-pow-ered bus; securing bank loans in Springfield based on bogus finan-cials; and eluding the Internal Revenue Service for 13 years as he made millions.

Defense lawyer Raipher D. Pel-legrino, represented Armitage noting his client worked endless hours on the project in conjunc-tion with officials from the Fed-

eral Transportation Administra-tion (FTA) and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA), but the project floundered like many start-up companies.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow told Ponsor that the company charged with develop-ing the bus, EV Worldwide, with-ered to nearly no employees and was drowning in debt by 2005. Yet Armitage continued to take taxpayer-funded grant money. He lied to government officials, including the FTA, a sitting U.S. Congressman and (government) auditors,” Breslow said.

“The list is long.” U.S. Con-gressman John D. Olver, D-Am-herst, was the champion of the bus project and secured the $4.2 million. He was called to testify against Armitage’s partner, Chris-topher D. Willson, convicted in connection with the scam earlier this year.

Pellegrino told Ponsor his cli-ent considered the payments a sort of deferred salary – the hall-mark of an entrepreneur who makes his living off rolling the dice on new science.

During an argument for an even higher prison sentence, ac-cording to a published report in The Republican,

Breslow noted Armitage was pocketing money from one branch of the government while refusing to file tax returns since 1993.

The judge seemed frequently irked by what he labeled Armit-age’s “ostentatiously comfort-able,” lifestyle, complete with a 4,100-square-foot home in Fort Myers, Fla., with an in-ground pool and brand new Mercedes Benz in the three-car garage.

“I’m not happy,” Ponsor said, adding that the defendant’s biog-raphy was impressive, but that the government funding was “down a rat hole” and the tax fraud was extreme and florid. He ordered Armitage to pay $4.3 million in restitution to the FTA, $1.5 million to the IRS and $215,000 to the PVTA, on top of additional fines.

Armitage sentenced to

5 years for fraud and tax invasion

State House News

When "constitutionally defen-sible" becomes one of the main talking points for a piece of legis-lation, one might assume a fair amount of controversy surround-ing the proposal, particularly one steeped in politics with careers on the line.

Not so with this week's rollout of the Legislature's proposed Con-gressional redistricting map, a plan that might have pitted two incum-bents against one another if not for Rep. William Keating's gracious, if not self-preservational, decision to move, and one that forces two oth-er incumbents to get to know whole new regions of voters.

The map produced by Rep. Michael Moran and Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, according to those who have spent months lobbying and readying for a fight, does something some believed would have to be settled in court. Made easier by Rep. John Olver's retire-ment decision, the colored-coded map cutting 10 districts into nine appears to make more geographic sense than the one that's been in place for the past five Congressio-nal elections.

With the exception of the new 7th Congressional District, an awkward seahorse-shaped knife that cuts from Somerville and Cambridge through Boston into Milton and Randolph to capture minority neighborhoods, the map's relatively square contours appeared to keep the lawyers at bay for now.

Even that new 7th District, currently represented by Rep. Mi-chael Capuano - and ironically

reminiscent of the 1812 state Senatorial district that gave birth to the term gerrymandering - sat-isfied despite its odds shape. Forc-es looking to empower minority voters were pleased.

"They did everything we asked for," said Kevin Peterson, the di-rector of the Black Empower-ment Coalition, happy about the new majority-minority district that boosted the minority voting age population of the district now represented by Rep. Michael Capuano to nearly 52 percent.

So the shakeout now looks something like this: freshman Democratic Rep. William Keat-ing will move to his second home in Bourne to run in the new, 'in-cumbent-free' southeastern dis-trict, where he could face both a Republican and Democratic chal-lenge. Sheriff Thomas Hodgson and former Sen. Robert O'Leary are among those who said they will consider the opportunity, and others have time to decide whether to take a shot.

Paging Sen. Mark Montigny, the former Ways and Means chairman whose New Bedford home is no longer the domain of U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.

Rep. John Tierney, his reputa-tion reeling from revelations that he might have known more than he let on about his brother-in-law's illegal off-shore Antigua gambling enterprise, will stare down a few more conservative voters in Andover, Billerica and Tewksbury, emboldening a GOP field that will include former Sen-ate Minority Leader Richard Tisei.

Tisei said he's getting back on the horse after losing his bid for

lieutenant governor last year as Charlie Baker's running mate, and Baker couldn't be happier. Asked why he's not giving the seat a look himself, Baker told the Roundup, "I live in Tisei's dis-trict. He's perfect for the job."

Finally, Reps. Richard Neal and Jim McGovern must once again think of themselves as newcomers on the block, introducing them-selves to thousands of new voters in western Massachusetts, with Neal looking at a primary chal-lenge from former state Sen. An-drea Nuciforo.

