May 10th Issue

May 10, 2012Volume II, Issue 51

www.berkshirebeacon.comLenox, MA 01240

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1 Local News 8 Editorial8 From the Tower11 Fast Picks12 Calendar14 Fun & Games14 Movies 14 Girl-2-Girl18 College Sports Report

Berkshire Cycling Classic

- Page 16

The Berkshire Beacon

Index

Bera B. DunauBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX – The Lenox Board of Selectmen has two new members.

Recently retired Lenox Postmaster Edward Lane and screenwriter/television pro-ducer Channing Gibson emerged victorious out of a field of five candidates com-peting for two open seats, pre-viously held by retiring Select-women Claudia “Dia” Trancynger and Linda (Pro-copio) Messana.

Mr. Lane received first place with 760 votes, while Mr. Gibson came in second with 562 votes. Former Lenox Po-lice Chief David Berkel came in third with 332 votes, while Attorney Jedd Hall came in fourth with 195 votes and Pittsfield Gazette employee Carolyn Barry came in fifth

with 134 votes.Because of a change to

Lenox’s bylaws approved at Lenox’s May 3 Town Meeting, both Mr. Gibson and Mr. Lane were eligible to be sworn in immediately after the re-sults were certified and began serving their terms at the Lenox Select Board’s May 9 meeting.

Lenox voters could vote for up to two candidates on their ballots, and 1,091 Lenox resi-dents participated in the May 7 election, held from 7 a.m.- 7 p.m. The turnout was less than a third of Lenox’s 3,546 registered voters, but was an increase from last year’s num-bers for town election.

In many ways the two win-ning candidates are a study in contrasts. Mr. Lane grew up

Kameron Z. SpauldingBeacon Staff Writer

GREAT BARRINGTON – Several items that had re-ceived select board support went down in Great Bar-rington at the annual Town Meeting.

The budgets of the town and Berkshire Hills Regional School District passed with only minor debate.

The school budget debate included some discussion over choice and tuition students.

In the end the school bud-get passed 200-120 by secret ballot. The budget must be approved by two of the three towns in the district, which includes Stockbridge and West Stockbridge. At their town meeting on Monday

night, West Stockbridge ap-proved the budget as well making it official.

One of the items to fail was a request to borrow $700,000 for a new fire truck, was roundly defeated by a vote of 88 to 220. The article was very far from passing as it would have required a two-thirds majority vote.

Fire Chief Harry Jennings explained that the current truck he wished to replace is 28 years old and needs $50,000 in repairs.

“You have a dedicated bunch of firemen so please give them the equipment to do the job,” said Chief Jennings.

Several members of the au-dience disagreed that the pur-chase was needed, bringing up the purchase of a new

truck last year and the recent $10 million in station upgrades.

The select board has also spent a lot of time at recent meetings discussing solar en-ergy and whether or not the town should regulate solar panel placement in the town.

Article 31, which the select board unanimously support-ed, would have placed a one-year moratorium on large-scale, more than 250 Kwh, solar projects in the town but failed by a narrow five-vote margin.

One major concern was raised by the town’s lawyer. He claimed that if the article passed it would only be advi-sory, as it would conflict with a state law that prohibits un-

see GB page 2

see LANE page 5

Lane and Gibson win

Solar plan goes downBudgets all approved but other articles fail

All citizen petitions fail at Lenox meeting


LENOX – The annual Town Meeting delivered a vote of confidence for the sta-tus quo, and significant victo-ries for the Lenox establishment.

Held on May 3 in the audi-torium of the Lenox Middle and High School, the meeting went far more swift than many had expected.

Only 400 Lenox residents showed up to participate, only a small fraction of Lenox’s 3,546 registered voters.

Most of the 29 articles on the Town Meeting warrant passed without debate and with no to minimal opposi-

tion, such as a lone vocal nay vote against approving the li-brary’s budget. Six articles, however, generated a signifi-cant amount of discussion and/or debate on town meet-ing floor.

Four of these articles were citizen’s petition articles.

The first petition article dis-cussed, Article 11, was a pro-posal to form a seven-person Charter Review Committee to review Lenox’s special act charter. Such a review would examine how the town’s gov-ernment is run from the top down.

The initial article was suc-cessfully amended by Select-man Ken Fowler, so that three committee members who

were initially supposed to be appointed by Lenox’s three major political parties, instead be appointed by the board of selectmen.

Article 11 was also amend-ed, at the suggestion of Town Manager Gregory Federspiel, to add the phrase, and the town bylaws, as a matter of se-mantics, which caused a bit of confusion.

“The idea behind it is many other towns in the county, in-cluding Lanesboro, Great Bar-rington and, if you saw in the paper last week, Pittsfield, are looking at charter reviews to see how their towns and cities

see LENOX page 3

Photo Credit / Kameron Z. SPaulding

Voters in Lenox headed to the polls to make their choices in the five-way race.

2 The Berkshire Beacon May 10, 2012

reasonable regulation of solar projects and that without the planning board looking at the is-sue first it would be nonbinding.

At the 2011 meeting, a bylaw change that heavily regulated the pawn-broking industry in the

town gained approval. That ap-proval angered some local collec-tors and shop owners and led to a new pawn-broking bylaw being added to this year’s warrant.

The new, much less stringent set of rules had the approval of local shop owners and the police department. The article passed almost unanimously.

In other articles, a bill that would have designated the town as a “Compassionate City” failed.

A bill to allow the Town of Great Barrington to become an aggregator of electrical power that town residents and business owners would then have the op-tion to buy passed with little resistance.

SHEFFIELD – All in agree-ment here seemed to be the mes-sage at the Sheffield Town Meet-ing this week.

All of the 30 articles on the warrant passed by solid margins.

Voters approved $5,888,727 in funding to cover their share of the Southern Berkshire Regional School District operating and transportation budget.

Then the town’s voters also ap-proved $223,632 for the dis-trict’s capital budget for the up-coming year.

The town’s operating budget will see a 1.7 percent increase to $2.7 million.

Town voters also authorized the Sheffield Board of Selectmen

to initiate the process to aggre-gate the electric load of interest-ed electricity consumers within the Town of Sheffield and enter into agreements for services to facilitate the sale and purchase of electric energy.

A similar bill passed in Great Barrington and will allow the town to negotiate with power companies for better rates for residents and businesses in town.

Voters approved $21,700 to replace carpets and a door at the library and $50,000 for town building repairs, improvements and furnishing.

Another item of interest on the Sheffield warrant was article 30.

The article was a political

statement in response to the Su-preme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

The ruling allows corporations to spend money, unlimited, on political campaigns. The ruling also supported the notion that corporations are people.

The article on the Sheffield warrant said the town should “call upon the United States Congress to pass and send to the States for ratification, a Consti-tutional Amendment banning corporations, limited liability corporations and any other cor-porate entities from all and any expenditure of funds for political speech and elections.”

Town Meeting Wrap UpSheffield approves budget and makes statement

WASHINGTON – The annual Town Meeting, originally sched-uled for Saturday, has been re-scheduled for Thursday, May 17.

The rescheduled meeting will

take place at 7 p.m. at Washington Town Hall, 8 Summit Hill Rd.

The meeting has been delayed due to the town not posting the warrant in a timely manner.

The annual town elections will then take place on Saturday, May 19.

WEST STOCKBRIDGE – All 41 articles at this year’s Town Meeting passed on a voice vote.

The town’s proposed $4.6 million spending plan for fiscal 2013 saw very little debate from the more than 90 voters in attendance.

The town also approved their share of the Berkshire Hills Re-gional School District budget. Their approval, along with Great Barrington’s, means the budget is now official.

Unlike Great Barrington, who voted down the same mea-sure, the Town of West Stock-bridge did approve the creation

of a stabilization fund for the school district.

The town approved some changes for their police force as well. Votes gave the okay to a

four-month trial of additional overnight police coverage.

They also will add a new patrol shift from 4 p.m. to midnight on Sundays.

West Stockbridge adds new police patrol

Washington has to delay town meeting

Great Barrington changes pawn shop rulesGB from page 1


It looks like Lenox town gov-ernment has lost a titan.

On May 4 Joseph Kellogg the chairman of the Planning Board, secretary of the Democratic Town Committee and chairman of the Board of Assessors sent in a for-mal letter resigning from all three organizations to the Lenox Town Clerk, effective immediately.

Mr. Kellogg chose to give no comment when asked by The Beacon for the reasons behind his sudden resignations.

The defeat of Article 11 on the Town Meeting Warrant at Lenox's May 3 town meeting, which Mr. Kellogg was a cham-pion of, may have been a moti-vating factor, however. Article 11 would have established a charter review committee to review Lenox's town charter, and exam-ine how the town's government was being run on all levels.

