August 30th Issue

August 30, 2012Volume III, Issue 15

www.berkshirebeacon.comLenox, MA 01240

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The Berkshire Beacon Edi-torial Board, following the endorsement of both the pri-or register of deeds and the current register, is endorsing Patricia “Patsy” Harris.

Based on an interview, The Beacon believes in her experi-ence; she knows the job and thus would not need on-the-job training.

In our view, we feel that ex-perience in the office and a solid knowledge of the Regis-try’s documents are key. With that in mind, we have en-dorsed Ms. Harris for this primary election to the office.

Fellow candidate Scott M. Pignatelli, Lenox resident and owner of an electrical company, argued that his management and business experience was enough to be elected.

However, he admitted he did not have the knowledge of the day-to-day operation and that if elected he would spend one day a week learn-

ing the job prior to being sworn in.

The third candidate, for-mer Pittsfield City Clerk Jody Phillips of Pittsfield, brings a mix of both clerical and man-agement experience, along with political know-how to the campaign.

Yet, this time our support goes to the insider, who has worked with Ms. O’Brien and Mr. Nuciforo.

Often times, this job goes to a popular political politi-cian, who has no known background with real estate transactions.

Today, the vote should go to the one with experience and not as a step up for some-one to learn on the job.

At $90,000 a year with benefits, the elected register will earn well over $1 million if he/she stays in the job until retirement age.

We, as voters, deserve to get a return on value and to have it re-established as a full-time job.

1 Local News 8 Editorial8 From the Tower11 Fast Picks12 Calendar12 Books14 Beer17 Sports

Lee soccer is ready to play

- Page 18

The Berkshire Beacon

Index

Susan M. Wicker GuerreroBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD – More than a dozen birthday cards line the mantel in the home of Eileen Riello, an artist who has been doing her craft since the early 1980s.

She just had a milestone birthday, turning 80 years old. She looks at least 20 years younger with her twinkling blue eyes, nice smile and curly, short hair.

Her art focuses mainly on landscapes but lately she’s been delving into still-life scenes.

Decades ago, a friend, Sha-ron Carlo, kept asking Mrs. Riello to come to painting classes given by a well-known Lee artist, Gloria Malcolm Ar-nold. Mrs. Riello said she fi-

Artist Eileen Riello loses self in canvas

Endorsement:Experience pays

Kameron Z. SpauldingBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX – The town com-munity preservation commis-sion (CPC) and the selectmen will look to streamline their efforts in the coming years to make best use of the funding available.

For the coming fiscal year, the town expects to have be-tween $400,000 and $600,000 to allocate.

With this money being available, the town is trying to decide what the best course is for the future. The CPC does not need to allocate all of their funds each year and can hold them over to save for larger projects.

Planning for the futureLenox CPC discusses how to best use their limited funds

SuSan M. Wicker Guerrero / BerkShire Beacon

Eileen Riello showing some of her paintings in her Pittsfield home.

kaMeron Z. SpauldinG / BerkShire Beacon

The Lenox Library was bought with CPC funds that saved the building from possible foreclosure.

Bera B. DunauBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD – United States Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) visited The Berk-shires during his five-day tour of the state.

Sen. Brown is running for re-election this year against Democratic Party challenger Professor Elizabeth Warren, and he had some sharp words for his opponent during his Pittsfield stop.

Sen. Brown’s cross-state tour began in Provincetown on Aug. 20, after which he visited 12 other communities before arriving in Pittsfield.

The tour focused on high-

lighting Massachusetts’ busi-nesses and employers.

During Sen. Brown’s Pitts-field visit, he stopped by the Berkshire County Republi-cans’ newly-created office at 34 North St.

This office was set up entire-ly using the Berkshire County Republican Association’s own funds, without assistance from the state or national party, al-though Sen. Brown donated some phones in order for vol-unteers to make campaign calls.

Sen. Brown fared quite poorly in Berkshire County when he won election to the

Sen. Brown swings through Pittsfield

see CPC page 6

see ART page 4 see BROWN page 5

Rep. Neal looks to

expand Tech Center

- Page 5

2 The Berkshire Beacon August 30, 2012

Bera B. DunauBeacon Staff Writer

LEE – After two months of de-liberation and waiting for public comment, the Lee Board of Se-lectmen has decided to table a resolution for the board to en-dorse the Campaign for Our Communities.

The Campaign for Our Com-munities is a coalition of more than 100 organizations that have banded together to support “An Act to Invest in Our Communi-ties,” a tax reform plan.

This plan would raise addition-al revenue for government servic-es by reforming Massachusetts’ income tax code.

This reform would result in a tax decrease for the bottom 40 percent of tax payers, taxes stay-ing the same for the middle 20 percent and a tax increase for the top 40 percent, with most of that increase being felt in the upper portions of the top 20 percent.

A large number of the cam-paign’s supporters are labor unions, but municipal govern-ments, such as the Cambridge City Council, the Boston City Council and the Springfield City Council have also signed on in support. Consumer groups such as the Boston Tenants Associa-tion and Health Care for All and political organizations, like the Green-Rainbow Party of Massa-chusetts the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, are also supportive of the campaign.

Neil Clarke, a Lee resident and retired member of the Massachu-setts Teachers Association, gave a detailed presentation on the cam-paign and the reasons for why it was started.

Mr. Clarke said, since the board of selectmen had first heard the proposal, the Lee School Com-mittee voted to support the cam-paign. This vote was 5-1 with one absence.

“I couldn’t find any language [for a bill],” said Selectman Gor-don Bailey, who said he’d waited until the night before the meet-ing to review the proposal but hadn’t been able to find specific legislation.

Mr. Clarke said a bill would be introduced in the new legislative session, although there had been another bill in the previous session.

“I really wish I could see lan-guage,” said Selectman Bailey, who was uncomfortable support-ing the resolution without seeing how the revenue increases it was calling for would specifically be raised.

Mr. Bailey also expressed a de-gree of discomfort with what he perceived as earmarking the in-creased revenue for education.

“It looks like it was all educa-tors that were behind it to this date,” said Selectman Bailey.

A list of the Campaign for Our Communities’ endorsers can be found on its website, and it in-cludes a substantial number of organizations with no connection to education whatsoever.

“Until I find language that shows me what’s really going on, I’m hesitant to jump on board,” said Mr. Bailey, who nevertheless did not seem hostile to the proposal.

This was not the case for Se-lectman David Consolati.

“I don’t like the idea of the leg-islature sending us a notice to say these are the classes your kids are going to take in kindergarten,” said Selectman Consolati. “I also don’t think it’s the job of the Mas-sachusetts Teachers Association to set up the tax code.”

After a short discussion the se-lectmen decided to table the vote on whether or not to endorse the bill.

Frank Consolati and William Navin then rose to speak against the board endorsing the campaign.

“They [the MTA] should wor-ry about education, and let the guys we hire to send to Boston…let them worry about the taxa-tion,” said Mr. Consolati.

“I don’t care what they promise us, we’re going to get more shaft,” said Mr. Navin.

“I look forward to trying to an-swer Gordon’s concerns,” said Mr. Clarke in comments to The Beacon.

Mr. Clarke also said, to his knowledge, the Campaign for Our Communities did not origi-nate with the MTA.

“I would not say that this is part of an MTA plot to get mon-ey for teachers,” said Mr. Clarke, who reiterated again that there was no ear marking for education – or any other program – in the proposal.

Lee again holds on communities bill


PITTSFIELD – Looking for a good bargain?

Kidding Around Consign-ment, a new shop on North St., which opened just a week ago, offers good quality baby, toddler and children’s clothing and equipment, handmade babies’ quilts, children’s books, materni-ty clothes and much more.

The shop is located at 397 North St., across the street from St. Joseph’s Church.

The owner, Jennifer Haven-Lunt, seeks more people who have excellent quality items to consign. The way it works in consignment is first, people bring merchandise in tip-top shape. If it sells in the shop, the consignor gets 40 percent of the asking price and the shop gets 60 percent.

It’s a great way to recycle items one no longer needs but that still have a lot of use in them and, at the same time, make a profit.Call and make an appointment

All potential consignors need to call ahead of time and make an appointment, Mrs. Haven-Lunt, a young woman with a very pleas-ant personality, said. She will go over all the ins and outs of con-signing merchandise, check the items to see if they are spotless and almost new, tag them and them put them out for customers to see.

A Pittsfield native and graduate of St. Joseph’s High School, the owner of the new shop now lives in Mill River, near Sheffield. She first thought of opening a shop in south county, checked rents and found them to be very high.

Then she started looking at Pittsfield as a possible place for a shop. She saw that such a shop was, indeed, needed.

Her mother, Cindy Haven, still lives in the city and will be help-ing, as needed, in the shop.

She saw a sign in the window of the current location. It was a perfect 1,400-square foot space, the rent was affordable and the rest is history.

Shiny wood floors and blue walls

Inside of Kidding Around Consignment, the wood floors gleam and walls are painted a calm, serene shade of blue.

Outfits of all kinds hang neatly from hangers on racks along the sides and more merchandise is ready for perusing on shelves.

Larger items such as bouncy seats and other baby equipment, line the middle of the room. There’s even a train table set up to occupy the attention of little guests while their mommies shop.

To date, the newly-opened shop has 12 consignors but there’s room for many, many more.

Kidding Around Consignment also carries new craft items such as colorful and beautifully-sewn baby quilts by Patricia Nourse of Monterey.

Another person, who is a Pitts-field native but now lives in Cali-fornia and owns a business called Knit, Pick and Crochet, has cro-cheted dresses for sale.

One consignor, who owns Just Sew Kids, has dresses for sale, and another has provided little girls’ earrings, hair clips and rings.

The owner of Alabaster Crest of Sunderland will be consigning beaded bracelets, Mrs. Haven-Lunt said.

There are not a lot of options for handmade baby items in Pittsfield so the new shop fits the bill.

Mrs. Haven-Lunt said she knew her whole life she wanted

to have her own store.Clothes of all seasons all the

timeAll seasons of clothing can be

brought in any time since there is a huge basement beneath the shop for storage. If off-season items come in, Mrs. Haven-Lunt asks they be placed in plastic bins for easy storage.

She credits Jason Nocher of Adams, a carpenter, with making the store’s large handicapped ac-cessible countertop with wain-scoting, putting up all the shelves and making the maternity room with a dressing area.

“He is incredible,” she said, es-pecially since the walls are a com-bination of “cement and brick.”

Maternity clothes will also be consigned and customers can try them on ahead of time to make sure they fit.

Nothing junky will be accepted on consignments, the shop owner said. Children’s books, good quality wooden toys and all kinds of baby equipment are all wanted and needed.

Mrs. Haven-Lunt puts mer-chandise into stylish brown bags with the store’s sticker on the sides. It’s one of the many person-al touches that make the new store special.

New consignment shop opens in Pittsfield


Kidding Around Consignment is now open in Pittsfield.

August 30, 2012 The Berkshire Beacon 3

SALE ENDS LABOR DAY

SALE ENDS LABOR DAY

These and many more i t ems available for order (del ivery in 3 days to 4 weeks)Bera B. Dunau

Beacon Staff Writer

LENOX – After nearly 17 years as Superintendent of the Depart-ment of Public Works (DPW), Jeffrey T. Vincent will be chang-ing jobs.

“I was the one who actually started this discussion a couple of months ago,” said Superinten-dent Vincent, who will soon be transferring to a position oversee-ing capital improvement projects for the Town of Lenox.

This position is a newly created one, the title of which has yet to be determined.

“The driving factor [behind the transfer] was the level of capital projects we’re doing,” said Super-intendent Vincent, who ex-plained that overseeing capital improvement projects had be-come an increasingly large part of his job description as superintendent.

Superintendent Vincent said working on these capital projects and doing the day-to-day respon-sibilities of superintendent had begun to stretch him thin and, in his view, caused the public service aspect of his job to begin to slip.

“I was finding I wasn’t respond-ing to the public like I had in the past,” said Superintendent Vincent.