With redistricting poised to come to its conclusion next Tues-day, the question late in the week, and with few answers, became whether or not the Legislature could clear any other items off the to-do list before tumbling head-long into a seven-week re-cess until after the New Year.

As the clock ticked toward the Tuesday at 8 p.m. deadline for House and Senate conferees to file compromises with the clerks on casino gambling, pensions and human trafficking, the House meandered through the week with little on the agenda other than welcoming new state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, of Pitts-field, to the family.

Meanwhile, the Senate rammed through a massive crime bill re-forming the state's parole, man-datory sentencing, gun and drug crime laws and accomplishing, with unanimous support, what has eluded lawmakers for 12 years: putting a three-strikes-and-you're-out law on the books strip-ping parole eligibility from repeat violent felons.

A busy week in Boston for representatives

OPEN from page 6


Susan Wicker GuerreroBeacon Staff Writer

HUNTINGTON – There is a definite reason why the slogan of The Huntington Country Store is “Stop in and say ‘wow.’ “

It’s a place where the wow fac-tor is off the charts.

As one enters, every sense is awakened. Within a few minutes the senses become electrified. Vis-itors sniff a huge combination of pleasant smells like cinnamon or-ange tea and freshly baked breads.

They see colorful objects from ceiling to floor in every direction. They hear soothing music in the background.

Delectable ‘Wrapples’

They touch soft velvet scarves made in India and taste the melt-in-the-mouth flaky pastry of “wrapples.”

The latter are a combination of homemade pastry dough with fresh fillings such as apple, cara-mel apple, raspberry apple, apri-cot, raspberry peach, chocolate raspberry, and so on. They are topped with a drizzle of frosting.

“They are incredible,” said Leah Kingsley, a part-time em-ployee. “They are like hand held pies.”

Becky and Randy Butler have been owners of the store since 2007. Prior to that, Mrs. Butler’s parents, Carol and David Majer-cik, owned and operated it since 1991. They also own the Wil-liamsburg Country Store.

Mrs. Majercik originally creat-ed wrapples from a recipe she devised.

Family Lives Above Store

When Becky Butler was a young girl, she lived with her family in an apartment above the Williamsburg Country Store. One might say that history re-peats itself because today, her en-tire family lives above the Hun-tington Country Store.

That includes the Butlers’ four children, Isaiah, 18; Amadeus, al-most 15; Kelsey, 15; and Chris-tian, nine years old.

The Huntington Country Store is actually located in a building built in the late 1700s that was part of a dairy farm. Huge wooden floor boards can still be seen. The house has eight fireplaces, some of which are cov-ered by hutches, Mrs. Butler said.

One of the oldest buildings in town, there are huge logs from tree trunks supporting the struc-ture in the cellar.

Mrs. Butler said she loves going to trade shows to pick out mer-chandise for the store and new items are added all the time.

Rooms Packed to the RaftersThere are five rooms packed to

the rafters in 3000 square feet of space. That includes the Christ-mas Shoppe, a bakery and ice cream area, collectibles and gift items galore, and décor for every single room in the house. There’s also handmade jewelry, maple syrup and honey, Advent calen-dars, and more kitchen gadgets than one has ever dreamed of.

Small touches enhance the am-biance of the store. For instance, customer comments have been typed up and posted.

“I love coming in here,” one reads. “It’s just hard getting out of here.”

Another reads, “This is like go-ing into my grandmother’s house.”

Near the kitchen section, one finds small bottles of fragrant oils. A nearby sign reads, “Always great for house or body aroma.”

Variety of Jams and Preserves

Preserves and jams, made espe-cially for the store, line a couple of shelves. Anyone who likes pre-serves or jams on toast will not be

disappointed with the selection. There is apple butter, blackberry and strawberry preserves, double berry and cherry spreads, red raspberry, and red jalapeno pep-per jelly, for starters.

Tea lovers will have to choose whether they are in the mood for peach apricot or Canadian icew-ine, cranberry, or monk’s blend among the many varieties.

A total of 13 employees, in-cluding the owners, keep custom-ers happy. Most are part-timers and local people.

During the summer, the Hun-tington Country Store offers about 24 flavors of ice cream. There are 14 flavors in the winter. Mrs. Butler said her favorite is co-conut almond chip. The ice cream comes from Hershey Creamery in Pennsylvania.

Kitchen Lovers Heaven

The kitchen section of the store is enough to make diehard cooks do a happy dance. Besides cookie cutters and whisks, there are spic-es, unique dancing girl bottle toppers, graters, lemon reamers, jar openers, cake testers, and many more items.

Mini china flower-covered tea sets, hand carved boxes, a Tiffany lamp, incense burners, Yankee

candles, baby gifts, and so much more that defies description can all be found at the Huntington Country Store.