Mr. Kellogg has spent his entire life as a civil servant, and has worked in governments from the Boston area to The Berkshires.

Currently, he works as the Town Administrator for the town of Lanesborough.

“Joe loves The Berkshires and he loves Lenox,” said fellow Lenox Planning Board Member Gary Schiff. “He just had a pas-sion for serving the town.”

Mr. Kellogg's departure cast a shadow at the Planning Board's May 9 meeting, the first since Mr. Kellogg submitted his resignation.

Planning Board Vice Chair Steve Sample assumed the post of acting chair, and the first order of business the board discussed was finding a new member. The Plan-ning Board will have one month to fill the vacancy, which has tra-ditionally been filled by the select board and planning board hold-ing a joint meeting and selecting a candidate from those who have submitted applications, and been interviewed jointly by the plan-ning board and the select board..

Newly re-elected Planning Board member Kathleen McNul-ty-Vaughn, suggested the man who had run against her this year, Mark D. Woodward, as a possible candidate to fill the vacancy, al-though neither she nor the rest of

the planning board could recall his name. Her fellow planning board members agreed that this would be a possibility worth pursuing.

Mr. Woodward is the husband of Scott Laugenour, prominent Lenox Green Rainbow Party poli-tician and 2012 Green Rainbow Party candidate for the 4th Berk-shire Massachusetts House of Representatives District.

“It'll be hard to replace Joe's ex-perience,” said Acting Chairman Sample.

Indeed, the overwhelming sen-timent among the four remaining board members, and Town Plan-ner Mary Albertson, was that they wished Mr. Kellogg would return.

“As a board should we send Joe a letter of thanks for serving or a letter that says can you please come back?” said Acting Chair-man Sample only partially in jest, and it was acknowledged that Mr. Kellogg would have 30 days to re-apply to the board, should he change his mind about leaving.

Mr. Schiff said that he'd talked to Mr. Kellogg over the phone, and tried to convince him to re-turn to the Select Board, while Planning Board Member Mark Smith has sent a letter to Mr. Kel-logg thanking him for his time on the board and asking him to re-consider his decision.

“I'd like to figure out some way of sending a message that we've lost probably the most talented participant on this board that the town's ever had,” said Mr. Schiff, who suggested that the Planning Board write a letter thanking Mr. Kellogg for his service.

This suggestion was embraced by the rest of the planning board, and it was agreed that Mr. Schiff would draft the letter, which the rest of the board and Town Plan-ner Mary Albertson would con-tribute to and sign.

The Board also chose to hold off on reorganizing itself until a new member was selected. Kath-leen McNulty-Vaughn was select-ed to be acting vice chair until a new member was appointed.

Those wishing to serve on the Planning Board should submit their applications to Town Man-ager Gregory Federspiel.

The appointee will serve until the 2013 Lenox town election.

Kellogg resigns from Lenox committees

May 10, 2012 The Berkshire Beacon 3

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Catherine M. KrummeyBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD – An “equal op-portunity offender” will take the stage in the Robert Boland The-atre at Berkshire Community College for the next two weekends.

The Mel Brooks musical com-edy The Producers will be present-ed by the BCC Players May 11-13 and 18-20.

The Producers follows the antics of Max Bialystock, a down-on-his-luck Broadway producer, and his accountant, Leo Bloom, who come up with a scheme to pro-duce the most notorious flop in Broadway history, thereby steal-ing millions of dollars from their backers.

They set about finding a show (Springtime for Hitler), hiring a director, raising the money and finally going to prison for their transgressions, but the show is re-ally about the journey of two very different men who become friends.

The cast features Corey Doucette as Max Bialystock, Cody Lee Mill-er as Leo Bloom, Lindsay De-

Winkeleer as Ulla, Matt Coviello as Franz Liebkind, Tony Corbett as Roger Debris and Christopher E. Dellea as Carmen Ghia. Carl-ton Maaia II is the musical direc-tor, and Andrea Borak is the choreographer.

The show will be performed at 8 p.m. on May 11-12 and 18-19,

with 2 p.m. matinees on May 13 and 20.

Tickets are $10 for general ad-mission and $5 for BCC faculty/staff, students and senior citizens. They can be reserved in advance by calling the BCC Players box office at (413) 499-0886.

are being run,” said one of the signatories of the petition, ex-plaining why the petition article had been brought forward. “The last time the town amended its charter was in 1991, which was when I was in first grade.”

Lenox School Committee Member Veronica Fenton, how-ever, questioned why an official committee was needed to exam-ine the charter, when any group of private citizens could review it on their own.

“Sometimes I worry when there’s a committee that’s set to do something sometimes we feel the need to do something to ful-fill our purpose for having been appointed to do that thing,” said Ms. Fenton.

Joseph Kellogg, the primary backer of the article, was unable to attend Town Meeting and, without a forceful champion like Mr. Kellogg, Article 11 went down to defeat.

Lenox reject internet postings

Article 12 of the town warrant was a citizen’s petition that would have required that the Town of Lenox post all notices online in

addition to posting them on the town bulletin board.

This article, however, met with objections from Lenox town counsel, Attorney Frederica Mc-Carthy, who pointed out that there could be only one official method of posting an official no-tice, which by state law is posting outside of the building where the town clerk’s office is located.

“My opinion is if this is sent to the attorney general, it’s going to be struck down,” said Atty. McCarthy.

“We are trying to supplement the existing law,” said one of the supporters of the law, in reply to Atty. McCarthy.

The man also did not appear to be advocating for replacing the bulletin board as the place for of-ficial notices.

Atty. McCarthy maintained, however, that there was only one official form of notice, but that the town, as a courtesy, could post information on the internet, which she understood the town was already doing.

“The problem we’re trying to address is that not all committee meetings are posted on the town website,” said Article 12 advocate

Producers come to The Berkshires

LENOX from page 1


The Producers will take the BCC stage this weekend.

see INTERNET page 4

Photo Credit / Bera B. dunau

Lenox Town Manager Greg Federspiel presents an overview of the town budget to the voters at the start of the annual town meeting.


Catherine M. KrummeyBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX – For 11- and 12-year-olds, one of the social events of the season had them dressed to the nines and spinning around the lobby of Ventfort Hall.

Lenox Memorial Middle and High School English teacher Julie Barros hosted a sixth grade cotil-lion at Ventfort Hall on May 4.

“The cotillion serves a few pur-poses,” Ms. Barros said. “First, it is a connection to a book we read in class called A Corner of the Universe by Ann Martin. The main character is forced to attend a cotillion as part of her strict up-bringing in a southern town.”

Ms. Barros added that this along with her own stories of at-tending cotillions while growing up in Louisville, Ky., intrigued the students and led to the deci-sion to hold their own.

“A second purpose of this event is to introduce some of the com-mon courtesies, manners and compassion that were so cher-ished at that time that have, in many cases, been tossed aside,” she said.

Retired physical education teacher Larry Moore helped Ms. Barros by teaching her students the waltz, the foxtrot and the proper etiquette for a cotillion.

“It’s a great learning experience for the children,” Mr. Moore said.

The LMMHS students seemed to be equally happy to be a part of the event.

“It’s pretty interesting,” said sixth grader Evan Silverstein. “It’s nice to try something different.”

The students also seemed to be pretty confident with their dance moves.

“We had a few practices at school,” Evan said. “It’s just a couple of simple dances, so it’s pretty easy.”

Ms. Barros added that the stu-dents only had three lessons in the week leading up to the cotillion.

“They took it so seriously,” she said. “I’ve never seen them rise to the occasion like they have for this.”

Before the dancing began, the students were partnered and lined up for the boys to formally intro-duce themselves and their part-

ners to the adults in attendance, including LMMHS Principal Michael Knybel and School Committee Members Veronica Fenton and Francie Sorrentino.

“Whenever they can take a real life, tangible experience from something they’ve learned in the classroom, it’s a great thing,” Ms. Fenton, who is also a parent, said.

Ms. Barros was also happy with the results of her special event.

“I’m so proud of them,” Ms. Barros said, watching her stu-dents dance and converse. “I feel like their mother.”

She said there are currently no plans to make this an annual event, but she hasn’t completely ruled it out.

“It’s been such a hit so far, there’s always a possibility that it will happen again,” she said.

The people at Ventfort Hall seemed to be equally impressed with the cotillion.

“It’s amazing – kids always rise to the occasion,” said Ventfort Hall Director of Development Adele Gravitz. “It’s fun to have the opportunity to have the cotil-lion here.”

Lenox sixth graders celebrate cotillion at Ventfort Hall

Suzane Pelton, who said that posting this information on the internet would make town gov-ernment accessible to people un-able or to busy to check the bul-letin board in town hall.