There was nothing but praise

for Superintendent Vincent, however, at the Lenox Board of Selectmen’s meeting, where the job transfer was first formally announced.

“As anyone knows that has lived in this town, Jeff Vincent is just an amazing guy,” said Select Board Chairman Kenneth Fowl-er. “The more I know the more I admire what he’s done for this town.”

The superintendent’s position was posted on Aug. 26, and Town Manager Gregory Federspiel ex-pects it will be filled by November.

Until it is filled, Superinten-dent Vincent will continue on in his current capacity.

“I hope to work closely with whoever’s in here,” said Superin-tendent Vincent, on the prospect of working with his successor, and he thinks the overlap will be beneficial for the town.

This view appears to be shared by Town Manager Federspiel and the board of selectmen; Chair-man Fowler seemed to indicate at the board’s last meeting that they would be changing the superin-tendent’s position to reflect this reality.

As for what his duties will be in his new job overseeing capital im-provements, Superintendent Vin-cent described a comprehensive set of responsibilities, beginning

with identifying specific capital improvements needs.

“I would be the one to take that need and develop it into a proj-ect,” said Superintendent Vincent.

In this new capacity, he will also be working with engineers as they design projects; getting these projects out to bid; receiving, an-alyzing, and making recommen-dations about these bids; and serving as “clerk of the works” for many capital improvement projects.

“For me, it’s not really a big change in process,” said Superin-tendent Vincent

He added he already did many of these functions as superinten-dent, although by assuming the duties of “clerk of the works,” which involves being the town supervisor and liaison for a con-struction project, Superintendent Vincent said some of the costs of his new position would be offset.

As for what the salary for this new position will be and how long he might stay at it, Superin-tendent Vincent said that both were being determined. Still, he’s happy to be taking on this new role.

“I’ve always enjoyed that part of the job [capital improvement supervision],” said Superinten-dent Vincent.

Vincent to take on new challenge for Lenox


State Senator Benjamin B. Downing (D-Pittsfield) is still ac-cepting applications for the 69th Citizens’ Legislative Semi-nar (CLS) to be held this fall on Monday, Oct. 15 and Tuesday, Oct. 16 at the State House.

CLS attendees must be nomi-nated by their state senator. All residents of the Berkshire, Hamp-shire and Franklin District inter-ested in attending this year’s event are invited to contact Senator Downing’s Boston office at (617) 722-1625 by Friday, Sept. 7.

A resume will be requested from each applicant. Participa-tion is on a first-come, first-serve basis; candidates must be able to

attend both days of the program.“The Citizens’ Legislative Sem-

inar allows participants to discuss with legislators their role in state government and gain insight into the legislative process,” said Sen. Downing. “It is a unique oppor-tunity for our citizens and con-stituents to get an in-depth view of their state government.”

CLS is a citizen workshop that aims to better educate the public on the commonwealth’s legisla-

tive process. Established in 1976 through a

collaborative effort of the Massa-chusetts Senate and the Universi-ty of Massachusetts, this two-day workshop features presentations by senators and staff on aspects of the day-to-day experience of leg-islators in the commonwealth.

Topics will include the history and process of the legislature, the parliamentary role of the Clerk of the Senate and the future of the legislature.

The CLS culminates with a simulated legislative hearing and senate session where participants are invited to use what they have learned and participate as “sena-tors” in the Senate Chamber in order to have a first-hand experi-ence of the legislative process.

Sen. Downing looking for applicants for Citizens’ Legislative Seminar

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nally agreed to go, just to appease her friend.

“I went so she wouldn’t keep bugging me,” she laughed.

That was more than 30 years ago, and she still meets regularly with other artists at Mrs. Arnold’s house. In the summer, they do oil painting on her porch.Paints in good times and badPainting has kept Mrs. Riello

going through good times and through bad.

Last June, she lost her husband of 52 years, Anthony Riello. He had suffered from Alzheimer ’s disease for seven years prior to his death. Through it all, Mrs. Riello kept on painting, creating realis-tic scenes of every imaginable description.

“I lose myself in canvas,” she said. It takes her mind off of any-thing else happening in her life at the moment. She concentrates totally on the painting in front of her.

It might be a cluster of birch trees; a scene depicting clothes, including red socks, hanging on an outside line; or a perky black, white and yellow bird.

Besides the gallery of paintings displayed in her own home, she has given many of her works of art to her son, Anthony, and daughter, Victoria.

She’s also presented several paintings as wedding gifts and has given others to nieces both in and outside of Massachusetts.

“I give them to special people,” she said.

Art show fundraiserA member of the Dalton Art

Guild for the past 12 years, Mrs. Riello served as fundraiser for the organization’s annual art exhibi-tion. For the past three years, it has been held at Millers Supply in Pittsfield.

“He’s [Steve Miller, owner] been great to us,” she said, allow-ing the artists to display their paintings for an entire month. This year it was held in June.

The money Mrs. Riello worked hard to raise went, for the most part, to prizes for winning entries.

She organized and carried out a mail campaign seeking donations via letters, as well as asking indi-viduals to contribute.

This is the last year she plans to be the guild’s fundraiser, noting it’s time for someone else to take the reins.

Mrs. Riello has also been in-volved, for the past 10 years, in organizing revolving galleries at

medical establishments in the area.

Artists from the Dalton Art Guild lend their paintings for three-month periods at Gyneco-logical Services of the Berkshires in Adams, Family Practice in Lee and Family Practice Associates in Pittsfield.

At the end of that time, the art-ists come after their paintings and new ones are hung, unless they have been sold.

Always liked to drawMrs. Riello said she always

liked to draw. She even took art classes through the Pittsfield School Department in the 1970s.

She works in colored pencils, oils and watercolors. Oils are her favorite.

Mrs. Riello has always liked the ocean and some of her paintings depict it. She works from photo-graphs, cards and even scenes she sees in magazines.

Sometimes her paintings are a combination of all of them. She puts in her own special touches as well, creating as she goes along.

There are Vermont scenes hanging on the walls in her home, including one that includes fall-ing snow. It draws the observer into a chilly yet peaceful country landscape.

A turkey restaurant windowThere is one painting that de-

picts a window she liked at the Hart’s Turkey Farm restaurant in Meredith, N.H., where all they serve is turkey.

There’s a cypress tree that grows out of water that also found its way onto Mrs. Riello’s canvas as well as a bicycle against a red barn, a southern gate scene and a very picturesque plant and flow-er-festooned door in Tuscany.

She’s painted a covered bridge as well as a sailboat on the ocean where one can almost hear the waves crashing against the rocks.Praises art teacher and friendMrs. Riello has high praise for

her long-time teacher, Mrs. Arnold.

“She’s really a lovely lady,” she said. “She’s a quiet, soft spoken Southern lady. She’s a sweetheart.”

Except for having been born and raised in Pittsfield, the same description could be said of Mrs. Riello.

She shows no signs of retiring from painting and for the art world, that is very good news.

ART from page 1

Look for an all new Berkshire Beacon

website

www.berkshirebeacon.com

August 9, 2012Volume III, Issue 12

www.berkshirebeacon.comLenox, MA 01240

FREE

Catherine M. KrummeyBeacon Staff Writer

NORTH ADAMS – How-ard “Jake” Eberwein III has of-fi cially moved on from his days as superintendent of the Pittsfi eld Public Schools.

On Tuesday, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) announced that Dr. Eberwein is the school’s new dean of graduate and continu-ing education.

“I look forward to working collaboratively with the MCLA leadership team, fac-ulty and community in ex-panding high quality educa-tional opportunities for the

citizens of Berkshire County and beyond,” he said.

Dr. Eberwein received his master’s degree in education from MCLA in 2003 and earned his principal certifi ca-

Church on the Hill to get some repairs

- Page 2


Index

Major changes for area cancer care


PITTSFIELD – David E. Phelps, President and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems (BHS), announced plans last week for a comprehensive and state-of-the-art cancer center to be located at the Hillcrest Campus of Berkshire Medical Center (BMC).

The huge project is being planned in partnership with Berkshire Hematology/On-cology, the area’s largest pri-vate medical practice.

Mr. Phelps said both part-ners are extremely committed and share the same vision.

Berkshire Health Systems is this area’s largest employer.

The $30 million project will include extensive renovations and a new entryway at Hill-crest for the BMC Cancer Center.

A total of $20.1 million is earmarked for renovations to the existing buildings as well

as for the new entryway and lobby. A total of $10 million will be used to buy new equip-ment and electronic record systems.

The center will be four sto-ries high and 49,930-square feet.

According to information released by BHS, the renova-tion and new construction will include a new entrance and lobby, a Wellness Center, a Ra-diation Oncology and Multi-

disciplinary Clinic, Hematol-ogy/Oncology Physician Practice, a full clinical labora-tory, a pharmacy, infusion and treatment service, and radia-tion therapy.

Phase I will begin in early 2013, Phase II in the fall of that year and Phase III in 2014.

The center will provide a new view on cancer care in

Dick SyriacBeacon Sports Writer

The year was 1974 and as a member of the publicity de-partment at Green Mountain Race Track, I was looking for a scoop.

In the company of the track photographer Ernie LeClair, I was patrolling the barn area in quest of a picture that might make the national wires. A shot of a horse getting hosed

down would not cut it, a horse munching on a bale of hay, no, I don’ t think so.

As we came upon a shed row, we both knew we had hit the mother lode. We saw a seven-year-old boy with bushy red hair sitting on a horse with his I.D. badge on. Click, click we got the shot and it went, as they now say, viral.

Both wire services used the

Local man makes the races run

see TRACK page 2 see CENTER page 7

SuSan m. WicKer guerrero / BerKShire Beacon

The current Hillcrest Hospital Campus will soon undergo massive changes.

artiSt rendering

This is a drawing of the proposed cancer center to be located at the Hillcrest Campus of BMC.

Eberwein named dean at MCLA

see MCLA page 3

Howard Eberwein III

Ken Retzel has worked with horses his whole life.

1 Local News 6 Editorial6 From the Tower8 Shelter Pets9 Fast Picks10 Books10 Calendar11 Tax Free Specials12 Beer & Wine13 Movies 13 Girl-2-Girl14 Sports

COMING SOON


U.S. Senate over Attorney Gen-eral Martha Coakley in the 2010 special election to fill deceased United States Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy’s seat.

He got only 30.5 percent of the vote in Berkshire County, his worst performance in the entire state.

“Every extra vote that we get here [in Berkshire County] is gonna help him everywhere else in the state,” said Mike Case, who is running as the Republican can-didate for Governor’s Council in the western Massachusetts-based Eighth District this year. “I’ve guaranteed him we’re gonna get more than just Otis this time.”

Otis was the only town in Berk-shire County to vote for Sen. Brown in 2010.

He also visited the Pittsfield Veterans Memorial on South Street, Crane and Co. in Dalton and Teo’s Hot Dogs in Pittsfield.

Sen. Brown is no stranger to The Berkshires or Teo’s

Senator Brown’s father lived in Dalton, and he spent his sum-mers as a teenager with him, dur-ing which time he acquired a taste for Teo’s signature dogs.

“Virtually every single time I’m

in Pittsfield or Dalton and sur-rounding areas I try to make it here,” said Sen. Brown, who ate five dogs on his Friday visit.

He also made a point to tie Teo’s to the larger themes of his campaign.

“This is a business that…has done it on their own. The govern-ment didn’t create these jobs, they did,” said Sen. Brown. “That’s the difference between Prof. War-ren and me; she’s looking to de-monize our job creators and the people that put in this time and effort and money on the line and I’m not.”

In response to questions from the press, he also addressed Prof. Warren’s claim that he was a part of a Republican agenda that is hostile to women.

“Having a lot of good women in my life, I don’t even know how to respond to that kind of misin-formation,” said Sen. Brown.

“I’m the lead Republican on the violence against women act, … I worked very hard to protect the funding for Planned Parent-hood, I was very active when I was a state senator on overriding the governor on stem cell re-search, on protecting emergency contraception rights for women who are raped, … protecting

women’s jobs by creating a level of regulatory and tax certainty and not wanting to have jobs crushing taxes and regulations as she’s [Professor Warren’s] been proposing.”