“It’s a great place to come with friends and family,” Mrs.Butler said.

One of the small carved “stones” near the wind chimes and birdbaths reads, “Delight in the Beauty That Surrounds You.”

The same can be said of the Huntington Country Store.

Website Available

They have a website, www.huntingtoncountrystore.com

Coming from Pittsfield, its lo-cation is slightly off the beaten path but worth the drive. Once in the center of Huntington, make a left over the green canopied bridge. Continue driving quite a ways along Worthington Road until you reach #70, on the left hand side.

You’ll know it when you see it---a sprawling old farmhouse with porches and enticing signs hang-ing down, giving a preview of coming attractions.

Plan to spend plenty of time in-side, whether browsing or buying.

Like the sign says, “it’s hard getting out of here.”

A local store that wows

Photo Credit / SuSan WiCKer guerrero

Co-owner Becky Butler in the store’s Christmas Shoppe.


The Huntington Country Store, located next to Gateway Regional High School in town, makes a great day trip and a variety-filled shopping excursion.


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.

Read this story out loud, or have it read aloud to your child on your iPad, iPhone, iTouch, Android Device, Google TV or online at www.MeeGenius.com. Download the MeeGenius reader app for free!

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HUNTINGTON- Many years had passed since the last time I visited Huntington.

The reason to go on a dreary af-ternoon last week was to visit the Huntington Country Store in or-der to do a story for the Berkshire Beacon.

The trip from Pittsfield to Huntington seemed long and definitely off the beaten path. But oh my gosh, it sure brought back so many memories of another time, another place, another life?

As one gets older, past events and experiences often come to mind. Maybe that happens be-cause life seems to be racing by at breakneck speed.

Those of us who are more sea-soned in life (there, that’s better than saying ‘getting old’ ), know that time is limited. Past events come to mind more often as the birthdays fly by.

There’s a lot of construction on the road leading to Huntington. Workers in rain gear kept the sin-gle lane traffic moving on the narrow road.

At the top of a hill in Becket, I glanced at a stone monument of sorts and remembered Jacob’s Ladder. There was once a summit house there with a tower. When one climbed white, wooden stairs to the top, the view was supposed to be startlingly beautiful.

As a kid, I remember starting to climb that wooden tower of stairs. About halfway up, I made the mistake of looking down.

At that frightful moment, my legs locked in a frozen position. Unable to move up or back down, I just stood there, attaching my-self to the partition that lined the sides of the stairs.

People down below were yell-ing what the holdup was. They couldn’t climb up. The holdup was me, a kid frozen in utter, par-alyzing, heart-stopping fear.

A man, probably an employee, eventually came to the rescue, held my free hand, and escorted me back down the scary stairs, one teensy weensy baby step at a time.

I laughed remembering that horrific afternoon which proba-bly marked a life-long fear of heights that continues to this day.

Church Now “Available”

Once in Huntington, I drove across the green canopied bridge. Naturally, I was dying to see St. Thomas Church, where my late mother and father married so many years ago. In front of the church, as my car drove by, I could almost see my mother in her white gown and veil, radiant and filled with happiness.

However, there was a huge “Available” sign on the front of the white steepled building. St. Thomas Church was no more. It bit the dust like so many other beautiful churches. It made me sad.

All through my childhood, I heard stories about my mother’s childhood. Many of her growing up years she lived in Woronoco.

She was one of seven children born to Polish parents who immi-grated to the United States.

My grandparents both worked long, hard hours at the Strath-more Paper Company while rais-ing their large family. Their lives were not easy, that’s for sure.

Today, they rest in the Hun-tington Cemetery. It’s a peaceful location for a cemetery, quiet, isolated, and rimmed by trees.

It was a dark and drizzly after-noon so a visit to the cemetery was out of the question. Besides, I truly hate cemeteries since it’s my belief the people being re-membered are not really there.

On the way home from Hun-tington, my car passed a house on a hill where my mother used to take piano lessons. She loved her teacher and spoke fondly of her. My mother also loved to play the piano.

To this day I can see her at the keyboard, pumping the pedals and singing, too!

It was late afternoon as I drove back to Pittsfield. Thick layers of clouds hovered on the tops of the hills surrounding Huntington. Fog threatened, too, and the for-ests along the sides of the roads looked scary.

Flicking on my car headlights, I prayed that a bear would not come lumbering out and into the road. (Guess I have an active imagination, eh?)

Truthfully, I was so glad to get back to Lee and ran in to check out the spanking new Big Y supermarket.

My afternoon in Huntington was over.

A perspective on a great local store


Community Calendar FRiday, Nov. 18tH

DAEDELUS QUARTETWilliamstown, 8 p.m.The Williams College Depart-ment of Music presents the Dae-delus Quartet in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Friday, This free event is open to the public. In ad-dition to the concert, an out-standing learning opportunity is available with the Daedelus Quartet, free of charge.