“We’ve been doing the other way for a hundred years, as re-quired by law,” said Selectman Roche who, along with Chair-man McNinch, worried that this requirement would make it so committee meetings might have to be canceled if they couldn’t be posted online. “I would be against adding the increased burden to the existing staff of making sure the website is always current with agendas.”

“I think the bigger issues here is imposing bylaws on courtesies,” said Fredrick Keator. “To spend time making laws over the inter-net and other small things I think is really wasting our time.”

“I think in this case we need to goad town hall to do the right thing to make sure that every-body in town has the same infor-mation,” said Mrs. Pelton. “This can do no more than make more transparency in town for the good of the people of the town.”

In the end, despite the advoca-cy of Mrs. Pelton, the article was voted down.

The same basic sentiment, that Lenox’s government was doing a good job, and that changes in the bylaws were not needed, also contributed to the defeat of the other two petition articles, 13 and 14.

Article 13 would have set up a committee to craft guidelines for naming and placing monuments in town, while Article 14 would have recreated a Lenox Parks and Recreation Committee.

Both proposals were soundly defeated.

It was in debating Article 14 that perhaps the most heated portion of the meeting occurred.

Before explaining that the Community Center Board was originally called the Lenox Parks and Recreation Board, and that it retained all of the parks and rec-reation board’s powers and du-ties, Lenox Community Center Director Kim Graham com-plained that 10 people could sign a petition and put an item on the Town Meeting warrant.

This caused Sonya Bykofsky, one of the main organizers be-hind Articles 13 and 14, to take exception.

“That’s a little something called democracy folks, and I’m sorry if

other people are offended by that,” said Mrs. Bykofsky. “To have someone try to make it seem that because only 10 names are needed on a petition means that there aren’t a great majority of people out there who feel the same way who, unfortunately in this town, are afraid to speak their voices for fear of retribution.”

Ms. Bykofsky was then silenced by Town Meeting Moderator Hugh Cowhig, who urged her to stick the article on the warrant.

“Side comments are not appre-ciated,” said Mr. Cowhig.

When another man got up and thanked the select board while implicitly criticizing Ms. Bykof-sky, however, Mr. Cowhig did nothing to intervene.

“I’d like to commend you all for putting up with the nonsense that has brought horrible reputa-tion to the Town of Lenox. I won’t name the people, but you know what I’m talking about,” said the speaker, who mentioned nothing about Article 14 in his remarks.

When questioned about the discrepancy between his treat-ment of Mrs. Bykofsky and her critic, Mr. Cowhig said that you had to give some people some slack who hadn’t been speaking for 15 minutes.

After the defeat of the last peti-tion article, retiring Selectwoman Linda Messana expressed her pleasure at the result.

“Do you know how much I love you guys?” said Mrs. Messana.

However, while the defeat of the petition articles seemed to represent an endorsement of the select board, an even greater fac-tor motivating those attending Town Meeting appeared to be maintaining the status quo.

Selectman David Roche’s well-publicized efforts to suspend the use of CPA funds on private buildings and deny funding for renovations to the Church on the Hill, Cranwell and The Mount met with an overwhelming de-feat, as funding for all three of the projects was easily approved.

The biggest surprise of the night, however, didn’t arise from a fight but from a lack of one.

Many observers had expected a fierce debate over the warrant ar-ticles authorizing the select board to continue pursuing a municipal solar project for Lenox. Instead, the mood in the auditorium was one of overwhelming support for the program.

It passed with little debate.

INTERNET from page 3

Photo Credit / Catherine m. Krummey

Students gather at Ventfort Hall for the Lenox cotillion on May 4.


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in Lenox and has lived there al-most his entire life, while Mr. Gibson moved to Lenox from Los Angeles with his family three years ago.

Mr. Gibson first entered the public arena last year as a member of Lenox’s Wind Energy Research Panel, while Mr. Lane was in the public eye as Lenox’s postmaster for 25 years and has served on nu-merous town committees.

Despite these differences in background, however, Mr. Lane and Mr. Gibson have a lot in common with one another on policy. As was evident in Lenox’s select board candidates debates, Mr. Gibson and Mr. Lane are both concerned with the chal-lenges inherent in upgrading Lenox’s aging infrastructure, are supportive of Lenox’s Municipal Solar Project and are in favor of reforming Lenox’s sign bylaws.

“I’m sure we don’t agree on ev-erything, but we agree on a lot,” said Mr. Lane.

“I just feel kind of choked up,” said Mr. Lane, when asked by the Beacon for his reaction to win-ning and coming in first. “Thank you, thank you for putting your confidence in me.”

“I’m really grateful that I get this chance,” said Mr. Gibson when asked for his reaction to be-

ing elected. “I’ll work my hardest.”

In terms of immediate goals, Mr. Gibson wants to establish a social media presence that will al-low him to communicate with the people of the town in an open way, and wants to review the work of the old economic devel-opment committee to see if some of their ideas still make sense.

Other candidates look to stay involved

All of the losing candidates ex-pressed a desire to continue to stay involved in town government.

Mr. Berkel will continue to serve on the Lenox School Com-mittee, while Mr. Hall plans to continue his service on the zon-ing board.

In comments to The Beacon, Mr. Hall expressed satisfaction in the election of Mr. Gibson and that Mr. Lane, a fellow Lenox Dale resident, would bring repre-sentation from the region to the select board.

Mr. Hall said that he was cur-rently undecided as to whether or not he would run for select board again next year.

“As soon as I heard that Ed had taken out papers, I knew he was gonna get first…and I’m glad Channing got second,” said Mrs.

Barry. “I’m happy with the outcome.”

“I’m still gonna go to meetings, definitely I’m still gonna speak my mind, that’s not gonna change,” said Mrs. Barry, who has regularly attended Lenox Select Board meetings for the last two years. “Everything that I’ve done or said, I’d do or say it again.”

Mrs. Barry, who is circulating a petition asking the select board not to reappoint Town Manager Gregory Federspiel also said that she’d gotten more signatures that day. Mrs. Barry will present the petition to the select board before they vote on whether or not to re-appoint the town manger.

A new chair

Incoming Lenox Board of Se-lectmen Chairman Ken Fowler would like to turn over a new leaf.

“Hopefully we can bring some healing to our process here,” said Chairman Fowler. “We’ve been through some pretty heavy times.”

Mr. Fowler acknowledges the controversies he and his fellow Select Board members were em-broiled in last year; wind power, the Kennedy Park Belvedere is-sue, and Lenoxology to name some highlights, but hopes that the town can now move past them.


WILLIAMSTOWN - Wil-liams College will again offer a helping hand to local schools.

McCann Technical School, Mount Greylock Regional High School, and Williamstown Ele-mentary School received the local Bicentennial Olmsted Awards for faculty development from Wil-liams College.

Each school will receive $4,300 to fund professional and curricu-lar development projects. The ceremony is scheduled for Thurs-day, May 24 on the Williams College campus.

For McCann, the award was granted to Sarah Hadley and Erin Mucci, who submitted a proposal to offer AP biology and AP litera-ture and composition at the school.

The grant money will be used

for Hadley and Mucci to attend the AP Summer Institute, which prepares teachers of AP courses, and for classroom materials, which include books and other AP test prep materials.

At Mount Greylock, the award will be used to send four faculty members and one administrator to this summer's 20th annual Model Schools Conference, sponsored by the International Center for Leadership in Education.

Those attending the conference are Christopher Barnes, assistant principal; Pat Blackman, middle school social studies; Lynne Jor-dan, wellness department; Amy Kirby, Spanish department; and Bob Thistle, high school math department.

The projects that will be fund-ed at Williamstown Elementary School are “Flipping the Social Studies Classroom – Less Lecture

and More Collaborative Learning Time,” “WES Data Team,” and “Curriculum Team.”

The first project, proposed by fifth-grade teacher Rebecca Leon-ard, will employ the method of video lecture infused with footage to create history lessons.

The data team project will ex-pand the number of participants to better synthesize a macro/mi-cro approach for data analysis and instructional interventions.

Finally, members of the curric-ulum team will serve as leaders during the transition to the Com-mon Core State Frameworks and will collaborate with the principal to plan professional development for teachers and monitor the progress of revising the school’s curriculum.

An endowment from the es-tates of George Olmsted, Jr. and his wife, Frances, fund the local Olmsted Awards.

Williams hands out over $10,000 in local grants

LANE from page 1

Call 413-637-2250 to Advertise in The Berkshire Beacon


Editorial: View From the Tower

George C. Jordan III

There are all kinds of adjectives to describe Lenox both for tourists and homeowners.

If we believe Tanglewood is our primary draw for tourism and perhaps as an overlap for retirees, then shouldn’t there be an integration of music of town and gown?

The Lenox Middle and High School has a band. Isn’t there a need for a student orchestra funded in part by

parents and perhaps shepherded by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO)?

Usually our cultural groups are looking to make an impact on the community they serve.