Asked about how important it was for his re-election to improve his numbers in Berkshire County and in Pittsfield, Sen. Brown at-tributed his weak performance in The Berkshires in 2010 to the short nature of that campaign and the voters’ lack of familiarity with him.

“She [Atty. Gen. Coakley] had already run statewide so she al-ready had a natural advantage,” said Sen. Brown, who pointed to the work he’s done with western Massachusetts businesses and po-litical leaders since his election.

“We’ve (Sen. Brown’s office) been very, very active trying to work to address the western Mas-sachusetts issues,” he said, noting western Massachusetts’ economic challenges and attributing many of them to geography.

“There needs to be an incentive to come out here and incentives to stay here, whether it’s creating a tax incentive or a workforce de-velopment incentive.”

Catherine M. KrummeyBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX – When playing an internationally-recognized figure, the line between caricature and fully embodying the character can be fairly thin.

In Satchmo at the Waldorf, award-winning actor John Doug-las Thompson toes that line and gives the audience a full embodi-ment of Louis Armstrong.

“John has the legs to get us through Labor Day,” said Shake-speare and Company Artistic Di-rector Tony Simotes.

In the one-man show, which had its New England debut at Shakespeare and Co. last week, Mr. Thompson brilliantly por-trays Mr. Armstrong and two of his counterparts, manager Joe Glaser and fellow/rival musician Miles Davis.

The play features Mr. Arm-strong backstage at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in March 1971 af-ter what would be his last performance, recalling his life

and relationships.“Satchmo at the Waldorf is a

work of fiction, but is based on and informed by the facts of the lives of Armstrong and Glaser, and though I made up most of the dialogue, it closely resembles the way they talked in private,” said playwright Terry Teachout.

A first for everyoneThe play marks a number of

firsts for its three principal partic-ipants. Satchmo at the Waldorf marks renowned drama critic Terry Teachout’s first foray into playwriting, director Gordon Edelstein’s first production at Shakespeare and Co. and Mr. Thompson’s first one-man show.

“Doing a play on your own is a very lonely experience,” Mr. Thompson said, adding Mr. Edelstein’s direction helped him cope with how to deal with that unexpected loneliness.

All three men spoke at the re-ception after the Aug. 24 perfor-mance, thanking those who have supported them in this endeavor.

Mr. Teachout in particular

thanked Elizabeth Aspinleder, an actress and head of publicity at Shakespeare and Co. Ms. Aspin-leder attended an early reading of Satchmo in New York and imme-diately requested a copy of the script from him.

Mr. Teachout, who also wrote the best-selling book Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, based his play heavily on recordings Mr. Arm-strong made of his private life.

“Between 1947 and his death in 1971, Armstrong taped hun-dreds of after-hours conversations with his wife, friends and col-leagues in which he revealed a very different side of his personal-ity,” he said.

“Some of these tapes are star-tlingly intimate, and many of them contain very strong lan-guage that Armstrong never used on stage.”

The play runs through Sept. 16 at Shakespeare and Co.’s Tina Packer Playhouse. Tickets can be purchased at the box office, by calling (413) 637-3353 or online at shakespeare.org.

Satchmo premieres at Shakespeare and Company

BROWN from page 1

George C. Jordan IIIBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD – Congressman Richard “Richie” Neal told The Berkshire Beacon Wednesday, on a tour stop, that he would envi-sion Berkshire Community Col-lege in Pittsfield, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield working to-gether to become part of the Mas-sachusetts Green High Perfor-mance Computing Center in Holyoke.

Funding for the center is ex-pected to cost more than $150 million when fully built and equipped and, according to some observers, be the base for expand-ed technology and high-speed data in the commonwealth.

Like the Colonial Theater that used new market tax credits, these same credits could be applied by a developer to tie into these Berk-shire sites, according to the congressman.

At the congressman’s stop at DelGallo’s Restaurant on East Street in Pittsfield, he was met by several political operatives who were having lunch. Renaldo Del-Gallo, former Pittsfield mayor and owner of the restaurant, played host to the visitors who were there for more than an hour.

The social gathering – without speeches – was more conversation and laughs.

Shannon Young from The As-sociated Press, Boston was cover-ing the incumbent’s Pittsfield journey and his interactions with both elected officials and people from the area.

Mr. Neal noted the new market tax credits are much like the old block grants that were issued to help municipalities.

The 90,000-square foot center is being built in partnership with the Commonwealth of Massa-chusetts, EMC Corp. and Cisco Systems to support research con-ducted at MIT, Northeastern University, Harvard University, Boston University and the Uni-versity of Massachusetts.

The goal of the center, which will house high-performance computers, is to woo scientists and get federal and private re-search funding.

The center will also provide a place for research on clean energy and will showcase energy-effi-cient computing and green build-ing design.

The center will also feature meeting space and classrooms that will be utilized by students at Holyoke Community College for IT education and job training.

Mr. Neal said he sees the op-portunity for the Berkshire state colleges to help create a new job pool for local industries in west-ern Massachusetts.

Once complete, the academic research at the center is expected to boost economic activity in the Bay State by more than $50 mil-lion and generate an estimated $1.7 million in state and local tax revenues.

There were about 25 people who sat and talked with the con-gressman. Others spent time with Eugene Dellea, Berkshire county coordinator, Daniel Johnson, Ne-al’s field organizer, and William Tranghese, press secretary.

Rep. Neal calls for Berkshires to join

Holyoke tech center

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An artist rendering of the Massachusetts Green High-Perfor-mance Computing Center to be built in Holyoke.


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“Do we want to spend it at all right now?” asked CPC Member Albert Harper. “Maybe we should be saving the funding to build up for some of the larger projects on the horizon.”

Other board members also agreed the method how they go about finding projects to fund needs to be addressed.

“We don’t just want to fund projects because they applied, we want to fund the best projects,” said CPC Member Anthony Patella.

“The best option might be us going out to find those best proj-ects instead of waiting for their application.”

Selectman Channing Gibson suggested the CPC should work to develop a list of all the possible projects in the town.

This list would include possible locations for open space and his-toric properties in need of restoration.

“Having a list like that would be helpful to me,” said Selectman

Gibson. “I think it makes long-range planning more realistic.”

Best use of town fundsThe selectmen again brought

their concern over funding pri-vately-held properties like the Church on the Hill and Shake-speare and Company.

“What we are concerned with is that we don’t want to fund these private projects and then have them move on,” said Select-man Kenneth Fowler. “We shouldn’t be funding property to just be flipped.”

The selectmen and the CPC agreed the idea of placing a lien on private projects when funds were given should be looked into.

“I am concerned that we give funds to these groups that have development directors and fund-raising directors making $75,000 to $100,000 a year,” said Select-man David Roche.

The CPC processBoth the CPC and the select-

men also agreed that the process of how they fund projects needs to be made clearer to the public.

Of the funds the CPC receives

each year the money is then pro-vided to projects at a state-ap-proved level.

This means 80 percent of the funding must go to historical preservation, 10 percent to af-fordable housing and 10 percent for open space conservation.

The CPC reviews applications for completeness and eligibility.

During that process, the CPC evaluates whether the project is ripe for funding and whether it meets the goals of the community.

The CPC then holds public hearings on projects it chooses for further consideration.

Applicants have the opportuni-ty to present the project and re-spond to questions from the CPC and the public.

Each year following those hear-ings the CPC makes its funding recommendations to the board of selectmen in the form of warrant articles to be voted at the annual Town Meeting in May.

The articles that are approved are then funded. The group that applied has to match the funds.


LENOX – Lilac Park (on Main Street in town) drew the curious, the tourists, the natives and craft-loving crowds on Sunday during the 23rd annual Lenox Children’s Center Crafts Fair.

Familiar white-pointed tops to booths could be spotted in the bright afternoon sun as vendors welcomed browsers as well as buyers of their wares.

The variety of items on hand astounded. There was everything from dolls with pigtailed hairdos and tie-dyed clothing from Wild Child Tie Dyes to a huge variety of attractive jewelry and mer-chandise for the family dog.

One booth offering the latter was WearWuf, owned by Mary Busch of west Pittsfield. She makes many of her offerings for canines.

Artists chatted with customers who eyed items for sale and con-versations could be heard from every direction.

Craftspeople from several states

Several local craftspeople were on hand as well as craftsmen and women from other states, includ-

ing Indiana.Barbara W. Doncaster of Great

Barrington was one of several art-ists who drew enthusiastic atten-tion. Her paintings, bright and colorful florals, drew favorable comments.

People ate hotdogs and sipped drinks as they went from one crafts booth to another.

More people filled the side-walks of Lenox. Some came to the crafts fair after perusing the annual book sale at the library across the street.

The Children’s Center, located at 9 Old Center St., is a licensed childcare facility for children from infants through nine years old.

CPC from page 1

Lenox Children’s Center hosts 23rd annual craft fair


Crowds gather to check out the items at the 23rd annual Lenox Children’s Center Crafts Fair.

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From the Notebook:Notes from Kameron Z. Spaulding

SHEFFIELD – Citizens brought forward their concerns about traffic at the intersections on Bow Wow Road with Bears Den Road and Miller Avenue at the latest select board meeting.

Police Chief Eric R. Munson III addressed the concerns and explained some of the data the force has collected on the intersection.

According to Chief Munson the average speed in the area was

39 miles an hour, four miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

Chief Munson said they have been stationed in the area as well and have written nine tickets for failure to stop at the Bears Den Road stop sign.

The selectmen and Chief Mun-son agreed they will continue to look at the intersection and they will explore the possibility of add-ing a new stop sign to the Miller Avenue intersection.

GREAT BARRINGTON – Bard College at Simon’s Rock has announced its offerings for resi-dents and visitors, from visual and performing arts to lectures and readings.

All events are open to the pub-lic and free.2012 Book One Lecture: The

Buddha in the AtticThursday, August 30, 7 p.m.,

McConnell Theater, Daniel Arts Center

Julie Otsuka, author of the 2012 Book One, The Buddha in the Attic, will be addressing the class of 2012 on Thursday, Aug. 30, at 7 p.m. in the McConnell Theater, with a reception to follow.

All are invited to attend the lec-ture and to read The Buddha in the Attic in preparation for Ms. Otsuka’s visit.

Exploring the EssayTuesdays, Sept. 11 – Nov. 6,

6-8:30 p.m.Due to popular demand, we

are offering a new class in the eve-nings this fall. In this eight-week workshop, we’ll explore the many uses of the essay form, from hu-mor to persuasion to making sense of the past.

South Berkshire Concert: “Baroque Masters”

Saturday, Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m., McConnell Auditorium

“Baroque Masters� features Wieland Kiujken on viola da gamba, Eva Legêne on recorder and Arthur Haas on harpsichord. Returning after their perfor-mance to a full house at Simon’s Rock in April 2011, these three master-musicians offer a new program of chamber music for vi-ola, recorder and harpsichord.


LENOX – A joint meeting of the historic district commission (HDC) and the planning board hit a snag when only three of the planning board members and two members of the HDC were in attendance.

The two boards had intended to discuss changes to the town’s sign bylaw.

Yet as the town tries to contin-ue to work through the wake of issues around signage in the town some in town government may be cautioning against change.

“[Building Inspector] Bill Thornton told me today that this summer has had the least amount of problems with signs he has ex-perienced,” said Town Planner Mary Albertson. “So maybe we should just be focusing on sand-wich boards and place the other items on the back burner.”

Not all members are on board with that idea.

“I would say that there have been too many signs, and mainly this year flags, in the district,” said HDC Member Lucy Kenne-dy. “So I would hate to see you lose that direction of changing all the sign bylaws.”

The planning board now plans to pull out the issue of sandwich boards to make regulations for first and then return to the other sign issues.

Although before they can move forward the planning board is looking for agreement from the HDC. That agreement has been hard to determine in past meet-ings, and without half of the HDC at their latest meeting, the planning board was still left searching.