DODGEBALL TOURNEYNorth Adams, 6 - 9 p.m.The Northern Berkshire YMCA hosts its first annual dodgeball tourney on Friday, at the YMCA main gym. The YMCA seeks businesses or agencies to enter a team to join the event. This is a FUN-raiser and there is no cost. Please visit our website at www.ymcanb.org or call 413-663-6529.

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSEPittsfield, 4:00 to 8:00 pmHoliday Open House at Great Gifts and More 146 North Street, Pittsfield, MA. Located between BBE Office Interiors and Abby Cutters. Vendors are offering 10% off items.

BCC TO HOST STEM CAREER FAIRPittsfieldBerkshire Community College (BCC) will host the 5th Annual Berkshire STEM (Science, Tech-nology, Engineering, and Math) Career Fair on its main campus, Friday, in the Susan B. Anthony Center lounge and cafeteria.

More than 400 local high school and college students are expected to attend.

SatuRday, Nov. 19tH

ANNUAL FALL BAZAARWilliamstown, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.Sweet Brook of Williamstown’s Resident Council will hold their Annual Fall Bazaar on Saturday, This fun filled event features the popular “Basket Raffle”, Kids’ and Adults’ Straw Raffles, Lottery Wreath and Main Raffle prizes including $150.00 gift cards to local businesses and the Chinese Raffle with over 40 prizes donat-ed by local establishments.

MCLA PRESENTS ‘URI-NETOWN' MUSICALNorth Adams, 2 & 8 p.m.The Fine and Performing Arts Department at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will continue its fall theatre sea-son with Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis's musical comedy, “Urinetown,” in the Mainstage theatre in Venable Hall on the MCLA campus.

ST. STANISLAUS KOST-KA SCHOOL - ANNUAL PRE-CHRISTMAS BAZAARAdams, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.St. Stanislaus Kostka School - an-nual Pre-Christmas Bazaar - Sat-urday, Kolbe Hall - St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Hoosac Street, all proceeds benefit the children of St. Stanislaus Kostka school now in it's 100the year. For fur-ther information, please contact the school – 413-743-1091.

HOLIDAY BAZAAR AND TAG SALEPittsfield 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.A Holiday Bazaar and Tag Sale will be held on November 19 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Zion Ev. Lutheran Church. It will include craft tables, bake table, raffles and lunch. Lunch will be served start-ing at 11 a.m. - 74 First Street, Pittsfield. Info: 442-3525.

SuNday, Nov. 20tH

READING & SPEAKING SERIES FOR ANIMAL DREAMSLee, 3 – 5 p.m.Is It Time to Say Goodbye? - Mi-chael Roth, DVM Aging pets re-quire special care and owners who can “listen” to what their pet’s be-havior is telling them. Dr. Roth will speak about caring for older or sick pets, the “Quality of Life Scale,” and how to recognize when a pet may be suffering and the time has come to let it go.

BERKSHIRE FOOD PANTRY PIE BENEFITWilliamstownOn Sunday, your masterpiece could be the winner at “The Great Williamstown Pie Palooza at the Meeting House” bake-off. Bring two pies to the First Con-gregational Church fellowship hall no later than 11:15 a.m.— one to donate to the annual Berk-shire Food Pantry Thanksgiving dinner and the other to cut into small pieces for tasting on the spot.


PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Han-cock Shaker Village will present its first ever holiday pop-up shop in downtown Pittsfield in the pri-vate dining room at Spice Drag-on (297 North Street) on Satur-day, December 3 and Sunday, December 4, noon to 7:00pm, as well as hold its annual holiday sale at the Museum Store from Friday, November 25 through Sunday, December 4, 10:00am to 5:00pm daily.

Shoppers will score great deals at all three locations on unique gifts, such as Shaker oval boxes and carriers, prints and posters, greeting cards, food items (soup mixes, jams, honey, etc), chil-dren’s gifts, holiday ornaments, and Shaker music CDs.

Hancock Shaker Village Mem-bers will receive an extra 20% dis-count off sale prices.

While the holiday pop-up shop is a first for the museum, the Hancock Shakers sold their goods in Pittsfield both as peddlers and at local stores from the 1790s through the 1950s. Shaker prod-ucts, ranging from seeds, herbal medicines, and candies to tex-tiles, woodware, and pincush-ions, were renowned for their fine quality and were considered good

products at fair prices. In 1808, Pittsfield Congrega-

tional Minister Thomas Allen de-scribed the Shakers as “very harmless, innocent people, good citizens, and honest, industrious, peaceable members of society. They are good farmers and art-ists, and offer nothing for sale that is deceptive.”