To date, there has been no movement to build either a stu-dent-based orchestra in Lenox or even a county-wide young adult group.

Fact is, this could develop into summertime entertainment in the park.

Yes, instruments cost money, but there are places to buy used ones.

This could be an opportunity for the BSO to donate to Lenox High School music group. The key here is for the co-ordination and commitment of the BSO to help instruct, pro-vide oversight or even commit to leading the practice ses-sions during their summer schedule for a few hours a week.

Lenox Select Board Chair-man John J. McNinch told Town Manager Gregory T. Federspiel to “put a sign on your door every once in a while saying ‘Do not dis-turb.’ Then, do what you have to do to get done.”

In the private sector this may be acceptable by a businessman – gone to lunch; gone fishing.

In the public sector, this is illegal and not in keeping with stated town office hours.

If Town Manager Feder-spiel needs assistance, he has Mary Ellen Deming, di-rector of administrative services.

The hours of each office are posted and there is an expectation there will be someone to man the office during set hours. This is a public building and these are public employees.

For the record, I have al-ways found Mr. Federspiel’s office to be open and he, in particular, helpful. We have agreed and we have dis-agreed. Meanwhile the door to his office has remained opened.

Yes, I hold him and the se-lect board along with the Kennedy Park Committee responsible for the unwar-ranted process of not fully being up front on the issue of the Belvedere. The attor-ney general’s office did not back my complaint under the Open Meeting Law. Of course, they did not men-tion when the clock begins, especially in the issue of no public notice.

My argument was that I filed my complaint within 30 days of acknowledgement.

How could I have filed earlier without knowledge that the Open Meet-ing Law had been ignored?

In this case, it appears to this writer that the cha i rman b e l i e v e s the town’s business may be done behind closed doors be-yond executive sessions to the posting: Do not disturb. Not so.

The law requires that a vote is taken and each member of the select board acknowledges before it goes into executive session. From this point of view, it is almost automatic. At some point, the question will be raised as to what exactly are the bounds for executive sessions?

If there is one clear mes-sage from all the actions by the Lenox Select Board this year, it is that Lenox needs to be up front and seek pub-lic input from the community-at-large.

The procedural process needs change. Rather than bringing forth a subject and then voting on it, the pro-cess of a vote or further col-lection of information should go to the next meeting.

While Mr. McNinch men-tions, “There’s things that we need to look at as a board – our processes.” This board has made strides to try to become more trans-parent, by opening it up to everybody.

The proof will be in the pudding.

Just last week, a notice from Lenox Town Hall was circulated that “there will be a special selectmen’s meet-ing on Wednesday, May 2 at 8:30 a.m. in the selectmen’s meeting room to discuss contract negotiations. There is a possibility that this meeting will be held in ex-ecutive session.”

What was not mentioned was the select board’s eval-uation of the town manager. This was more than an over-sight; it was a failure to en-sure the transparency that Mr. McNinch seems to be seeking. This was a gross violation of the Open Meet-ing Law and thus the board along with the town manag-er must adhere to the law to improve its image within the Lenox community.

Was this an open meeting by the select board? On the surface it would appear to be, but in reality the chair-man would not let a citizen be heard on the subject of the evaluations of the town manager.

So much for public hearing!

Lenox student orchestra culturally

attuned

Congratulations on one hand to the Lenox Marketing and Events Committee for bringing the first annual Berkshire Cy-cling Classic with over 300 riders.

However, the committee failed to promote, advertise and build a strong audience within the framework.

The event was organized by former riding champ John Eu-stice of Sparta Cycling,

Yet, the question is are we doing these promotions for the organization and/or the community-at-large?

The more public events we share-entice, promote, adver-tise-the better our image will be to attract tourists-not by the numbers, but by the support and influence that can grow a sport in The Berkshires.

The committee reportedly paid $3,000 for a photographer. Some of the money could have been used for promotional advertising.

It was a perfect day for a race, but no one other than the racers knew what time the race began.

The greatest race no one saw

George C. Jordan IIIEDITOR & PUBLISHER

Kameron Z. SpauldingEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Susan G. RobinsonGRAPHIC DESIGNER

Bera B. Dunau, Rae A. Eastman, Susan M. Wicker Guerrero, Janel M. Harrison,

M. Krummey, Dick L. SyriacCONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Janel M. Harrison, Jacqueline J. Wendling, Nancy G. Shepherd, Glenda Lee

ADVERTISING SALES

THE GUIDING LIGHT OF THE BERKSHIRES

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George C. Jordan IIIBeacon Staff Writer

The Lenox Zoning Board of Appeals received on April 18, a document in session from Atty. Jeffery Lynch, representing the Kemble Inn, containing the ele-ments of settlement in a dispute by their neighbor, Amy Zucker-man, for settlement in her appeal of the ZBA’s decision to allow outside music.

The ZBA did not go into ex-ecutive session, but would not provide a copy to The Berkshire Beacon even though it was re-ceived at a public meeting; it was read individually, but the con-tents were not read in the record.

The Beacon filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) complaint with the town. Subsequently the contents were released.

Those ZBA members sitting were: Ethan Berg, chairman, along with members:

Robert Fuster; son, Robert Fuster, Jr.; Clifford Synder; and Ned Douglas

The parties to this Agreement are Amy Zuckerman of 4 Kemble St., and The Frederick, LLC, 2 Kemble St., and its members, managers, successors and assigns (“The Frederick”).

“Whereas, on April 15, 2011, Zuckerman filed an appeal pur-suant to M.G.L. ell. 40A §6 in the Berkshire Superior Court Docket No, 11-103 challenging, among other things, the legal and factual basis for the issuance of the ZBA decision (the “Lawsuit”).

Whereas, the parties have ne-gotiated a settlement of the Law-suit and wish to set forth terms of the settlement herein. Terms of Agreement:

1. The ZBA Decision is modi-fied so has to limit of events that the Frederick may hold at the Property in accordance with this agreement The Frederick may hold four (4) Events annually as one in the month of May, one in the month of June, one in the month of September and one in the month of October. Addition-

al Events may be held with the express written consent of Zuck-erman, in Zuckerman’s discre-tion. The schedule the Events shall be presented to Zuckerman upon the earlier of (a) receipt of a signed contract by the Frederick’s customer or (b) thirty days prior to the Event

2. Upon execution of tills Agreement, Zuckerman shall file a Stipulation of Dismissal of the Lawsuit, with prejudice and without costs in the Berkshire Superior Court.

3. Upon execution of this Agreement, Frederick shall re-cord an executed and notarized original of this Agreement signed by all parties set forth below in the Berkshire Middle District Registry of Deeds.

4. Zuckerman agrees to not orally or in writing oppose the number of events held by The Frederick, provided that The Frederick is in compliance with the terms of the ZBA Decision as modified by this Agreement. Pri-or to making any formal public statement against the business operations of The Frederick, Zuckerman shall consult with The Frederick about her con-cerns and in good faith work to resolve the dispute privately.

5. The Frederick shall not ap-ply to the Town of Lenox (in-cluding any of its boards, depart-ments, committees or administrative unites) for, or oth-erwise seek, a modification, amendment or change of the ZBA Decision as modified by this Agreement. or for any other variance, special permit or other application that alters or modifies terms of the ZBA Decision as modified by this Agreement, without the prior written consent and approval of Zuckerman.

6, For each of the four events held at The Frederick, The Fred-erick shall establish a credit ac-count for the benefit of in an amount equal one night’s room charge at the rack rate at the time of the event for Suite 304 at the Property (or any such equivalent suite if the current Suite 304 shall

Susan M. Wicker GuerreroBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD – Cougars, magnificent carnivores that once roamed the woods in the eastern part of the United States, have been officially declared extinct, but are they?

Robert Tougias, a nature writer and author of the book The Quest for the Eastern Cougar: Extinction or Survival, recently came to the Berkshire Athenae-um and spoke about the highly-debated topic.

The Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum sponsored the event, which drew numerous cougar enthusiasts.

Cat tracks in Vermont

Speaking to The Beacon prior to the lecture, Mr. Tougias, a Berkshire County native, indicat-ed the seed for his interest in the cougar was planted when he was just a teenager. His family had a cabin in Vermont, north of Montpelier, he said, and it was there he found “large cat-like tracks.” They very well may have belonged to a cougar.

Since that time, Mr. Tougias has delved heavily into research-ing the rather mysterious animal.

Cougars go by more names than one can even imagine. For instance, Native Americans in this part of the country referred to them as “phantoms” or “ghost cats” because the animals were very silent and extremely elusive.

They have also been called “cat of the mountains” (shortened to catamount), mountain lions, panthers, pumas, painter cats, “great wild hunter” and even “klandagi” in Cherokee, meaning “lord of the forest.”