“Do you have a consensus in your meetings?” asked Planning Board Member Kathleen Mc-Nulty-Vaughan. “I am getting tired of going in circles on this

sign issue.”Now the planning board will

look to move forward and craft their own language without the HDC.

“I think it is time that we just move along and craft our own by-law,” said Planning Board Mem-ber Stephen Sample. “And as we do that we can try to include some HDC guidelines, but we have to move forward.”

The planning board then hopes to get town approval to use the document they create as a part of the zoning by-law and the HDC guidelines to unify the rules.

Open space planThe town has been looking for

a firm to develop an open space plan.

During that search the Berk-shire Regional Planning Com-mission recommended that the town contact the Conway School

of Design.“They do a top-rate, profes-

sional job,” said Town Planner Albertson. “They have done some local projects including Kripalu.”

The Conway School would be able to keep the cost far under the current budget of $20,000. The school has quoted that they would charge $6,000 for the project.

Past projects of the Conway School include the master plan for Beaver Dam Sanctuary, Walden Pond Stewardship Plan and the South Shore (Boston) Greenway.

If the town elects to use Con-way, it would be a winter project for the school meaning they would be working on the project from January to April.

That would mean the town could have the plan by mid-spring.

Lack of stop sign rises concern in Sheffield

Bard College announces round of free fall classes

Planning board to move on signs without HDC

STOCKBRIDGE - IS183 Art School of the Berkshires has an-nounced the selection of artists Andrew Davis and Claire Fox for its fall Citizen's Hall Residency program starting Tuesday, Sept. 4.

The public is invited to join the fall residents at work during Stairwell Studio Visit hours on Saturday, Sept. 22, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as the opening reception with artists talk on Wednesday, Oct. 3, from 6-8 p.m.

During their residency, the art-ists will create the installation "Dream Home," a thematic ex-

ploration on a miniature scale ad-dressing their own personal my-thologies and incorporating painting, sculpture, installation and video.

Artists who work both inde-pendently and collaboratively in Berkshire County and elsewhere, Fox and Davis have also operated the Avalon Seafood Gallery and Grass Gallery in North Adams.

A twice-yearly program launched last April, the Citizen's Hall Residency is both a show-case for local talent and provides an access point for the public to witness creative production in progress.

IS183 names their two fall residents


Sandwich board signs have been a contentious issue for more than a year in Lenox.

“I think it is time that we just move along and craft our own by-law and as we do that we can try to include some HDC guidelines, but we have to move forward.”

—Planning board and HDC member Stephen Sample


Editorial: View From the TowerGeorge C. Jordan III

George C. Jordan IIIEDITOR & PUBLISHER

Kameron Z. SpauldingEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Susan G. RobinsonGRAPHIC DESIGNER

Janel M. Harrison, Glenda Lee, Nancy G. Shepherd, Samantha I. SnyderADVERTISING SALES

Bera B. Dunau, Rae A. Eastman, Susan M. Wicker Guerrero, Janel M. Harrison, Catherine M. Krummey, Dick SyriacCONTRIBUTING WRITERS

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 typographical errors pub-lished. 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 ©2012 The Berkshire Beacon. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

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This week we had an editorial board meeting with the candi-dates, including 1st Congressio-nal District candidate Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr.

I told him he was popular and if he ran from a congressional dis-trict that was strictly Berkshire County he would win.

I started to point out that he did not have a chance to win be-cause the Pioneer Valley district has a larger population base in the lower Pioneer Valley.

He said wait a minute.He drew me a map of the new

district, which is unlike the for-mer one that John W. Olver (D-Amherst) has represented since the days of Silvio O. Conte.

Besides North Adams and Pittsfield – the large communi-ties in Berkshire County – the district includes Springfield, West Springfield, Westfield, Chi-copee and Holyoke in Hampden County. Also, there are many hilltown communities in Hamp-shire and Franklin Counties.

Previously, all western Massa-chusetts communities and some of northwestern Worcester County were included in the district.

Here is where the story gets interesting:

Mr. Nuciforo, who has served as a state senator and is currently register of deeds for the Berkshire Middle District, claims there will be 60,000 votes cast on primary day out of a population of 725,000 (of which 500,000 are registered voters).

History shows, according to Mr. Nuciforo, that 60,000 to 62,000 will vote from the 86 cit-ies and towns.

As to the large populace cities, Springfield will send 8,020 to the polls while 7,620 will come from Pittsfield, according to Mr. Nuciforo.

However, it is unclear how the voters in Holyoke and Chicopee will vote, although the consensus is they will support Rep. Richard Neal (D-Springfield), the incumbent.

Labor Day Weekend 2012 is here.

Upon reflection, it notes the end of the season. Also, with an upcoming change in weather, we note autumn is fast approaching with celebrations in Lee and Lenox from Founders Day to the famous Apple Squeeze.

Then there is the Northern Berkshire Fall Foliage Parade on Sunday, Sept. 30, beginning at 1 p.m. in downtown North Adams.

We can reflect on the summer season gone and note some changes as we look back on our summer.

Locally in Lenox, Walker Street got a new sidewalk. Can-yon Ranch, along with those in Schermerhorn Park, was tied into a new sewer line, taking pressure off the Brunnel Pump station. Traffic tie-ups for the most part were adverted due to our junior part-time police offi-cers, for which Tanglewood con-tributed $38,000 for the period from July 2011-June 2012, ac-cording to Town Manager Greg-ory T. Federspiel.

Here are a few things to think about as we prepare to head into

fall.Schools reopen, local elected

officials face ongoing problems and try to elicit help from the community looking to strength-en its position while holding on to an already burdensome tax rate.

One key may be to create a voice of welcome to each of our Berkshire communities. Our 32 cities and towns have something unique to offer.

Perhaps Lenox’s new street signs will offer that welcome to our tourists, whom we come to rely on to help keep our tax base under control.

As we celebrate the end of sea-son with picnics and family gatherings, it helps to acknowl-edge the goodwill of people, who work to make it happen from our county-wide municipal lead-ers and employees to our safety employees from fire to police to ambulance drivers (EMTs).

While the good tidings of summer are coming to a close, the change in the wind will force us to look for new directions and alternatives. Hopefully, there will be some clarity in the views to be expressed. Stay tuned.

Mr. Nuciforo said the City of Springfield routinely produced a comparable number of Demo-cratic Party primary voters to the City of Pittsfield. This dynamic makes him think that he can find the 30,000 votes needed to win.

To win, he needs 30,000-plus votes using his historic measurements.

Prior to our discussion, it ap-peared Mr. Nuciforo would take Berkshire County and voters from the Valley would vote heav-ily for Rep. Neal.

Bill Shein, local columnist and Democrat, is “a bold, progressive voice for western Massachusetts, committed to creating an econo-my and democracy that work for all of us.”

Mr. Shein, who lives in Alford, is running on a reform ticket: “Big money has led to bad public policy. It’s the reason for income and wealth inequality not seen since the Gilded Age of robber barons and oil tycoons, with a narrow elite amassing huge for-tunes while millions of American families lose jobs, homes, retire-ment savings and the ability to af-ford college.

“Of course, those in Congress who raise huge sums of corporate money insist that ‘money doesn’t buy my vote.’

“Whether that’s true or not, it ignores a vital point: A voting re-cord in Congress only shows what you’ve had a chance to vote on.

“Big money’s goal is to make sure the best progressive ideas never see the light of day and rarely come up for a vote.

“And that guarantees a narrow, status-quo agenda.”

The early horse race calcula-tions indicated Mr. Neal is a shoe-in followed by Mr. Nuciforo and then Mr. Shein, who has not lit the political fires.

As for Mr. Shein, who says he has been on the stump for several months, outlines his progressive plans in “high definition,” which eludes the common voter, who normally goes for the personality and looks. While his goals are ad-mirable, they seem, given the congressional gridlock, to be a dream to be obtained at a later date.

If history is the true lesson maker and Mr. Nuciforo is elect-ed on Sept. 6, Berkshire County could have a legislature leader to call its own.

That said, Rep. Olver has thrown his support to his con-gressional partner, Richie Neal. Still it should be a horse race for us all to watch.

The end of the summer season There are Berkshire County

candidates to vote for

As part of the redistricting process, the borders of the new 1st district have been redrawn to cover most of western Massachusetts, including the Berkshires, the Greater Springfield area and parts of south Worcester County.


Congressman Richard Neal (D-Springfield) seems pretty se-cure about his re-election prospects.

“Well, I’m extremely confi-dent,” said Congressman Neal in comments to The Beacon. “But not cocky.”

A former Springfield mayor, Rep. Neal has represented Massa-chusetts’ 2nd Congressional Dis-trict since 1989.

Much of the 2nd District was merged with part of retiring Con-gressman John Olver’s (D-Am-herst) 1st District in order to form a new 1st District. This was done as part of Massachusetts’ congressional redistricting this year.

As a result, Rep. Neal is run-ning in this new 1st Congressio-nal District, which includes all of Berkshire County, the City of Springfield and parts of Worces-ter, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin Counties.

Because of his hefty war chest and the advantages of incumben-cy, Rep. Neal is widely favored to win the race.

Because no candidates have filed to run for any other party, the winner of the Democratic Primary will almost certainly emerge victorious in the general election.

Both Mr. Shein and Mr. Nuci-foro are running to Rep. Neal’s left and have criticized his record, particularly the large amount of money he’s raised from lobbyists and corporations and his support of deregulation of the financial sector.

“The money I’ve received is a reflection of the interests of the people of Massachusetts,” Rep. Neal said in defense of the cam-paign contributions he has received.

He also criticized Mr. Nuciforo on this issue, noting the money he raised while he was a state sen-ator representing The Berkshires.

“I don’t think that a guy like Nuciforo ... can all of a sudden argue that he’s just a little bit

pregnant,” said Rep. Neal.He also defended his record on

financial regulation, saying that he voted for the Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley financial regula-tion bills and has been a support-er of the Volker Rule on proprie-tary trading.

“The question was, why did big banks loan money to those who didn’t pay it back?” said Congressman Neal on the 2008-2009 financial crisis, saying the ultimate responsibility for the cri-sis rested with the banks and fi-nancial institutions themselves.

Asked how he would use to his influence as an incumbent to help the 1st District, should he be returned to Congress, he pointed to his position on the House Ways and Means Committee and the funds and resources he’s been able to bring to his district.

“I have projects from South-bridge through Westfield that I’ve worked on,” said Congressman Neal. “No one has ever said [I’m] ineffective or lazy.”

When asked what he consid-ered the most important vote he’d taken in his long congressional career, he said, “the vote against the war in Iraq.”

As for his proudest overall con-gressional accomplishment, Rep. Neal pointed to his role in the peace process in Northern Ire-land, which he said has been ac-knowledged by President Bill Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On the campaign for the Dem-ocratic nomination, Rep. Neal said he has kept it positive and would continue to do so.

“I have never run a negative television ad [in my congressional career],” he said. “In two weeks I’m going to be able to say the same thing.”

His priorities f he is re-elected, would be to continue to focus on jobs.

“Getting people back to work,” he said. “Getting them back to work should be our number one priority.”

Rep. Neal confident coming to election

Nuciforo sees congress as his next way to serve the region

Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr. is run-ning for Congress to be a strong progressive Democratic Representative.

“They’re [the American people] looking for a strong Democratic leader to go to Washington and fight exclusively for them. I in-tend to be that person,” said Mr. Nuciforo in an interview with The Beacon’s editorial board.

The current Berkshire County Middle District Register of Deeds, Mr. Nuciforo previously served as a State Senator repre-senting the Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire District from 1997-2007. A native of Pittsfield, Mr. Nuciforo has strong roots in the area.

Mr. Nuciforo remains bullish on his prospects for election.

“We’re very pleased with the re-sponse we’re getting throughout

the district,” said Mr. Nuciforo.“What I’ve learned is just how

angry the American people are about what happened in 2008-2009,” said Mr. Nuciforo, refer-ring to the financial crisis. “They want a strong Progressive Demo-crat going to Washington…to stand up for their interests not to stand up for Wall Street as my op-ponent [Rep. Neal] has.”