In addition to the pop-up shop, this year the Village will launch a new feature on its store website called “Build Your Own Gift Basket,” where shoppers will be able to select a container size (anything from a small canvas tote to a beautiful size-six oval box) and fill it with items from a long list of options, including soups, jams, greeting cards, and herbs.

In-store customers about both the museum and pop-up shops can build their own gift baskets as well.

Hancock Shaker Village is lo-cated on Route 20 in Pittsfield, Mass., just west of the junction of Routes 20 and 41.

For GPS purposes, the Village is located at 34 Lebanon Moun-tain Rd., Hancock, Mass. 01237. Or, enter 1843 W. Housatonic St., Pittsfield, Mass. 01201 then proceed 1/2 mile further west on Rt. 20 to the parking lot.

Hancock Village ready for

Holiday Pop-Up

If you have an event you would like listed in our calendar please email us at [email protected]!


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PITTSFIELD – Ever wonder who was behind the attractive and creative ads and special pages in the Berkshire Beacon?

It’s Susan Robinson of Pitts-field, a graphic designer “extraor-dinaire.” Talented and experi-enced, she often spends between 12 and 15 hours near the com-puter in her downstairs home of-fice. It’s there she puts her artistic “hat” on and creates.

Mrs. Robinson is also preg-nant. Very, very pregnant.

A native of Pittsfield, she is go-ing to give her husband, Kevin Robinson Greco, an extra special Christmas present this year—twins!

They may come in time for the holidays or, at least, shortly after.

The actual due date of the ba-bies is January 1 but, as Mrs. Robinson said, “Twins usually come early.”

Mrs. Robinson is busy knitting red and white Christmas Santa hats for her babies. Plus, she and her husband hit the jackpot. As

far as anyone knows, they are go-ing to have a boy and a girl.

A tall, attractive woman with thick, wavy blonde hair, she said she had no idea she was carrying twins. At first she thought she was farther along in her pregnan-cy than she actually was but then came the news. Twins!

Her pregnancy to 30 weeks, she said, was “great.” As her time to deliver comes closer, however, “the babies are very heavy,” she said.

“I can’t sleep well, “Mrs. Rob-inson said. “Luckily, I can func-tion on very little sleep.”

She and her husband used to joke about wanting to have nine kids. Now, they are thinking maybe two is the perfect family.

The twin babies will be the first grandchildren on either side of the family.

Her mother, Bernadette Un-sworth, has been busy painting the nursery. Mrs. Robinson said the only theme aspect of the room is lots of alphabet letters.

“I want them to read before they talk,” she said.

She received her Bachelor of

Fine Arts degree, with a concen-tration on illustration, from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I. in 2002.

Mrs. Robinson has an exten-sive background in her area of ex-pertise. She worked for the for-mer Women’s Times in Great Barrington; Brilliant Graphics Group in Pittsfield; Yankee Shop-per in Dalton; and Hersam Acorn Newspaper, in Bennington, Vt., to name a few.

She has put her artistic touch on an e-book, Who Wants to be Friends with a Cactopus.

Mrs. Robinson’s website is robinsonillustration.com.

Amazingly, Mrs. Robinson has twin cats, too! They are two that were from the same litter, named Mr. Kitty and Miss Kitty.

They have been part of the family for six years.

Mrs. Robinson graciously agreed to have photos taken and a short story written about her.

When the babies are born, they will be highlighted in a photo, tak-en especially for Beacon readers!

So stay tuned.

Meet the Beacon staff:

Beacon designer prepares to have twins

es, increasing business in the so called “shoulder seasons,” and the fact that the Marketing and Events Committee would seek to work with all businesses in Lenox, not just those associated with the Chamber of Commerce.

Town Manager Gregory T. Federspiel laid out the procedur-al and ethical framework the committee would operate under,

as well as their role in supervising the contract between Lenox and Bodden and Hamilton.

In response to these state-ments, alternate Mr. Gazit ex-pressed the desire that the Select Board clarify the Marketing and Events committee’s relationship with Economic Development.

Mr. Gazit’s reason for this was because, while the Select Board had charged the committee with helping to increase economic de-velopment in the town at their

last meeting, they had also an-nounced that the Lenox Planning Committee would be working on economic development as well.

Mr. Gazit asserted that the pre-cise role that the Marketing and Events committee would play in economic development needed to be clarified, especially since stage six of the Lenoxology Marketing campaign focused heavily on it.

This sentiment was echoed by other members of the committee, and Selectman Roche said that the Select Board might revisit the issue at their next meeting.

Committee member Bob Ro-meo, in response to a request from Bodden and Hamilton, conveyed by Mr. Federspiel, raised the possibility of holding round tables with groups of busi-ness owners to get input on how the Lenoxology campaign could benefit their businesses.