Wide geographic range

Cougars have a large geograph-ic range and have been found in many kinds of environments, Mr. Tougias said.

During the presentation, he went way back in time, some 300 years, to when cougars roamed the woods of New England, feast-ing primarily on deer. Native Americans lived here then, too.

Then the European settlers came and killed predators on sight, the author said. Forests,

too, were cleared to make way for agriculture. Eventually, the cou-gar population dwindled and then supposedly became extinct.

However, people report sight-ings of them all the time, making the possibility of cougars still be-ing alive quite believable.

Males bigger than females

Male cougars are six feet long and weigh 150 pounds, while fe-males are considerably smaller at 80 pounds. Females also have smaller heads.

Baby cougars are referred to as cubs or kittens and are totally de-pendent on their mothers for one-and-a-half years. Kittens are robust and stocky, he said.

Females stay close to their moms even after the one-and-a-half-year mark, but not the males. They begin to roam.

By age four or five, cougars are good at hunting. Deer is their primary food, Mr. Tougias said. To kill, they stalk and ambush a deer, then jump on his back and twist the neck to the side, break-ing it. Then they push the deer onto the ground.

Kill deer for food

A male cougar will kill a deer every 10 days while a female will look for food for her kittens every three days.

Cougars have also been known to eat rabbits, wild turkeys and even porcupines, the author said.

The last cougar reported killed in Massachusetts was in 1858 on top of Mount Tom in Holyoke,

near Easthampton, he said.As for sightings of cougars, one

was reported in Vermont in the 1990s. A man named Mark Walker was visiting his grandmother.

While filling her bird feeder, he saw a cougar with two cubs, Mr. Tougias said. He added, “He must have been scared as hell.”

The man waited for the ani-mals to pass and then ran back into the grandmother’s house.

Tests of the area later revealed signs of canines rather than cou-gars, Mr. Tougias said. There were claims, however, that the wrong samples had been tested.

“It’s an unfortunate case as to what the animal was,” he said.

There has been a lot of indica-tion there are cougars in the vi-cinity of the Quabbin, the author noted. (The Quabbin is a large, man-made body of water in cen-tral Massachusetts.)

Declared extinct in eastern USA

However, in 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service de-clared the cougar extinct in the eastern part of the country.

Why is it then, that people continue to report cougar sightings?

Is it because they mistake ca-nines for cougars? Is it because they want so badly to see them?

Or is it because the cougars re-ally are back, living in the deep woods, feasting on deer?

“Wouldn’t it be a thrill to see a cougar in the dappled light of the evening?” the author asked.

Cougars in The Berkshires?Lenox ZBA releases additional

paperwork

see FOI page 15

This cougar is from the cover of Robert Tougias’ new book, The Quest for the Eastern Cougar: Extinction or Survival.


Special Gifts for MomMother’s Day ~ Sunday, May 13th

Fairy birds on Mother’s DayJanel M. Harrison

Whether you’re the mother of a child, dog, fish, cat, bunny, hamster, bird, snake, turtle, ferret or an abandoned baby field mouse, you’ve taken on a role to care and nurture, a completely selfless act of love. Perhaps that’s corny, but isn’t that the law on days such as this?

I personally feel so blessed to have the most wonderfully vivacious, funny and caring mom, who always seemed to make everything better. I can only strive to do as she did, and that’s why honoring mothers is so special. Do you know how I always know Mother’s Day is around the corner? I get a momentous visit from the first hummingbird, and to me, that’s my gift along with a bright red and purple fuchsia, which they adore. They are just the sweetest!

Hummingbirds are members of the Trochilidae family and are among the smallest of birds measuring 2-5 inches in length. Can you believe there are over 300 species of hummingbirds in the mountains of South America and more than 100 here in North America in all colors?

Hummingbirds can fly right, left, up, down, backwards and even upside down with their wings at the speed of 60 flaps per second and up to 75 miles per hour. Imagine that!

“If it’s red it must be food,” as they equate the color in that way and love fluted flowers they can sink their long slender beak into as their tongue sucks the sweet nectar. They also like to eat tiny insects and catch them in flight for extra protein, but it’s the nectar from feeders and flowers that give them their exorbitant amount energy.

If you wish to attract them get a hummingbird feeder along side their favorite flowers (which I will name in a bit) and you will be amazed as the little gems dazzle you with their flight and flutter. My favorite feeder is The Hum-Zinger, complete with its own ant moat, as those little pests can definitely become a nuisance. Ant moats are filled with water and ants can’t swim, so where there’s water to cross they won’t, therefore leaving your feeder alone.

Bees will sometimes feed from them and what I’ve found is to be sure to change your water every few days especially in the hot sun – it will ferment easily and bees smell it a mile away.

Now for the ratio: I always begin the year in early May with three parts water, two parts sugar, and as they begin coming, I increase to four parts water, one part sugar.

It’s not necessary to boil water if you change it often or color the juice with red food coloring. Never use honey or artificial sweeteners.

When placing your feeders keep in mind they are territorial creatures, so be sure to have one or two feeders in locations where the other can’t be seen.

They also love to bathe on small wet leaves, in garden mists and in the rain.

They certainly don’t melt because on the grayest of rainy days there they will be eating, drinking, dancing and taking a bath. Sounds like a good day.

As for flowers and plants they fancy, anything red, red and did I mention red? Specifically, they enjoy Salvia, foxglove, bee balm, trumpet creeper, honeysuckle, fuchsia, azalea, butterfly bush, lupine, petunia, Hosta, coral bells, columbine, morning glory, cypress vines and many others – just think fluted and/or red.

I have many of these planted in my garden, as hummingbirds are my favorite.

When we first settled in our new home in the country I wasn’t sure whether we would be found as we hadn’t planted grass seed yet and we were surrounded by woods, but with red ribbons flying, they found us!

The jewels of spring and summer hum as they flutter and whiz by, leaving you in question. I remember my first meeting with a little guy (ruby-throated male). I had only seen them in pictures and as ornamental trinkets, and never thought or realized they’re actually real.

It was a gorgeous sunny spring day laden with

baby buds and bumble bees, with me taking in every sight and sound as I lounged on my second-floor deck. As I watched the sway of elm trees overhead under a blanket of blue sky, that feeling in the air when everything feels new again enveloped me.

Here comes the infamous buzz and I thought, “super-sized bumble bee!” I glanced down at my vibrant red geranium to find it there flittering and fluttering with invisible wings. Its pearlescent red and greens sparkled in the sun.

For a minute I thought I had spotted a tiny fairy drinking from the nectar of my flower; I always think of them that way. I peaked and remained quiet and still; only my eyes moved to follow it like a haunted statue as it happily sampled every morsel and finally swirled, turned and zoomed up to its waiting tree top.

What a little miracle of God... for seeing one will not only leave you in awe, but make you smile. As Mother’s we certainly have created our own miracles too, haven’t we? So raise your glasses high and feel all warm and fuzzy because you’re a mom! And have a happy day.

BERKSHIRE SOUTHREGIONAL COMMUNITY CENTERBERKSHIRE SOUTHREGIONAL COMMUNITY CENTER



Happy Mother’s Day!

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The craft beer nation is prep-ping to celebrate American Craft Beer Week, the mother of all beer weeks, May 14-20.

American Craft Beer Week® ( invites breweries, beer wholesal-ers, retailers, media and craft beer fans to join in the country's craft beer revolution by celebrating with events featured on Craft-Beer.com.

“Last year, all fifty states held official celebrations to hoist a glass to America’s small and inde-pendent craft brewers,” said Julia Herz of CraftBeer.com, produc-ers of ACBW. “As the excitement for craft-brewed beer continues to grow, our goal is to list even more events in each state in 2012.”

With more breweries, beers and events to commemorate the week, a savvy craft beer enthusi-ast needs help keeping track of their favorite beers. That's why ACBW will once again team up with Untappd.com to provide a special badge so you can socially share the craft beers you've enjoyed.

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In 2011, thousand of fantics earned the badge by checking in craft beers during the week. This year, the challenge will be even easier as craft beer lovers need only "check in" one beer to be awarded the ACBW Badge.

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Just check their profile where you can toast and comment on their beers.

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As additional encouragement, Untappd allows you to earn a number of cool badges for com-pleting a variety of different crite-ria, with this beer week being one of those.

Craft beer week is set to kickoff again

Craft Beer Week will begin soon. There are no events in the county but plenty near by in Albany, NY.

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Susan M. Wicker GuerreroBeacon Staff Writer

PITTSFIELD – Cat lovers throughout Berkshire County and beyond, be forewarned.

Step into Animal D.R.E.A.M.S. at 441 North St. and your lives may totally change forever.

The reason? One look at the cats inside the cages, many of whom are waiting to be adopted, and you’ll be hooked. You will want to bring at least one, and maybe more, home with you.