Mr. Nuciforo had some very strong criticisms of Rep. Neal, particularly on the issue of finan-cial deregulation, which he says the congressman has had a histo-ry of supporting.

“In the years leading up to the financial collapse in 2008 there were five significant deregulation bills that came before the United States Congress,” he said. “Con-gressman Neal is in a very small group of members of either party

that supported all five.”As for Mr. Nuciforo’s other op-

ponent, Bill Shein, who is also running against Rep. Neal as a Progressive, he doesn’t seem par-ticularly worried they will split the vote.

“Given Congressman Neal’s re-cord it’s no surprise he would pick up other opponents,” he said. “There are a sufficient num-ber of votes out there for us [the Nuciforo campaign] to succeed, and I think with our progressive message we’ll be fine.”

In terms of the specific policies he would advocate for if elected, Mr. Nuciforo is a supporter of single-payer health care.

“I’m the only candidate in the race who has actually sponsored a single-payer health care bill,” he said.

Shein looks to challenge not just Rep. Neal but the system as a wholeBill Shein is running a proudly

unconventional and unapologeti-cally progressive campaign for United States Congress, and he’s running to win.

“I’ve been outspent 100 to 1,” said Mr. Shein in an interview with The Beacon’s editorial board. “Typically in a race [where] you’ve got someone outspent like that they’re invisible. Instead I’ve framed the debate in this campaign.”

A resident of the Berkshires for the last 10 years, Mr. Shein makes his living as a writer, web designer and IT consultant. A humorist, Mr. Shein has had a column in The Berkshire Eagle since 2004.

He’s also been involved with the Occupy Movement and Oc-cupy the Berkshires. He lives in Alford.

One of the notable aspects of Mr. Shein’s campaign is that he’s refused to accept donations larger than $99.

“The lack of money is the key

point here,” said Mr. Shein, add-ing he believes he can win with-out taking money from the inter-ests he believes the Democratic Party should be fighting against.

“We spend hours talking to people, it’s not just slogans, it’s not just bullet points,” he said.

As for issues, he has a number of specific public policy proposals he says he’ll advocate for, should he be elected to congress.

Mr. Shein divides these propos-als into three areas: democracy is-sues, economic issues and envi-ronmental issues.

On democracy issues, Mr. Shein advocates for the public fi-nancing of elections, overturning the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and banning lob-byist contributions to members of Congress and former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists.

Mr. Shein is also a supporter of universal, automatic voter registration.

“Everyone should be on the rolls,” he said.

Mr. Shein also backs making Election Day a holiday.

On economic issues, he sup-ports the Congressional Progres-sive Caucus’ Budget for All, which he points out was support-ed by retiring 1st District Con-gressman John Olver but voted against by Rep. Neal.

Mr. Shein is also a supporter of relieving the debt burden of stu-dents leaving college.

“Why are the student [loan] rates not zero?” he said. “To me that’s a good investment, to pick up the costs of that interest.”

Mr. Shein also backs a New Deal-style jobs program, and more direct investment in job creation.

“We need to build up enter-prises based in our community that are owned by people here,” he said. “I want us to give advan-

Race for 1st district heats up over campaign finance and voting recordsAll three candidates optimistic heading to the polls Sept. 6

see NUCIFORO page 10

see SHEIN page 10


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Mr. Nuciforo is also a support-er of The Fair Elections Now Act, which would provide for public financing of congressional elections.

This stance has gotten him crit-icized by fellow public financing supporter Mr. Shein, who points out Mr. Nuciforo voted to repeal Massachusetts’ Clean Elections Law, which provided for public financing of candidates for state office, when he was a state senator.

The Clean Elections Law was approved overwhelmingly by vot-ers in 1998 and was the subject of much political squabbling before it was repealed in 2003.

Mr. Nuciforo explains this dis-crepancy by saying the Fair Elec-tions Now Act has significant fundraising thresholds that can-didates would have to meet be-fore receiving state funds.

“Under the Fair Elections Now bill, any candidate for house of representatives…would have to raise no less than $50,000 in in-dividual contributions before qualifying for any public money,” he said.

By contrast, Mr. Nuciforo said such fundraising thresholds were not included in the clean elec-tions bill.

“The clean elections bill had al-most no viability threshold,” said

Mr. Nuciforo, who said he voted to repeal the Clean Elections Law in order to protect the public treasury.

As for what a good minimum threshold would be for candi-dates for state office under a pub-lic financing system, Mr. Nucifo-ro didn’t have an exact answer, but he said it should be calculated on the cost of a typical race.

On reproductive choice, Mr. Nuciforo pointed to being en-dorsed all five times he ran for state senate by NARAL. He also blasted Rep. Neal for voting for the Stupak Amendment, which would have prohibited health care plans under the Affordable Health Care for America Act from covering abortions except in cases of rape, incest or a danger to the life of the mother.

“That was the most recent and most significant assault on wom-en’s health and reproductive free-dom in recent memory,” he said. “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”

In the end, Mr. Nuciforo be-lieves his combination of political experience and progressive poli-tics make him the best fit to rep-resent the 1st Congressional District.

“I think we need, in the United States Congress, an experienced Progressive that is prepared on day one to do this job,” he said. “I intend to be that person.”

tage to small business.”In order to help small business-

es and the self-employed, Mr. Shein would like to raise or elimi-nate the cap on social security taxes.

“If we eliminate that cap we can look at reducing the social securi-ty tax rate,” he said.

Mr. Shein also backs single-payer health care, in part to re-duce the costs small businesses take on in trying to provide health care for themselves and their employees.

He vehemently opposes any ex-tension of the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy.

On the environment, Mr. Shein is dedicated to combating climate change.

“Climate change is here be-cause we have not done nearly enough for 20 years,” he said, pointing to the damage done by Hurricane Irene to the northeast.

Mr. Shein favors a carbon tax on our nation’s fossil fuel produc-ers and using the money raised to give taxpayers rebates to offset ris-

ing energy costs, reduce the defi-cit and invest in green energy technology research and deployment.

Mr. Shein believes all three of these areas – democracy, economy and the environment – are inter-connected and many of the prob-lems he’s trying to address are the direct result of bad public policy.

As for the primary campaign it-self, he is strongly critical of Rep. Neal.

“Congressman Neal raises all the same money that [Republican Senator] Scott Brown raises,” said Mr. Shein. “90-something per-cent of his money is corporate PACs and lobbyists. A Democrat for goodness sake.”

Despite running against two better-financed opponents, Mr. Shein is focused on victory and strongly believes he can win.

“I would not have entered this race if I didn’t think it was win-nable even with…the self-im-posed restrictions,” he said. “I’m optimistic for what will happen on the 6th.”

-Profiles by Bera B. Dunau

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Community Calendar FRIDAY,

AUGUST 31

LENOX FARMERS MARKETLenox, 1 p.m. -5 p.m.New market vendors specializing in locally grown and produced products. Plenty of parking.

‘FILMS FOR FOOD’ FUNDRAISERPittsfield, 7 p.m.The film will play at the Unitari-an Universalist Church, 175 Wendell Ave. at Broad Street. $10 for one ticket, $17 for two tick-ets. All proceeds will go to sup-port the Unitarian Universalist Gardens and Eggs Project to feed the hungry in Berkshire County.

BLUE MOON HIKE AND BONFIRERichmond, 8 p.m.A guide will lead the group on a hike of approximately 1-1.5 hours. A bonfire, wine tasting and live musical entertainment will immediately follow. The cost is $10 and includes the tasting of up to six Furnace Brook wines. Registration suggested, there is a limit of 60 hikers. The group will meet at Hilltop Orchards, 508 Canaan Road, Route 295.

YOUNG CHILDREN’S STORY TIME Great Barrington, 10:15 - 11 a.m.Children and their caregiver s are invited to join us to enjoy stories. We often also have songs, games

and crafts. No sign-up is neces-sary. Mason Library, 231 Main St.

MUSIC AFTER HOURSLenox, 5 – 8 p.m.The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home, 2 Plunkett St. Join us on Friday and Saturday evenings starting July 6 for a blend of tra-ditional and modern music with influences from the Americas and beyond, performed by the re-gion’s musicians. Relax on the terrace with a glass of wine and light fare.

SATURDAY,SEPTEMBER 1

FAMILY SHOWLee, 11 a.m.The Spectrum Family First Series featuring Terry A La Berry, Tick-ets are free with a suggested dona-tion of $5, Spectrum Playhouse, 20 Franklin St, Lee, 413-394-5023

TREES, FORESTS AND THE MAKING OF A NATIONMonterey, 10 a.m.Bidwell Museum History Talk: Trees, Forests and the Making of a Nation. Author Eric Rutkow tells the story of the role that New England trees played in bringing about American independence, based on his new book American Canopy (Scribner, 2012). $15/$10 for members. At the Bidwell House Museum, 100 Art School Road, Monterey.

TONE PROGRAM AT BERKSHIRE SOUTH REGIONAL COMMUNI-TY CENTERGreat BarringtonOur Teen Outreach Nutrition Exercise (TONE) program is a comprehensive program designed to improve the health and well being of teens aged 13 to 18. Teens that successfully complete the 3-month program are reward-ed with a free 6-month member-ship at the Center. Each teen will receive a body assessment and a one-hour personal training ap-pointment. During this appoint-ment each teen will receive a per-sonalized program. Enrollment is on a rolling basis.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

BLANDFORD FAIRNorth Street, Blandford. Adults $7; Sr’s (60+) $4; under 12 free. 413-848-2888, For more info, see the website: www.thebland-fordfair.com

FAMORO DIOUBATE HOSTS BALAFON WORKSHOPAdams, 12:30 - 2:30 p.m.Balafon workshop with Famoro Dioubate at the Bascom Lodge, located at the summit of Mount Greylock. For adults and mature teens, all levels welcome! $20 per person in advance, $25 day-of. Limited number of balafon rent-als available for $10 with advance registration only. Some will be available for sale.

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

Rae M. EastmanBeacon Staff Writer

This is a very important and frightening book about the dan-gers of the “cyber war” by an ex-pert who was advisor (assistant vice president and other titles) to three presidents and now teaches at the Kennedy School of Gov-ernment at Harvard.

Basically, though our cyber ca-pability is very high, our defense against attacks in cyber space is virtually non-existent. An attack at this point would bring all ac-tivities in the country to a halt – so dependent is the industrial world on their power grids.

We have evidence, Clarke says, that there have been “trial runs at cyber war.” The U.S., China, Russia and others are investing heavily in cyber war units. The U.S., however, places higher em-phasis on our ability to attack, rather than on defending our-selves – and he sees this as a con-siderable problem.

The complications and impli-cations of major countries pre-paring for cyber war are mind-boggling. The 5,000-6,000 workers in the U.S. government have to be constantly on the alert.

The author says he personally distributed the White House website onto 20,000 servers in 2001 – averting a shutdown after a code red worm infected 300,000 computers, turning them into zombies programmed to launch a “Distributed Denial of Service.” This is a technique that floods a site with more requests for data than the site can respond to or process, bringing cyber service to a halt.

In the days after 9/11, another more serious worm, NIMDA (ADMIN spelled backward), in-fected bank and Wall Street firms.

We haven’t had one yet, but Clarke gives us a vivid picture of a few of the outcomes of such an all-out attack.

So dependent on cyber works is every industrial, government, trade and banking system that the devastation of an attack – which happens in minutes – is incalcu-lable: a nation in blackout, planes falling from the sky, subways crashing, gas lines exploding, fi-nancial systems frozen, commu-nication satellites spinning out of orbit, people trying to report to the government unable to get

through, train system failures so that people can’t get food, power will not come back up because nuclear plants have gone into se-cure lock-down – and so on.

Unable to get cash from banks or ATMs, looting begins. The au-thor writes, “A sophisticated cy-ber attack by one of the several nation-states could do that and more in 15 minutes.”

There is an urgent need for broad public dialogue about cy-ber effects, says Clarke, acknowl-edging that one reason for the lack of such dialogue is the secre-cy of these affairs. A suggestion was made by Senator Bob Ben-nett that there be one committee authorized to examine cyber se-curity. As of 2010, there were 28.