Mr. Gazit, however, objected to this, asserting that the committee should wait until the Lenoxology campaign and website had launched before making decisions about holding more public fo-rums. The website is set to go live this week.

“People and especially the busi-

ness people in town are sick and tired of all the talk and they want to see action,” said Mr. Gazit. “Let’s launch, let’s get this thing out there.”

Mr. Gazit was opposed by Mr. Romeo and Mrs. Flynn. They suggested that these roundtables could be held in late November.

Mr. Federspiel explained that he believed Bodden and Hamil-ton wanted to hold the roundta-bles for market research purposes while committee member Tony Simotes, the artistic director of Shakespeare and Company, ex-pressed the desire to familiarize himself with the needs of the business community before par-ticipating in public forums.

After this argument had gone on for about ten minutes, Mr. Wise gave his input, asserting that holding a roundtable during the Christmas shopping season would not work.

“To go out and try to organize the week after Black Friday, a meeting of business owners when they are about to embark on the busiest part of the season is a little premature. ” Mr. Wise suggested that such meetings should instead occur in

January, after the committee had defined its terms in greater detail, and made an organized effort to reach out to the business community.

Mr. Wise’s suggestion changed the dynamic of the debate, and caused Mrs. Flynn to suggest that instead of a series of roundtable beginning in late November, the committee could hold a meeting between Bodden and Hamilton and any businesses interested in Lenoxology in early December. In the end, however, no action was taken on the issue.

Mr. Wise also brought up the need to reach out to younger members of the Lenox business community. Mr. Wise asserted that such young business owners often felt isolated from Lenox politics, would often be unre-sponsive to a mailing asking them to participate in the committee’s efforts, and would require a per-sonal pitch.

Additionally, the committee decided not to agree to Bodden and Hamilton’s request to meet with them at their next meeting, preferring instead to travel to their New York offices and/or in-vite them up at a future date.

LENOX from page 1


Beacon graphic designer Susan Robinson in her home office.


Left to Right: Marketing and Events Committee member Richard Wise, alternate Richard Hodak, member Kimberly Flynn, member Bob Romeo, member Tony Simotte alternate Eiran Gazit.


Girl-2-GirlRelationships on their time

Janel HarrisonBeacon Staff

It seems lately I have watched how relationships all tick differently.

We’re all like unique clocks. Some are coo-coos (love that one), some quite ornate, some antiques with old fashioned ideals and sentiments of propriety , some casual kitchen clocks, some totally contemporary or modern, and some mantel clocks passed down from generation to genera-tion with values, traditions, fam-ily and friends to go along with it. It’s just a silly analogy.

But what kind of clock are you, and how do you tick in a relationship?

People go about their lives all with different goals, expectations, fantasies, dreams, and thoughts on what finding love to them would mean. Some of us don’t know it yet, but can only hope that when it comes we’ll know.

So let’s elaborate on ticking sce-narios friends have recently shared with me. Here goes!

3 months in: One friend is go-ing through the beginning stages of dating someone, all the magic and uncertainty at the same time, and then… a whole different face slithers out of the shadows and this man, the one who discussed the subject of children with her and other intimate facts, and dis-closures turns out to be the dark-est werewolf in her fairytale. 2 years in: Wedding bells!

And all the dreams of begin-ning life together.

4 years in: And pregnant with twins, a boy and girl, the best of both worlds. Sitting in separate cozy chairs; she’s happily knitting winter hats and mittens for the babes and he is sitting fully en-grossed in the paper.

10 years in: 2 flower girls run-ning about, and absorbed in school, ballet, tap, cheerleading and a theatre company while he and she hammer, clip, saw, paint, and decorate away, making their

newly built house more and more into a home.

14 years in: This friend is hap-pily married with two sweet girls, whooping it up with her hubby, friends and cocktails! Later they plummet off the bed onto the floor, all while having sex. Talk about things going bump in the night! Whoops!

Let’s skip right to my parents-45 years in: He is with her ev-

ery day no matter the weather or circumstance, by her side, mak-ing jokes like they always did, reading, watching TV, like it’s just another day, and all the while wishing she would come back to him.

To me that’s love, and it takes long years for some of us to get to that place, but it’s worth the journey.

Nicholas Sparks Best Selling Author and American Novelist wrote it well in his 1996 romantic drama The Notebook. It’s a beauti-ful story and to me the ultimate form of love, as he writes, “I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with com-mon thoughts, and I’ve led a common life.

There are no monuments dedi-cated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.”

Twilight gals? Well that‘s just all show of chests and whiteness, not to mention the scary teeth! Eek!

No matter the relationship, we all tick-tock… The most impor-tant thing is time keeps on going!

Ciao Bella


A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is a film that is as fun-ny and heartwarming as it is of-fensive and outrageous.