3,500 cats helped

Animal D.R.E.A.M.S. a not-for-profit organization that has helped at least 3,500 cats over the past 12 years.

It moved into the North Street location last December, and the official grand opening took place in February. The location has ex-cellent visibility, said Yvonne Borsody, founder and director.

D.R.E.A.M.S. is an acronym for dignified rescues, education, advocacy and medical services.

The Animal D.R.E.A.M.S. mission is to improve the lives and promote the human care and acceptance of feral cats through-out Berkshire County and beyond.

Feral cats are wild, untamed fe-lines who are used to living out-doors, Ms. Borsody said. They will never be adoptable. Howev-er, their kittens, if found early enough, can be put into foster homes and may, indeed, eventu-ally be eligible for adoption.

“We are dealing with a popula-tion of cats nobody’ll work with,” Ms. Borsody said.

Go to where the cats are

Volunteers go out to where the cats live, trap them and bring them to veterinarians, where they are neutered, given rabies vacci-nations and returned to their outdoor locales. This part of the program is called T-N-R (trap, neuter, return).

This specialized program strives to have feral cat colonies managed and stabilized. The re-sult is healthy cats who do not go out and have more litters.

The cats that have been found and helped by Animal D.R.E.A.M.S. have been found

Rae A. EastmanBeacon Staff Writer

Politicians do it all the time. Even “Ask not what your country can do” was written earlier by Ol-iver Wendell Holmes and later said by President Warren G. Harding.

One writer wrote that plagia-rizing was “the best way to aston-ish his relations.”

Its lesser cousin, forgery, how-ever, estranged one writer from his father, a Shakespeare lover, completely when the son “found” an unknown play of the Bard’ s and delighted his father by get-ting it staged in London.

These are only a few of the in-cidentals from an extremely lively book on the complex subject of plagiarism by Thomas Mallon, a lecturer in English at Vassar College.

From scholars to students, from first novelist to career writ-ers, from the 18th century through the 20th, one of Mallon’s aims is to expose the complexity in motivation for such self-de-structive behavior, the lasting ef-fects and the reluctance of the outside world – in many cases, es-pecially in academia – to deal with the practice.

He notes that before the advent of the printing press, people de-pended on repetition to spread the word – only after its inven-tion did people rely on originali-ty. One of the most skillful – and it must be skillful if the writer is to get away with it – was in the 17th century: Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (though critics have posed the possibility that he had his tongue in his cheek).

Mallon alludes to some (talent-ed) writers who are compulsive about writing but lack the ability to write original work. Others don’t need to steal, so their copy-ing is close to kleptomania. The consequences in terms of reputa-tion are so dire, the author admits it takes courage to be a plagiarizer.

Charles Reade, a supreme ego-ist from the 19th century, gets a whole chapter since he was deter-mined to publish books for most of his life. To this end, he kept vo-luminous notebooks (dozens of them) in which he kept clippings of anything and everything that interested him – from them came the books.

He called them “borrowings.” Other times he “borrowed” com-plete French plays. He was a great champion, oddly enough, of in-ternational copyright, though one of his books was called Auto-biography of a Thief.

Reade was known to have said something like “a book pirate may often escape by re-wording the matter because in many books an essential feature is language.” Really?

Both Booth Tarkington and Mark Twain, from that time, championed an international copyright law and “Trollope couldn’t stop shaking his head over Reade and the piracy he saw around him.” Reade had what Mallon called the “algebra” of compulsions: “he hated stealing because he stole.”

Martin Amis had, just a few years earlier, published his own first novel, The Rachel Papers, and the young writer found no fewer than 50 passages copied from that book.

Young Epstein claimed to have lost the notebooks that formed the basis of his book, but an in-criminating one turned up. He apologized to Amis and tried to have his book re-edited, but it was too late. It became a huge New York City scandal.

Speculation on the motivation of the author was rife, not the least being that should he have wanted to embarass his famous parents, he couldn’t have found a more direct way. Young Epstein never wrote another novel; he ended up in Hollywood.

The author is incredibly well-read, has an informal, breezy, even wry style and raises fascinat-ing questions of motives and compulsions; psychological con-ditioning and effects on readers. It’s tempting to quote from the front flap of the book (to identify sources): “the reader accompanies Mallon as he reveals some outra-geous deeds and personalities and sheds light on the way we deal and fail to deal – with written robbery.”

We do and he does.

Stolen WordsBy Thomas Mallon

Available in bookstores and on Amazon

Ticknor & Fields $18.95 (hardcover)

in barns, on streets, under build-ings and in many other locations.

The North Street location of the organization has been well-re-ceived. People walking by on the sidewalk often stop to look into the windows and right into the cages of some of the cats.

Take Loralie, for example: one sweet petunia of a cat that will melt your heart at first glance. She’ll look at you with the most beautiful pair of eyes imaginable and then stick a white paw up through the one of the openings between bars on her cage. It’s as if she is saying, “Hey there. I’m the one you want to adopt. Now let’s go home.”

When Loralie first came to An-imal D.R.E.A.M.S., she was so scared she would hide, said Crys-tal Ogert, who has been volun-teering with the organization for a month.

“A friend knew I was looking for something to put my heart and soul into,” Ms. Ogert said. The volunteer job is a perfect fit.

Gideon, the greeter

Visitors to Animal D.R.E.A.M.S. will probably be greeted by Gideon, a huge, fluffy and furry black-coated cat.

Gideon was living in a barn when the roof collapsed but was rescued, Ms. Borsody said. When he first came into care, he acted very wild. She wore long, elbow-

length gloves and used a pot lid as a kind of protective shield when reaching into Gideon’s cage.

Today, he appears to be a total-ly different animal and is the sweetheart of Animal D.R.E.A.M.S.

Gideon doesn’t just jump up on the couch when someone is sitting there. He body slams but in an absolutely adorable way. He will not be available for adoption as he’s staying on in his greeting capacity.

Director and founder is “nature girl”

Yvonne Borsody, a Great Bar-rington native, has always loved animals. She agrees that she’s a “nature girl” and she grew up with cats.

“I traveled and moved around but always came back to The Berkshires,” she said. Her parents instilled a sense of responsibility to pets in their children.

She earned a degree in environ-mental science and also had ani-mal control training.

Ms. Borsody worked as a vet-erinary technician for seven years when she was in her 20s and also worked for 16 years as an emer-gency medical technician.

She even spent three winters helping animals on the island of Viequez in Puerto Rico, a place where there were no veterinarians.

Making a few cats dreams come true

Photo Credit / SuSan m. WiCKer guerrero

Milkshake is just one of the many cats at Animals DREAMS.

Some classic words on stolen words


Girl-2-GirlWedding Bliss and Beef Sticks

Janel M. HarrisonBeacon Staff Writer

“Here comes the bride, all dressed in white...” was sung by our sweet flower girl upon awak-ening and in the limo. “She’s get-ting married in the morning, ding dong the bells are gonna chime! Pull out a stopper, let’s have a whopper, and get me to the church on time,” sung by moi in the shower! We’re going to a wedding!

The girls cracked up with my operatic rendition. Wow! There are amazing acoustics in a hotel shower. I had no idea they’d even hear me until they laughed like roaring hyenas outside the door and yelled, “Encore! What else ya got? Things were getting serious in there.”

It was a weekend filled with laugher, tears, wine, cocktails, cake, food galore (I think I gained five pounds just looking at and smelling it), dancing, beers and oh, yes, beef sticks compliments of the best man and groom’s brother, who just happens to manage the Blue Rocks Baseball Stadium, where he rustled up the biggest and best rehearsal party.

After that it was off to our Hil-ton Hotel bar for a drink and then back to the room where one of our “hip and happening” bridesmaids read silly quotes from the bachelorette party, and oldie but goodie stories were told.

There was a “POP!” as we toasted with two bottles of the bubbly before the big day. And of course it was to bed early to get our beauty sleep.

The next day we awoke and the sun was shining, which is a won-derful sight on a wedding day.

We needed to be out the door by nine and off to the hair salon for our hair-dos, mimosas, and coffee with Bailey’s Irish Cream. I know, we were so spoiled!

I told my hair stylist, “No poo-dle please,” and was going for a light sophisticated ‘30s wave, but wound up a bit like a curled cock-er spaniel, or no, how about the Lion in The Wizard of Oz when he gets all gussied up in the Em-erald City?

Oh, but who cares, it was my good friend’s special day, and she didn’t seem to mind me looking like “a china doll who sits on the shelf for years and her hair starts to frizz” for the pictures.

We helped the bride fasten her buttons and tie her bow, and of course I wept when I saw her. And then one of the bridesmaids realized she forgot her shoes – we needed to avert a crisis!