The internet is now 40. When it was designed, no thought was given to security. And, Clarke tells us, redesigning software with a view to security is urgent.

Due to the many errors that now exist, hackers can get in, of-ten without leaving a trace. And there is no end to the damage currently possible.

There is a system, however – a new military protocol now being worked on that has the capability of dealing with cyber crime, espi-onage and cyber war. Although there is no timetable, nor a meth-od of applying it to the general internet, it has the capability of making the internet secure some day.

At the end of the book he imag-ines a speech by Barack Obama in which the president would tell the world that we would treat a cyber attack as we would treat a kinetic attack – impose on other nations the obligation to assist in investigating and stopping cyber wars.

Clarke writes in the simplest, most direct – often wry – lan-guage and even with dry wit.

His thoughts are developed logically; he mobilizes those thoughts and the amazing amount of information he has by introducing his subjects, explain-ing his terms and giving examples.

Cyber War: The Next Threat to Security and What to Do

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Cyber War looks at possible cyber attacks


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Catherine M. Krummey Beacon Staff Writer

SHEFFIELD – The Southern Berkshire Regional School Dis-trict is continuing to move for-ward with its search for a new superintendent.

“We’re really eager to do it right,” said SBRSD School Com-mittee Member Vito Valentini.

At the Aug. 23 meeting of the school committee, Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Field Director Patricia Correira gave a presentation of a timeline for the search.

The school committee approved the timeline, which has the vote to hire the new superintendent from a pool of three to five finalists scheduled for Feb. 14, 2013. Cur-rent Superintendent Michael J. Singleton retires on Aug. 31, 2013.

From Sept. 13-25, the MASC will conduct focus groups to de-termine what candidates the stake-holders (students, teachers, par-ents, community members, etc.) would like to see in a new superin-tendent. A survey will also be posted online for anyone who’s in-terested to fill out.

Basic job description approvedThe school committee also ap-

proved a list of basic requirements for the superintendent candidates. They include a “minimum of 10 years in education, including three years of central office and/or ad-ministrative experience and five years teaching experience.”

The new superintendent must also have a master’s degree (ad-vanced degree preferred) and be li-censed or eligible for licensure as a superintendent of schools in Massachusetts.

The proposed salary will be dis-cussed at the committee’s Sept. 20 meeting.

Heated discussionDuring a discussion about the

bus routes for the new school year and the SBRSD website with Su-perintendent Singleton toward the beginning of the meeting, things got heated.

It was brought to the group’s at-tention the website only had a bus schedule from 2009 posted on it, not a more recent one. School Committee Member Charles B. Flynn called Dr. Singleton out for not paying more attention to the website.

“You’re the man responsible or

looking at that webpage,” Mr. Fly-nn said. “I went through it two nights ago and it’s out-of-date.”

Dr. Singleton then got very de-fensive, calling for Mr. Flynn to be censured.

“I think you do not represent this school district in a very posi-tive light,” Dr. Singleton said.

Mr. Flynn fired back, accusing Dr. Singleton of insubordination.

“Your statement is totally out-of-order,” Mr. Flynn said.

The rest of the school commit-tee then intervened and diffused the situation by moving on to an-other topic.

Other businessThe committee voted to ap-

prove the student and staff hand-books for the 2012-2013 school year, with Mr. Flynn and Carl Stewart opposed.

Some debate was raised on the legality of certain items in the handbooks, but the committee members pushed them through due to the impending start date of the school year.

“Why are we just getting this a week before school?” School Com-mittee H. Dennis Sears questioned.

SBRSD keeps searching

catherine M. kruMMey / BerkShire Beacon

The SBRSD School Committee discusses moving forward with the superintendent search at a recent meeting.

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Girl-2-GirlBeneath the Tide

Janel HarrisonBeacon Staff Writer

When you’re 19 years old, the world is at your fingertips, and a vacation to the beach with friends can be the time of your life!

I can just picture the road trip…windows down, wind in your hair, tunes blasting, yelling over each other in excitement, lots of laughing.

The sea awaits you with all its elements of fun and opportunity, colorful surf-boards, co-ed volley-ball games, breathtaking sunsets, beach fires and building of sandcastles.

No one usually thinks…you just don’t think … but the sea is indeed a vast and powerful entity that in one second – in one turn of the head, in one tragic dive – can take us down beneath the tu-multuous tide and leave us hor-rifically changed.

Being moms, we always do ev-erything we can to protect our babies, but as they grow older to times of independence our stronghold on them diminishes, and we have to begin let go and allow our children to grow on their own.

My heart goes out to my friend, my once wonderful neighbors who have met with such a tragedy and loss.

It happened to them. Their son, John (Johnny), in July while vacationing with friends at Misquamicut Beach, R.I., dove under a wave too shallow and hit his head on the ocean floor frac-turing the C5 and C6 vertebrae in his neck.

I shudder to think of the in-tense fear in his eyes when one second he dives and the next he’s unable to move a muscle in his body. I’ve seen that fear before and it’s gut-wrenching.

He was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence for imme-diate treatment and evaluation. In the first couple of days he had no feeling in his arms and legs and wore Halo traction.

Within days a beam of hope came when I received the message from my neighbors that he began to have feeling in his toes and

fingertips.Today John can move his arms

but has no dexterity in his hands and is still paralyzed below his waist. He has been transferred to the no. 5-ranked (in the 2012 U.S. News and World Report) Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospi-tal in Boston where remarkable recoveries happen every day and I wish him peace and light and to be well.

When you look into his eyes you find a quiet sincerity, kind-ness and a giving, fun-loving nature.

Why do these things happen to such good people? Such people of faith? I wish I could answer that question. I remember a friend of my mom’s who lost her son to a devastating motorcycle accident said, “God can’t always say yes; sometimes he has to say no.”

For her it was her answer to why she lost her son. Perhaps we can find answers to the questions if we look. We can find ways to cope if we believe or have a sense of faith or spirituality, and some-times the answers never come un-til the day we arrive in the clouds.

John is a good young man with lots of people who love him and want to see him just come home. I have faith, but I know he has an indefinite journey ahead of him to endure.

The costs of medical care can’t all be covered by insurance today, and his family’s need to be with him in the expensive city of Bos-ton will quickly drain their pockets.

So please, if you can, give, keep your faith, send out your positive thoughts and pray. After all the power of prayer can bring heal-ing, and shouldn’t we all receive that gift?

If you wish to learn more and help to support John Serridge and his family, please go online to the Medical Fundraiser for John Serridge and Family at youcaring.com.

-God Bless and Ciao Bella


Just in time for the political conventions, Vermont-based craft beer brewer Magic Hat Brewing Company is set to re-lease its quadrennial, democrati-cally-inspired variety of libations, the Participation Variety Pak.

The Vermont brewer has again teamed up with voter registration organization HeadCount in a yearlong and energizing effort to encourage the message, get out and vote.

To prime the voting palates of the public, Magic Hat began 2012 by asking registered craft beer lovers to vote their favorite Magic Hat beer of yesteryear into the Participation Variety Pak.

And vote they did. Beloved brew Hocus Pocus beat out seven other beers to win a seat in this fall’s variety.

The nation’s next stop is the presidential election, and the Par-ticipation Variety is just the con-versation starter America needs as they discuss their political views this fall.

Of course, every election of such significance needs a big shindig, and that’s why the 2012 political year will culminate with an epic bash – the Participation Party – in New York City on Nov. 5.

The Participation Party fea-tures a ballot full of heady bands and heady jams and will leave reveling voters with no doubt in their minds that their participa-tion in the event was the right choice.

A diverse lineup to please all palates

Participation offers the voting and drinking public four finely-fermented beers. Be you of the Wheat Party, the Hop Party or the Not Quite Pale Party, the Par-ticipation Pak has your craft beer interests represented according the the brewer.

#9® seeks to lead the nation into a Not Quite Pale period of flavor enlightenment.

Hocus Pocus, elected into Par-ticipation by the people, brings the will to chill to a thirsty nation in the form of a refreshing wheat beer.

hI.P.A. is the fall performer of the I.P.A. On Tour series and an ideal candidate to embitter your

palate with hops, hops and more hops.

Hex® Ourtoberfest® is the fall seasonal that casts not a ballot, but a delicious spell, with five dif-ferent malts, magnificent tones of toffee and a slightly smoky finish.

So when the talk of politics gets you down this fall, and for us the primaries are next week, sit back and have a good beer to relax.

The Participation Variety Pak will be in office from Aug. 1 until Oct. 15, just in time to quench thirsts brought on by intense po-litical debate.

The gift of beer I have said before that if you

have a beer fan in your life getting them a membership to a monthly beer club is a great gift.

Well one of the biggest compa-nies offering those packages, The Original Craft Beer Club, just added two new beers from the northeast to their rotation.

Once you signed up you get a fresh shipment of new beers to try every month. With each ship-ment comes 12 beers: three beers

x four styles. The two new northeastern

beers are both from Saranac.Saranac White IPA

Saranac White IPA is a tasty in-novative twist on a traditional IPA.

They’ve taken a delicious American IPA bursting with Ci-tra hops and given it a whole new direction by adding the refresh-ing fruitiness of orange peel and coriander and the softening char-acters of wheat malt and oats.

You’ll notice the complex hop flavor you’ve come to expect in an IPA, balanced with the extraordi-nary bright flavor of a wheat beer. Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale

Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale is a traditional blonde ale with a kick of juicy blueberry. You’ll no-tice a light golden haze from wheat malt and oats and a low-hop bitterness, which really shows off the fruit.

“With a medium-light body and fresh blueberry flavor, we’re sure we’ve captured refreshment in a bottle,” according to Saranac reps.

Get political, even with your beer this fall


Magic Hat Brewery has released a special set of beers for the election called the Participation Variety Pak.



BERNARDSTON – These days, with the economy less than ideal, a lot of people are opting to spend vacation days close to home instead of traveling for weeks at a time.

One day trip that is sure to have something for everyone in the family is a visit to Kringle Candle Company in Bernardston, near the Vermont border.

It’s a quick hour and a half or so drive from the Pittsfield area. Visi-tors can take Route 91 or go the back way on Route 9. The latter is more picturesque and has plenty of unique stops along the way.

For instance, there are numer-ous hand-grown vegetable stands where one can stock up on fresh tomatoes or corn.

There are signs for all kinds of plants and herbs and even piglets! For these reasons, as well as for the stunning, natural vistas along green forests and a trickling brook, Route 9 is much more in-teresting than the turnpike.

Owner’s dad started Yankee Candle Company

Kringle Candle Company’s owner, Mick Kittredge III, is the son of Mike Kittredge II, the original owner of the well-known Yankee Candle Company. He sold it due to health reasons in 1998.

In a brochure for Kringle Can-dle Company, the owner notes he was just eight years old when his father sold Yankee Candle Com-pany but running a candle busi-ness was in his blood all along.

The entire operation of Kringle Candle Company is just two years old and everything is state-of-the-art.

There’s a 10,000-square foot showroom that’s a feast for the eyes as well as the nose.

Visitors will find only all-white candles with more than 100 fragrances.

How about trying a lemon rind-scented candle or pumpkin latte? There are so many appeal-ing scents that it’s enough to make one’s head spin.

Green companyIt’s a green company, too. Some

of the buildings are geothermally heated and cooled with renewable energy produced by a series of

deep underground wells, accord-ing to the company’s brochure.

There’s an on-site laundry, too, which eliminates deliveries from other facilities. Disposable uten-sils used are fully compostable.

It is noted that all Kringle buildings use “highly efficient systems to reduce energy consumption.”

All the candles are dye-free and have pure fragrance oils. The company prides itself on offering candles that yield “the most lumi-nous white light.” There’s even lettering above the showroom door that reads “See the Light.”

Candles just for menAnyone who was under the im-

pression candle shopping is for women, only, will be interested to know that Kringle Candle Com-pany has a new men’s line of can-dles. It’s referred to as KCM (Kringle Candle Men’s line).