It is also one of the few movies I’ve seen that is actually worth the extra price of a 3D ticket.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is the third movie in the Harold and Kumar series of stoner comedies.

Like the previous two films, Harold & Kumar 3D chronicles the misadventures of best friends Harold, played by John Cho, and Kumar, played by Kal Penn. The new movie, however, finds the pair in very different places in their lives.

Harold has found success at his Investment Banking job, owns an opulent home, is married to his sweetheart Maria, and has quit smoking marijuana.

Kumar, on the other hand, was kicked out of medical school for failing a drug test, has been dumped by his girlfriend, still lives in the apartment he once shared with Harold and spends most of his time getting high.

Having become estranged from one another, Harold and Kumar haven’t spoken in years. When a mysterious package for Harold is delivered to Kumar’s apartment the day before Christmas, how-ever, Kumar decides to bring it to him.

After arriving at Harold’s house, the two friends attempt to reconnect.

Through a series of mishaps, however, Harold’s Christmas tree, specially grown by his over-bearing father in law, played by Danny Trejo, ends up going up in flames, exacerbating the rift between the pair.

Eventually, however, the two former best friends end up team-ing up, embarking on a hazard-ous Christmas Eve journey to ac-quire a new tree.

A major part of the charm of Harold & Kumar 3D is the chem-istry between the two leads.

The affection and frustration that Cho and Penn’s characters feel for one another is palpable and natural and feels more like a

genuine friendship than almost anything I’ve seen on film before.

Harold & Kumar 3D also has a fantastic supporting cast, which features the talents of a number of wonderful comedians.

Sean Lennon, from Reno 911, Amir Blumenfeld from College Humor, Bobby Lee from Mad TV, and Patton Oswalt from the King of Queens, all make appear-ances, and all are at the top of their games.

Then there is Neal Patrick Har-ris who, as in the previous Harold and Kumar movies, plays a lech-erous, heterosexual, drug addict-ed version of himself.

Harris radiates charisma and from the second he appears on screen, absolutely steals the show.

One element of the film that is shockingly effective is its use of 3D.

Generally 3D is a gimmick that I find adds very little to a movie. Harold & Kumar 3D, however, acknowledges the often contrived nature of 3D effects, and just runs with it.

From eggs thrown by protes-tors, to the dislodged tooth of a bishop, to a giant magical joint of marijuana, the items that fly out at the audience throughout the course of the movie are used to increase the comedic value of the film, and serve to draw viewers

into the absurd narrative taking place onscreen.

Many of these effects look quite cartoony, but because the 3D is used for comedic effect, this serves only to increase their effectiveness.

In the end, however, what makes A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas work is its heart. A story of friendship and reconcili-ation, family and forgiveness, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christ-mas truly is a Christmas movie.

It may be a Christmas movie with nudity, violence, and a mul-titude of drug references, but the values it espouses are not so far removed from those in such Christmas classics as its a Won-derful Life and Miracle on 34st street.

If you are easily offended, don’t appreciate drug humor, and have a problem with foul language, you should not see A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas under any circumstances.

If none of these things are deal breakers for you, however, then you should definitely see this movie.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is a hilarious, and gen-uinely touching film, and you will leave the theatre feeling a whole lot better about the world than when you entered it

Harold & Kumar are hilarious even in 3D


Bera DuanuBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX - The Lenox Wind Energy Research Panel held a civ-il and productive meeting with representatives of the company Weston Solutions.

Weston Solutions was commis-sioned by the town of Lenox last year to measure the wind energy resources on Lenox Mountain. Weston determined that there was indeed a signifigant wind re-source there, and detailed various ways that it could be harnessed, as well as the benefits and issues that such an endeavor might present.

Weston concluded that erect-ing one or two turbines at the site would be viable. Weston’s report can be found at the Town of Lenox’s website.

Much of the meeting was taken up by a presentation by Dan In-gold a Biophysicist, employee of Weston Solutions, and one of the authors of the Weston report. Tony Delano, an engineer who was been the project Manager for the Weston Report was also in attendance.

Much of Mr. Ingold’s experi-ence has involved consulting on wind energy projects for the US military, including the installa-tion of four wind turbines at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, al-though Mr. Ingold made sure to add that his work there occurred before the controversial prison was established at the site.

“My wind turbines were not used for torturing prisoners,” said Mr. Ingold.

Having received the minutes from the panel’s previous meet-ing, which included a number of questions the panel wanted to ask Weston solutions, Mr. Ingold’s presentation focused on address-ing some of the technical ques-tions and concerns that the panel had raised.

Mr. Ingold primarily did this by describing different wind power projects, and the problems and challenges they faced, as well as the benefits they had provided the communities in which they were located.