Luckily our friend who stayed with us in the hotel stood in front of the church, and it was out of the limo and on with the shoe seconds before we made our de-scent down the aisle.

It was a beautiful wedding in a quaint old church with a steeple, and the bride’s brother gave her away. The priest was humorous and sweet and pronounced the bride’s first name different as ev-eryone made awkward faces each time he uttered it.

After the wedding there was plenty of beer and champagne on the party bus! Much of it spilled on my dress until we reached our destination, The Cavalier Coun-try Club with rolling green hills and swaying trees under a dome of blue sky.

Sitting there in the hotel chair, the beef stick stood up in one man’s lap and the best man par-took in it – what a visual – and more jokes about beef sticks continued.

It was a weekend to remember with old friends and new, and by the third morning brunch a bit of tiredness and irritability set in, but I guess that’s to be expected when living in close quarters with girls who snore, giggle, sleep like wooly caterpillars and awaken like bears, not to mention we were stuffed with food, drink and merriment.

I’m weddinged out. It was so nice to get back home to my two flowers, hubby, wheaten and fish, and I’m not going anywhere for a while without them because, I love them so much and there’s no place like home… till next week!

-Ciao Bella


Watching a movie like Cabin in the Woods is a special kind of treat.

With most movies, you can fig-ure out pretty quickly what’s go-ing to happen.

Even if they’re not sure about specific plot details, audience members can often grasp the thrust and arc of a movie quite readily. This goes almost doubly for genre films, which often use well-worn tropes to set the scene and create drama.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Archetypes are important in fiction, and some of the finest movies ever made stick to classic plots and conventions. Cabin in the Woods, however, is not one of those kind of films.

On the surface Cabin in the Woods is a typical American hor-ror film.

Five college friends head out to the rural summer home of one of their families.

The friends appear to be pretty classic stereotypes: a charismatic athlete, his party-happy girl-friend, her bookish best friend, a handsome and intelligent trans-fer student and a wise-cracking stoner.

Of course, when they arrive at the aforementioned cabin in the woods, strange things begin to happen, and the five soon find themselves in mortal danger and fighting for their lives. Except, there’s a lot more than bad luck going on: Something is rigging the situation against the friends, and far more is riding on the out-come of their tribulations than at first it might appear.

This is where things get really interesting and, unfortunately, I can’t tell you more details with-out spoiling one of the best parts of Cabin in the Woods – slowly figuring out what exactly is going on.

Remember how I said how you could generally get an idea with most movies about what’s going to happen? Not so with Cabin in the Woods.

Cabin in the Woods is an intri-cately unfolding puzzle of a nar-rative that effortlessly switches back and forth between multiple styles and genres. Seamlessly

moving from horror film, to dark comedy, to science fiction story, political satire, biting meta narra-tive and back again, Cabin in the Woods is a real treasure for those who love movies and the different ways they can be utilized to tell a story.

In the hands of some creators, this approach would have result-ed in a confusing mess. Fortu-nately, the screenplay for Cabin in the Woods was co-written by master scribe Joss Whedon, the man responsible for creating the critically acclaimed TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.

Whedon, along with director and co-writer Drew Goddard, knows how to tell a good story, taking the tropes and expecta-tions surrounding the different genres he’s working with to play with the audience’s emotions, while using them to treat the au-dience to a thought-provoking and engrossing thrill ride.

Trust me when I say that Cabin in the Woods is one of the most exciting and original things you can see in theaters currently. It’s incisive, well-made and – while you’re always going to be engaged by it – you’re not going to truly

know what’s been going on until the very end.

Granted, if you can’t enjoy a bloody Evil Dead-style horror film, you’re probably not going to like Cabin in the Woods. Cabin in the Woods may explore multi-ple genres and be an example of cinematic storytelling at its finest, but the central launching pad for the plot is the classic American horror film, and if you can’t enjoy that, it’s probably not going to be for you.

That being said, if you give Cabin in the Woods a chance and can sit through some cartoonish, over-the-top blood and gore, I guarantee that you’ll have a good time.

If you are a fan of horror mov-ies, innovative films or being tak-en on a brain-twisting thrill ride and you don’t see Cabin in the Woods while it’s in theaters, you will be missing out.

Cabin in the Woods is bound to become a cult classic, and I’m hoping that its Five Colleges par-allels will inspire an interactive way of watching it, similar to how many people watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fellow Five Colleges students and alums, you have your assignment.

Cabin the Woods can provide a good scare


six countries and 22 states, in-cluding California, Virginia and the state that dominated the po-dium in most classes, New York.

Although Berkshire County was also well represented with over 100 local riders and several of them having competitive enough times to qualify for the world championships in South Africa.

The chance of gaining entry into the world championships was not the only driving force be-hind riders who looked to join the race.

Erik Zabel, a world-renowned cyclist who has won the green jer-sey as the best sprinted in the famed Tour de France six times, was also a member of the field.

“It was a great honor for me to have been brought here to take part in this great race,” said Zabel after crossing the finish line. “It was a prime course and the other riders were fantastic.”

Zabel rode at the front of the pack but drifted back in the final sprint to allow the local riders a chance at the win.

For the riders that hung at the front with Zabel it was a day they will never forget.

“It was just amazing, I was out

there riding next to the greatest,” said second-place finisher John Funk. “He was just so smooth and perfect, an artist on his bike.”

The 130-km race was tough fought over the last 20 miles. A group of 30 broke away from the pack early in the event and blast-ed through each time check.

This group contained favorites Greg Olsen, Will Schneider, Funk and Cale Reeder.

Reeder, a 48-year-old from Cameron Park, Calif., launched an attack on the second climb and brought Funk and Zabel along for the ride.

The three stayed away from the field until the final moments when Reeder again broke away and rode solo to the finish, with Funk trailing behind him.

Reeder’s winning time was 3:33, finishing nearly one minute ahead of Funk.

“I came all the way here so that I could qualify,” said Reeder. “I have been to the world champi-onships the last few years but I needed a top finish here to get in, so I am happy I was able to get it.”

Another rider that emerged as part of the story was 23-year-old Pittsfield native Robby Cuthbert.

Cuthbert ran the race as his first ever competitive bike race af-

ter hearing about how close to home the race was.

Cuthbert not only finished the tough race, he rode in that pack of 30 leaders throughout the whole race and came home with a 12th-place finish, the best of any Berkshire County rider.

“I just wanted to come out and give it a shot,” said Cuthbert. “I am totally glad I did.”

With his high finish, Cuthbert shocked the field and qualified for the world championships.

“That is just amazing, I don’t think I am ready for something like that but I certainly will try a few more races,” said Cuthbert.

The other professional riders came away very impressed with “the local kid’s” performance.

“That kid has one heck of an engine, with the right training he could really be special,” said Will Schneider, a top 15 finisher and a bicycle coach from Manhattan.

“Give the kid a better bike and equipment and work on his form, and who knows how far he could take this,” said Schneider.

Brett Cleaver of Brooklyn, N.Y., came away with the win in the day’s first race, the smaller 100 km.

Cleaver dominated the ride and led the whole way, winning by several minutes.

Philip S. Kampe

My last installment highlighted the amazing city of Barcelona, an architectural mecca that is well known for wine and tapas.

The adventure continues close to the coast in the Penedes region of Spain.

Penedes, the wine country known for Cava, is located an hour southeast of Barcelona, in the hills of Catalonia. A wide range of wine styles are produced here including the Traditional Method white and red sparkling wines known as Cava.

Penedes has 3,000 grape grow-ers and only 200 wineries.

Cava is made with the indige-nous white grapes of Penedes, Xarello, Macabeo and Parellada.

Xarello is an early-budding Catalan grape that provides body and structure. Macabeo is a late-budding, pale-skinned grape that does well in hot climates. It is a component that makes florally aromatic low acid wines.

Parellada is considered the fin-est of all Catalan traditional white grape varieties. The grape pro-duces low-alcohol wines with crisp acidity.

Penedes is a fascinating region; its wine history dates back to the Roman times.

The wine region is divided into three sub-regions, Bajo, Medio and Alto.

The majority of cavas produced are from the Alto (Higher) Penedes. The climate is Mediter-ranean and normally mild. The soil in the Higher Penedes is a mixture of clay, sand and limestone.

My visit was to Caves Naveran, a premier, premium, estate-owned Cava producer that was founded in 1985 by Swiss-born Michel Gilleron Parellada. He is a passionate, English/French/Span-ish-speaking winemaker whose family has owned the land since 1901.

The estate sits on 272 acres of

vines in the Alto sub-region, near the town of Torrelavit.

Winemakers Emili Esteve and Luis Esclassans compliment Michael´s operation.

What makes Caves Naveran wines unique? All grapes picked are100-percent estate grown, al-lowing for higher quality control, producing consistently superior wines. Old vines result in lower yields, increasing concentration and grape quality.