There are 13 fragrances made completely with men in mind such as one with a mystical East-ern scent, united sandalwood and patchouli.

Then there’s the candle that is “romantically smoky with rare Oriental woods and tobacco leaf” as well as one that smells like leather, citrus and amber!

The company has offerings for

the public on two sides of the road. In addition to the candle showroom, there is a huge build-ing housing the Kringle Christ-mas Barn with all things holiday, Kringle Chocolate Cottage (which is enter at your own risk for dieters) and The Farm Table Café, which opened just two weeks ago.

The grounds of Kringle Candle Company include white fencing, attractive brick walkways, a foun-tain and eye-popping flowers and plants, many in bright red containers.

Just taking a walk around the impeccably-maintained grounds is worth the trip to Bernardston.

Tables sport bright red umbrel-las. One can grab a sandwich from the new café and dine al fresco during the warmer months.

Kids will love toy shoppeKringle Candle Company is a

great place to take kids, too. They will love seeing the toy shoppe in the Christmas Barn.

If discovering new places is something your family loves to do, Bernardston’s Kringle Candle Company is the perfect destination.

It’s open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. For more detailed information, check out their web-site at kringlecandle.com.

An easy getaway with lots to do, see and taste GREAT BARRINGTON –

Monument Valley Regional Mid-dle School has announced its honor roll for the fourth marking period of the 2011-2012 school year. A total of 125 students at-tained the rank of either high honors or honors.

In order to achieve the rank of high honors, a student must have an average of 90 in his/her sub-jects with no mark below 85. In order to achieve honors, a student must have an average of 85 in his/her subjects with no mark below 80.

Students must pass all subjects including music and physical ed-ucation to make the honor roll. Exploratory arts marks count to-wards the honor roll as well.

High honorsGrade 8: Emma Adler, Emma

Ambler, Brianna Davis, Kayla Dillon, Mercedes Girona, Isaac Graves, Madilyn Heller, Sophia Horan, Kaye Kelly, Julia Miner, Samantha Mitchell, Amanda Morse, Ivey Mueller, Jacob Rob-bins, Victoria Ryan, Margaret Schmitz, Ann Snyder, Caroline Sprague, Faolan Sugarman-lash, Maia Vlcek.

Grade 7: Camille Beckwith, Tyler Briggs, Isabel Bronson, Julia Bronson, Megan Cabaniol, Ma-rio Castro Jr., Sophia Cohen, Kevin Costello, Henry Flynn, Elias Garivaltis, Nicholas Gray, Halle Hassett, Isabelle Morley, Kelsey Netzer, Daniel Newey, Kira Payer, Morgane Pichard, Lyssa Richard, Delanie Rybacki, Sean Schaeffer, Katherine Smith, Maria Tucker, Lydia Vreeland,

Matthew Walsh, Matthew Weston, Adam Whalen, Emma Wilber, Mitchell Zimmer.

Grade 6: Tristan Alston, Robert Baldwin, Zufan Bazzano, Benja-min Bergman, Rachel Bozza, Jackson Brex, Lillian Climo, Marshall Crescentini, Lucina Doren, Bram Fisher, Hannah Flynn, Michael Goretti, Hunter Hassett, Emma Houston, Emily Hunter, Olivia Jaffe, Jasmin Jo-hannsdottir, Silas Lane, Scott La-rochelle, Paolo Lichtenthal, Neel Mahida, Quinten McElhiney, Cynthia Mead, Hadley Mielke, Theresa Russell, Jake Ryel, Ariana Saporito, Katherine Sheridan, Sophie Shron, Richard Stanmey-er, Danielle Sweet, Alexa Troiano, Kevin Troiano, Jennyfer Vallejo, Isabelle Whalen, Nicholas Wohl.

HonorsGrade 8: Brittany Farina, Ryan

Higgins, Becca Houle, William Robbins, Carly Shafiroff, Emma Skakel, Sydnie Strawn, Shane Van Tassel, Nancy Vo.

Grade 7: Haley Barrett, Janey Beardsley, Nathaniel Cormier, Leigh Duffin, Zachary Garrison, Eric Hernandez, Hailey Higgins, Emily Rada, Alexis Shumsky, Molly Stark, Kayne Wellauer, Meadow Wicke, Steven Wool.

Grade 6: Mary Alpert, Celia Armstrong, Connor Brownson, Kostandinos Cami, Hannah Clapp, Jacob Cum, Sheila Fran-cisco, Kyle Germain, Lily Hughes, Isabella Masiero, Ethan Mazursky, Leah Moran, Anna Grace Nimmo, Matthew Parkes, Conor Prince, Daniel Santos, Sarah Sullivan.

Honor Roll students announced for Monument

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Philip S. KampeBeacon Staff Writer

For the past several weeks I have been passing out brochures about the Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival to all of my Berkshire friends, as well as displaying them at various wine shops and restaurants throughout Berkshire County.

I am somewhat lost with the absence of the Tanglewood Wine and Food Classic, which I was part of, thanks to founders Denis and Susan Toner.

I am replacing the thought of the Tanglewood Festival with that of the Newport Mansions event, which takes place Sept. 21-23. I mentioned to my friends, “Why not spend the weekend in New-

port, one of America’s most charming cities? We can all at-tend the Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival.”

It looks like a lot of fun and an escape from reality before the winter sets in.

“Why not go to Newport for the festival?” has been my mantra for the past several weeks. The festival is for a good cause and benefits the non-profit organiza-tion, The Preservation Society of Newport County.

In addition to the Nantucket Festival in May, the Newport Fes-tival is the most sophisticated wine and food festival that takes place on the east coast. Rosecliff, The Elms and Marble House host the festival where more than 100 of the world’s finest vintners and more than two dozen of New England’s finest chefs prepare their signature dishes for the festi-val attendees.

Wine seminars start on Friday, Sept. 21 at 12:30 p.m. Led by Je-rome Hasenpflug, the “ABCs of Burgundy,” looks like an interest-ing seminar with Jerome’s unique approach to the history, anthro-

pology and terroir of the Burgun-dy region.

A tasting of reds and whites will help create a better understand-ing of the appellation of Burgundy.

At 2:30 p.m., Stewart and Su-zanne Bryan, the owners of Pride Mountain Wines, will lead you through a horizontal tasting of their wines that come from the Napa/Sonoma divide.

At 4:30 p.m., legendary televi-sion hostess Leslie Sbrocco, founder of Thirsty Girls Wine 101, will lead us through a trip around the world with wines from New Zealand to Australia and California to Washington state.

Saturday’s seminars begin at 10 a.m. with “The Adventures of Italian Wine Grapes: From Spar-kling to VeniceSpriz.” The semi-nar is led by Leslie Sbrocco and Sam Ramic, of International Wine Masters, Casa Comoer and the Italian Trade Commission.

Sandy Block will lead the noon seminar that will focus on “Vinho Verde: Portugal’s Rising Star White Wine.” Sandy is a Master

of Wine and works for Legal Seafoods.

Sunday begins at 10 a.m. with “Bubbles for Breakfast,” led by Master Sommelier and co-found-er of Corkbuzz Studio, Laura Maniec.

Guests will be walked through the villages of Champagne as Laura explains the region and of-fers samplings of her personal favorites.

The weekend of seminars con-cludes at noon with James Beard Award-winning writer Jordan MacKay discussing unique and emerging wines of the North-west. Jordan will lead wine lovers through the wines of the region and will discuss his favorites while we sip some examples.

In addition to the seminars, the weekend kicks off on Friday with a 7 p.m. Wine Gala at Rosecliff. Music, food and rare wines that retail for $65 and above will be served at the historic Rosecliff Mansion, home of many movies including The Great Gatsby.

Experience an evening of high-style paired with fine wines amidst seaside Gilded Age

splendor.The weekend continues with

the appearance of world-re-nowned celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse and Jacques and daughter Claudine Pepin.

Attend the Saturday brunch where the Pepins will cook and discuss recipes from their book, Essential Pepin.

On Saturday evening, Michael Greenlee will lead a Collectable Wine Dinner at the Elms.

From 12-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the Grand Tasting will take place. Celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse and Jacques and Claudine Pepin will be featured on the grounds of the Marble House.

This event gives everyone the opportunity to attend a first-class wine and food festival on the grounds of Newport’s historic mansions.

Spend the weekend in Newport and support the Preservation So-ciety of Newport County.

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August, 30 2012

SportsThe Berkshire Beacon

Dick SyriacBeacon Staff Writer

Saratoga Race Course has been described as “The Summer Place to Be.” After some major upsets took place in the past, it was referred to as “The Graveyard of Champions.” Announcer Tom Durkin likes to welcome the daily patrons to the “Spaaaaaaaa.”

Call it anything you want, but if you attend the races you cannot help but notice that there are a lot of people that could be considered wealthy in attendance. These folks are given first-class treatment for

Parking and clubhouse or private boxes for one reason: they are paying for it, and, they can afford it.

Over the years Saratoga has kept its traditions while also making major upgrades to accommodate the people who enjoy being accommodated.

I guess the press does not fall into that category.

I would guess the only modifications made to the rooftop press box over the last 50 years would be the addition of electrical outlets to benefit the laptop media and putting up a few “No Smoking” signs.

After taking the clubhouse elevator to the top floor and having the operator say “he was having an up and down day,” I did not know what to expect as I was granted access to the rooftop catwalk by a security guard.

At the end of the catwalk, I found an ashtray that must only get emptied when the wind blows and a sign on the door that read “No Shorts Allowed in Press Box.” I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but short has never been one of them, so me and my naked knees entered.

I could not help but notice the worn and plain carpeting. It reminded me of the flooring of many construction trailers that I have been in over the years that we had to bring back to life before we took them off rental.

Glancing around the room I spotted many upholstered folding chairs (the kind with the upholstered area being the size of a baseball card), formica-top counters which serve as work stations, a few wastebaskets, a

two-slice toaster and an electric toaster oven. I got the impression the reporters that brought those items to the press box haven’t been back for a while and probably have their names on granite slabs with numbers below them.

Your humble Beacon scribe surely wouldn’t rate a prime space in the box filled with Daily Racing Form veterans and national beat writers, so I tried to be inconspicuous.

After not finding Mike Welsch of the DRF, whom I’ve known since our Green Mountain days, I decided to interview Pedro of Center Plate Food Services. Pedro provides the refreshments for the media and has done a great job at Saratoga for more than seven years.

There were beverages and snacks and it appeared that on Friday, Pedro was featuring beans and franks as his catch of the day. Nobody was complaining, because it beat option two, which was either going downstairs and paying for lunch or trying your luck with the toaster oven.

The fact that Saratoga doesn’t feature an ultra-modern press facility is not an issue at all with the many writers that will call it home for 40 days this summer.

When they glance out those windows over the magnificent view of the race course and infield, nothing else matters; they are in heaven. If you don’t believe me, try taking one of their seats.

The tolerance of the press was certainly rewarded on Friday evening when NYRA put on a first-class “Press Party” at the Fasig-Tipton facility across the street.Attention county senior golfers

The 10th annual Berkshire County Senior Golf Series commences on Sept. 5 at Worthington Golf Club.

There will be seven weekly events in all and six of them will take place on Wednesdays. The Sept. 25 event at Skyline will fall on Tuesday.

Series guru Dick Rivers runs the events and does a great job. Entry fee is $40; you must be 50 years old to be eligible with a valid handicap card.

If you need more information you may call Mr. Rivers at (413) 441-7985.

Tim DavisBeacon Staff Writer

LEE - With the ‘Cats coming off a heart-breaking loss to Smith Academy in the western mass. quarterfinals last season, head coach Matt Kollmer’s squad expects to improve on last year’s (9-7-2) record.

With that he thinks they will be kicking around at the top of the league standings with nine returning starters including all-star goalie Heamon Williams.

“One of the best keepers in the county,” said second-year coach Kollmer of Williams. “Heamon is a big strong force and very vocal at leading our de-fense. He’s a big part of the suc-cess we had last year.”