Some of the sites Mr. Ingold talked about were the Fox Islands in Maine, the hill town of Princ-eton Massachusetts and the town of Falmouth Massachusetts

Interestingly enough, Mr. In-gold did not shy away from some of the negative impacts of wind energy.

Indeed, in nearly every one of the examples he cited, Mr. Ingold detailed challenges and/or prob-lems that the communities where the wind turbines had been erect-ed in had to deal with.

A common theme that ran through a number of the sites that Mr. Ingold highlighted were acoustic issues, and he encour-aged the town of Lenox to con-duct an acoustic study before proceeding with any wind related project.

“I’m going to strongly, strongly recommend that your do an acoustic study here, ” said Mr. Ingold.

One of the most surprising things about Mr. Ingold presen-tation of some of the negative im-pacts of wind power was that he didn’t try to sugar coat them.

The town of Falmouth has been cited by anti wind power ac-tivists as a poster child for wind power gone wrong, chiefly be-cause of the serious acoustic is-sues present at the site, and Mr. Ingold’s presentation of the nega-tive impacts of the turbines there differed very little from anti wind accounts.

Mr. Ingold’s presentation was open to input from the panel members, and he frequently paused to answer their questions.

Among them were inquiries from panel member Chris Magee about the scale that might be

used in a future acoustic study of Lenox Mountain, questions about the accuracy of the SO-DAR technology that was used by Weston Solutions to measure wind resources on Lenox Moun-tain raised by Channing Gibson, and the impact that the construc-tion of Turbines on Lenox Moun-tain might have on existing Roads raised by Joanne Mageea.

Besides recommending an acoustic study, Mr. Ingold also recommended that, if the town decides to move forward with the project, that a 60 meter meteoro-logical tower be erected at the site beforehand, to get a more exact measurement of the wind re-sources there.

After the meeting, Mr. Ingold said he was pleased with the ef-forts Lenox was putting into studying the wind power issue.

“I’m really glad they have this committee,” said Mr. Ingold. “We’re vested with looking out for the best interests of the town and seeing if this is a viable proj-ect or not,” said Mr. Ingold, when asked why he had shown some of the negative impacts of wind projects, pointing out that Weston’s payment was not con-tingent on a wind project being approved or not.

When asked by the Beacon, however, Mr. Ingold did ac-knowledge, that Weston solu-tions had the expertise to manage the construction of Wind Tur-bines on Lenox Mountain, should the town of Lenox wish to go for-ward with the project.

Lenox winds has a more civil tone this meeting


Weston Solutions Employee Dan Ingold giving a presentation to the Lenox Wind Energy Research Panel.


LEE - Department of Public Works Highway Department member Dickey Neal rose during the public comment period at the last Lee Selectmen’s meeting to correct what he saw as mischarac-terizations of his department.

At the previous Select Board meeting, Lee District Representa-tive Bill Navin claimed that each DPW member drove two new trucks.

Mr. Neal said that, contrary to this assertion, the Lee DPW had only bought two new trucks and a backhoe that past year. One of these trucks went to the Water Department while the other went to the Highway Department.

He also pointed out that a number of the trucks used for plowing in the town of Lee were from the 1990s.

Mr. Neal also used the oppor-tunity to call for the Lee Select Board to approve the purchase of a new snowplow so that town parking lots and the alleyway near the police station could be efficiently cleared.

The alternative to this would be to use the sidewalk machine on the alleyway, which Mr. Neal said would be impractical, or us-ing an outside contractor.

Mr. Neal then asserted that the Town of Lee was spending too much money on outside contractors.

Noting the objections that some in Lee had raised to the DPW working on Saturdays,

which pays time and a half, Mr. Neal explained that a crew of four DPW members, three laborers and an operator, working on Sat-urday, on a job requiring a dump truck and a backhoe for eight hours would, by his calculations cost the town $938.88.

By contrast, the same job, done by an independent contractor with the same equipment and the same number of people would cost the town, by Mr. Neal’s cal-culations, $2,211.36.

In order to calculate the num-bers for the contractors, Mr. Neal used prevailing wages, and esti-mates for the cost of renting heavy equipment.

Mr. Neal acknowledged the need for outside contractors in some situations, especially during the summer when the Highway Department is often down to four people, but asserted that they were overused.

Mr. Neal used these figures as an argument for having the town buy a new $4.500 snowplow, as opposed to contracting out the clearing of the alleyway near the police station to an outside con-tractor, claiming that the town would make the money back in savings within the year.

After the meeting Mr. Neal said that he loved and was grateful for his job, and had spoken up at the Select Board meeting to give peo-ple a better idea about the money lost by the town when they used outside contractors as opposed to DPW members.

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Neal tries to set record straight

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Documents

taylor page

lenoxology campaign

lenox page

kim taylor

events committee meeting

girlurinetown page

town of lenox

recent marketing