Last year’s success earned the Wildcats a nine seed in the Western Mass. Division 3 tour-nament, and a trip to the quar-ters where the two seed Smith Academy (Northampton) capi-talized on a fortuitous goal to advance, 1-0.

Defensive experienceThis year Kollmer will rely on

an experienced backline, which is anchored by a pair of big and physical seniors, Will Carroll and Jake Leprovist.

“They are our corner pieces on defense,” Kollmer said.

On the outside on defense will be Jake Simon and Ryan Kollen-berger, both will be expected to help Williams keep out attackers who pack the box.

Another asset for the Wildcats is the entire midfield returns, and their experience will be im-perative for Lee in order to con-trol the midfield against talented offensive teams such as Lenox, Mt. Greylock, and Monument Mountain.

Sophomore Nick Pow expects to play a key role in the midfield alongside senior Joe Winston, Jack Harding and Salvadorian freshman, Jose Mejia.

“I have strong subs who can come in and play in the mid-field,.” Kollmer said.

Kollmer prefers to play a tra-ditional 4-4-2, with the two at-

tackers up front being juniors Gabriel Nogueira and John Graziano.

Graziano led the team with nine goals last year, and is expect-ed to add to his goal tally again this year.

“I think we are better than last year,” Kollmer said.

Williams is keyHowever, the difference maker

again will be Williams in net, whose leadership skills and focus has him poised to make the All-Berkshire team.

“I don’t think he was as focus as he could have been [last year],” said Kollmer of Williams. “I think he will be even better this year.”

If the Wildcats can score enough goals they have a chance to be at the top of the south county standings.

While Lenox tries to regroup after losing 15 seniors, the Wild-cats may close the historically large gap between the two schools and surprise a lot of people in the area.

Berkshire Sports Guy:

Wrapping up The SpaStar goalkeeper looks to lead Lee to the top

tiM daviS / BerkShire Beacon

Senior Joe Winston makes a play on the ball in practice. The Wildcats are looking for another strong season.



LEE - With nine seniors on this year’s Lady Wildcats soccer team, head coach Lauren Finnegan has set a goal for her team to not only play together on both ends of the field but to be able to play into November with a Division 3 tournament berth.

“I have enough seniors among the forwards, mid-fielders, and defenders to be leaders in all three areas of the field,” said the sec-ond-year coach. “They have set some goals this year both offen-sively and defensively with our ultimate goal being that we want to be playing in November.”

Like the boys, the Lady Wild-cats will have experience in the middle of that back line in Had-ley Cook as well as senior goalie Sara Middleton who will become the full-time keeper as she replac-es Cameryn Biasin, who trans-ferred to the Berkshire School.

“[Cook’s] experience and her leadership is going to play a key role in our defense, because I will be playing both freshmen and sophomores back there with her,” Finnegan said.

Senior co-captains Moriah McKenna and Sammy Brown

will anchor the mid-field, and had some success last year work-ing together, while fellow co-cap-tain Victoria Murphy will be asked to burden the scoring load as the team’s leading attacker.

On the wings, Finnegan will be utilizing some size and plans to stack the box in order to create scoring opportunities.

“We have some taller forwards in the box this year,” Finnegan said. “When we are at the end of the game and we need a goal, we will try to send the ball in and see if we can get a head on it.”

Offensively, Finnegan plans to use multiple sets, either a 4-5-1, 4-4-2, or 4-3-3, depending on the level of opponent.

“I have been working with dif-ferent formations with them if we play against a [Division 1] school, we might play in a different for-mation with five in the middle,” Finnegan said.

As a Division 3 school in Berk-shire County, Finnegan struggled to stay above .500 in her first year, after several years coaching the JV team.

“It was a whole different world [than the JV team],” Finnegan said.

This year appears to be differ-ent for the Lady Wildcats, as the

team beat Mohawk in the pre-season 3-0, and tied a very good Smith Academy, 2-2.

“The girls are taking the ball and running with it – excuse the pun,” Finnegan said. “They are motivated, they are excited and because I have so many seniors they are a positive welcoming group of older girls, [to the younger players].”

Finnegan had a healthy 38 girls tryout for this year’s high school teams, and has witnessed the up-per class mentor and embrace the newly arrived 7th-grade girls to the soccer program.

A certain step in the right di-rection for Finnegan’s program in the coming years.

“The 7th-grade girls have really felt at home and it’s huge,” Finnegan said. “When you have 18-year-olds and 12-year-olds to-gether, it can be tough but the older girls are being great role models.”

The goal however, is to play competitive soccer with the rest of the county and earn a tourna-ment berth in November.

“That is our big mission for the year,” Finnegan said.

Lady Wildcats hope to play well into November


LENOX - After losing nine se-niors, and eight starters, head coach Matt Cote is keeping his lips sealed on his team’s expecta-tions after winning western mass. last year and finishing the league with a (13-0-3) record.

“I expect to have a slow start, but I am going to keep my goals under my hat,” Cote said.

Cote does return four of his core starters in the middle of the field, from the goalie position with senior captain and four-year starter Kathy Prescott a possible All-County goalie for Lenox this year.

On the defensive line Hayden Zinchuk, a fellow senior captain, who is a “superstar” according to Cote.

On the front line, senior cap-tain Jen Delasco will be expected to follow up last year’s goal pro-duction (15 goals) with another strong year tallying points.

“She is going to get a lot of at-tention this year,” Cote said of Delasco. “It won’t surprise me if one of them [senior captains] is All-Berkshire County MVP.”

Playing alongside Zinchuk on the backline will be former at-tacker Jane Fitzgerald to solidify the line in front of Prescott, who according to her coach is a “game –saver.”

In the middle of the field, and controlling it, will be junior Josie Marshall and an exciting fresh-man, Alessandro Arace, who could have the biggest impact on the team and possibly move the Millionaires back into western mass contention.

“[Arace’s] reputation was that she is a skilled player, and sure enough she is not only one of the most skillful players on the team but she is also one of the fastest,” Cote said of his freshman.

Another surprise for this year’s team is sophomore Allie Connoll, who earned a starting spot on the defensive line alongside Fitzger-ald and Zinchuk.

“[Connoll] worked tremen-dous hard in the last year to put herself in a starting role,” Cote said. “I have three really strong defenders, I just need to figure out my fourth defender, my out-side mid-fielders and who I am

going to put up with [Delasco].”One possibility is junior Lydia

Graham, who is not blessed with size but she certainly makes up for it with exceptional athletic ability.

“We will work the ball slowly, we are not going to be able to play kick and run,” said Cote. “We are not going to be the team with all the speed that is going to blow by you, we are going to have to get numbers in the box – we are more of a blue collar team.”

Last year’s team had signature wins over Pittsfield High and Wahconah, bigger Division 1 schools that helped pave the way for the Division 3 Millionaires to cruise through the western mass. tournament.

"We beat Wahconah for the first time anyone can remember; that win with a win over Pitts-field, was huge for us,” Cote said.

During the pre-season this year, Lenox was able to go up against Division 1 and Boston City school, Somerville, at a camp in Otis last Sunday.

Lenox lost 3-0 in the friendly but plan to gear up for another pre-season jamboree in Pittsfield against both Pittsfield High and St. Joe, to determine what exactly Lenox needs to work on heading into their opener versus Division 3 Hampden County School (Chicopee).

“We may struggle with the D1 and D2 schools and in the north, “ said a coy Cote.

Expect Lenox to have a formi-dable defense and rack up wins in a lot of low-scoring games but still be at the top of the county division come November.

“I have three really strong de-

fenders, I just need to figure out my fourth defend-

er, my outside mid-fielders and

who I am going to put up with [Delasco].”

- Coach Matt Cote on the teams outlook

Millionaires look to come on strong

tiM daviS / BerkShire Beacon

Lee girls soccer senior captains Sammy Brown, Moriah McKenna,Victoria Murphy will try and lead the team to another tournament berth.



NORTH ADAMS - The MCLA men's soccer will kick off the 2012 season this Friday eve-ning when they travel to Nor-wich for the Cadet Invitational Soccer Tournament.

The Trailblazers open play this Friday as they play Newbury in the aforementioned Cadet Classic.

MCLA will also host the annu-al CIAO classic on Sept. 8 and.

The tournament will feature Union (NY), Salve Regina, and SUNY-IT. MASCAC play will open on Sept. 15 when MCLA travels to Salem State.

The Trailblazers are eager to be-gin the season as they look to im-prove upon last season's 5-10-1 mark.

Led by head coach Adam Hil-dabrand, MCLA is an experience laden bunch, as many veterans re-turn. MCLA returns 19 letter winners while adding six newcomers.

Hildabrand is excited to see the development of his troops begin-ning this weekend and is pleased with preseason practices so far.

"We are in need of players to step up and play a more active role from a year ago. We are a relatively young team with a lot of playing experience, we just need to mature as a unit," said

Hildabrand.MCLA does return their top

two scorers from a year ago in Jake McCall and Joseph Mecca, however only four other players recorded a point last season.

Both the front running McCall and Mecca will be tough up front.

They each possess good ball skills and are quick with the ball.

McCall was named a co-cap-tain in 2012. MCLA tallied only 13 goals in 2011 while allowing 22.

The Trailblazer offense will need to improve if they want to make the jump up in the confer-ence standings.

Another captain, senior Ryan Shewchuk, will be asked to con-trol the middle of the field.

Defensively, the Trailblazers re-turn both keepers in Dillon Wa-ger and Shawn Willis. The duo started all 17 games with Wager earning 11 starts.

The backline is also experi-enced with veterans Scott Win-slow and James Brown returning.

The MASCAC race should be exciting as well.

New in 2012 is a six team play-off format (formally four teams qualified) with the top two teams earning a bye into the semifinals.

MCLA was on the outside looking in a year ago as they fin-ished with a 1-5-1 mark in con-ference play.

MCLA captains Tyler Vona and Jake McCall.

MCLA ready to begin season

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WILLIAMSTOWN - Bob Bavier a 1940 graduate of Wil-liams College, has been named as one of the nine sailors who are members of the 2012 class of in-ductees into the National Sailing Hall of Fame.

Sailing out of Larchmont [NY] Yacht Club, Bavier led his Wil-liams College Sailing Team to In-tercollegiate titles in 1939 and 1940 on his way to becoming one of the top sailors on the East Coast.

At the helm of Constellation, he won the America’s Cup in 1964.

He embraced the sport profes-sionally during a career at Yacht-ing that started with selling ads, then writing, before running the magazine as publisher.

He authored seven books on yacht racing and took leadership roles in the national governing body of the sport as well as the international federation.

Bavier passed in 2010.Following a two-month period

this spring during which sailors from all corners of the country nominated their choice for in-duction, a selection committee – made up of representatives from the national governing body, the sailing media, the sailing indus-try, community sailing, a mari-time museum, NSHOF found-ing yacht clubs and the 2011 class of inductees – reviewed the broad spectrum of nominations.

The other inductees are naviga-tor Stan Honey (Palo Alto, Ca-lif.), winner of the 2006 Volvo Ocean Race as well as the 2010 Trophée Jules Verne for fastest non-stop circumnavigation of the globe; prominent yacht de-signer Bruce Kirby (Rowayton, Conn.); 1988 Soling Olympic silver medalist, winning Volvo Ocean Race skipper and Ameri-ca’s Cup tactician John Kostecki (Reno, Nev.); and three-time Star Olympic medalist and two-time Star World Champion Mark Reynolds (San Diego, Calif.).

Posthumously inducted were Olympic gold and silver medalist Peter Barrett (Madison, Wis.), preeminent rules expert Gregg Bemis (Boston, Mass.); yacht de-signer and Medal of Freedom winner Rod Stephens (New York, N.Y.); and founder and first com-modore of the New York Yacht

Club John Cox Stevens (New York, NY).

The National Sailing Center & Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit educational institution dedicated to: preserving the history of the sport and its impact on American culture; honoring those who have

made outstanding contributions to the sport of sailing; the teach-ing of math, science and Ameri-can history; inspiring and en-couraging sailing development; and providing an international landmark for sailing enthusiasts.

Williams alum named to sailing hall of fame


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August 30th Issue