Michel only releases vintage Cava and is the only one in the world to do so. His cavas are rec-ognized by wine experts and nor-mally receive 90 points or more in ratings.

My project was to disgourge a bottle of Cava – basically opening a bottle and releasing the yeast in-side of the bottle before re-bot-tling and adding sugar to the Cava for the second fermentation.

The Cava at Caves Naveran follows the Traditional French Method and tastes better than or equal to most higher-priced champagnes at a fraction of the cost.

The four I sampled range in price from $16 a bottle to $34. Look for Naveran Brut Vintage 2010 ($16), Naveran Dama 2009 ($26), Naveran Perles Rose 2009 ($34) and Naveran Perles Blanques 2009 ($34).

Michel is a rigorous, meticu-lous and very cheerful man who makes Cava only at the highest level.

Caves Naveran cavas match well with food. Michel cooked a feast consisting of seafood paella, local green and spicy peppers, country bread with tomato pulp and olive oil, olives, assort-ed meats and cheeses and al-mond nut cookies.

I encourage you to try his cavas.

Sales of Cava have increased year to year, following the trend of increased interest in sparkling wine category.

Cavas are not created equal. Caves Naveran stands out in this category as the true leader.

Look for these cavas at your lo-cal wine shop. If you don´t find Caves Naveran, tell your wine shop that Ole Imports is the sole importer.

Getting your hands dirty for a good drink

Wine and Beyond:


After the race Robby Cuthbert (right), Pittsfield, was the talk of the field at the Berkshire Cy-cling Classic. The 23 year old rider, in his first race, hung with the professional field.“That kid has one heck of an engine, with the right training he could really be special,” said Will Schneider, a top 15 finisher and a bicycle coach from Manhattan.

BIKE from page 16


Bates College (23-16) swept the Ephs (16-19) in a non-con-ference baseball doubleheader on Sunday afternoon, nixing Wil-liams’ six-game winning streak.

Bates scored six runs in the sixth to take a 6-2 lead and win in the first game. In game two, the Bobcats manufactured a five-run third inning for a 6-4 win to sweep Williams.

After four innings of scoreless, defensively-sound baseball, the Ephs finally scored in the top of the fifth when sophomore Marco Hernandez singled to lead off the inning. Junior K.C. Murphy bombed a two-run homer over the left field wall to give the Ephs a 2-0 lead.

Senior Harry Marino started game one for the Ephs and held Bates scoreless over four innings, adding nine strikeouts and finally exiting the game with a 2-0 lead. Bates sophomore Tom Baroni started the game going 6 1/3 in-nings, allowing two runs on six hits.

Despite a 6-2 deficit going into the bottom of the seventh, the Ephs attempted a comeback. Sophomore Matt Kastner led off the bottom of the seventh with a single.

After a strikeout, Baroni walked junior Chance Rueger, which prompted a pitching change for Bates. Fellow sopho-more Brad Reynolds had his hands full after freshman Luke Pierce drew a two-out walk to load the bases.

The Ephs’ comeback was too little, too late, as Reynolds struck out the last batter to end the game in favor of the Bobcats, 6-2.

Bates senior Karl Alexander started the second game and ex-tended his team career wins re-cord to 17 by going 6 1/3 in-nings, allowing four runs for his career-best sixth win of the sea-

son and a 6-4 record. Sophomore Dean Bonneau allowed one run-ner to score, but otherwise held the Ephs in check and captured the save.

Williams got on the scoreboard first again, plating three runs in the top of the second. Pierce and Jimmy Ray both singled to get on base for the Ephs.

Murphy drew a walk to load the bases for Rueger who brought home Pierce with an RBI ground-out to the pitcher. Junior Darren Hartwell slugged a triple to right center scoring both Ray and Murphy, giving Williams a 3-0 lead.

Hartwell led all batters in the second game going three-for-five with two RBIs.

Bates answered the third with five runs off of sophomore Steve

Marino. Marino tossed three in-nings in total, allowing five runs on six hits.

Despite the fact that both of these schools are in the NES-CAC, they are in two separate di-visions within the league.

Williams has already clinched a NESCAC playoff berth, as they finished second in the NESCAC West behind archrival Amherst (23-8). As for the NESCAC East, Trinity College (29-9) secured the top seed and hosts the tour-nament in Hartford, Conn., while Bowdoin College (23-16) earned the second seed.

Williams will play the Bantams of Trinity College in the first round of the NESCAC playoffs on Friday, May 11, at 3 p.m. The NESCAC playoffs follow a dou-ble-elimination format.

John V. GrazianoBeacon Contributor

Rain played almost as big a fac-tor as the other teams last week with baseball, tennis, and boys’ lacrosse having to postpone their games on Tuesday, May 8. This came as a big letdown for all teams, especially baseball who had an opportunity to qualify for the playoffs.

Scheduled starter Heamon Williams said, “I was very excited for the opportunity to get to the playoffs, it’s too bad we are going to have to wait a few more days.”

Sticking with baseball, the Lee team beat Berlin last week 14-3 with JT Brown having a very good outing. They will play at Hoosac on Friday and then they will host Wahconah on Monday, both at 4 p.m. The game against Gateway will be played May 23.

The boys’ and girls’ tennis matches also got canceled on Tuesday. They have two games coming up this week, one today at Drury at 4 p.m., the other on Tuesday, as they host Pittsfield. Both teams are hoping to win to keep their chances to make the playoffs.

Girls’ lacrosse was one of only two spring sports not affected by the rain. On Monday they had a big game at Wahconah. Megan Gaul led them from two behind to come back and win 12-11.

The girls have two games this week, hosting PHS tomorrow and then going to Hoosac next Tuesday, with both games start-ing at 4 p.m.

Softball had a decent week, beating St. Joe 9-3 but then they unfortunately got blown out on Monday 0-18. This means that they will drop back to 7-7 for the year.

Softball has an off week this week with no games. They were the only other Lee team not to be affected by weather.

Last but not least we have the boys’ lacrosse team, who only ended up having one game last week due to rain, and they lost 4-12 to PHS. They have a game today at Taconic starting at 5 p.m., and then on Monday they travel to Hoosac for a game start-ing at 4 p.m.

Hopefully all the Wildcat teams do well this week and can start to be qualified for their re-spective tournaments.

Rain puts damper on big week for Lee

Wildcat Weekly:

The good:

Bob Costas is the best. What-ever the sport, he is prepared. He asks real questions. You will never hear Costas during an interview say “describe your thoughts, de-scribe your emotions,” etc. Those are not questions. He is a pro’s pro.

Gary Stevens pulled no punch-es when he called out Dr. Han-sen, the owner of Breeders Cup Juvenile Champ Hansen. The goofy owner thinks he is the ce-lebrity instead of his horse.

You can’t go wrong when you show a foal being born and Jenna Wolfe getting too close to both ends of a horse.

The bad:

You turn on a horse race and you get a report from the fash-ion police. I don’t care who de-

signed Debra Messing’s derby hat – someone tell me who is going to win the race.

The ugly:

The race is over, they have told us and showed us who won from several different angles but NBC doesn’t like to give us the most important information: the payoffs!

The prices were on the board for 10 minutes before the TV au-dience was informed. Oh yeah, NBC, could you leave them on the screen for more that 30 seconds?

Matt Kastner tries to turn the double play for Williams.

Williams drops tough doubleheader to Bates

TAPE from page 16

no longer be in existence)(“Credit Account”). The Credit Account may be used for dinner, or lodg-ing (subject to normal policies) services at The Frederick. The Credit Account (or portion there-

of ) is fully transferable by Zuck-erman. If Zuckerman permits Thc Frederick to hold an addi-tional Event or Events as provid-ed in Paragraph 1, The Frederick will contribute an amount equal to two night’s room charge at the rack rate at the time of the event

for Suite 304. per each additional Event to Zuckerman’s Credit Account.

7. The Frederick shall not op-pose any application that Zucker-man shall with the Town of Lenox (including any of its boards, de-partments, committees or admin-

istrative units) relating to a garage structure to be built on Zucker-man’s property, provided the ga-rage structure is constructed within Zuckerman’s boundaries, and is consistent with the charac-ter of her house.

FOI from page 7

May 10, 2012

SportsThe Berkshire Beacon

Dick SyriacBeacon Staff Writer

If you are expecting an article on thoroughbred racing you will have to be patient.

The Beacon will be bringing its readers a behind-the-scenes look from Saratoga Race Course this summer. Our “Beacon on the Backside” features will provide interviews and insight into the world of the “Sport of Kings.”

Even with present day media options it is possible to lose track of former county athletes that es-tablish roots elsewhere and pass on their athletic genes to their offspring. As our readers know by now, we like to look for the local angle.

If you glanced through your Williams-Amherst football pro-gram from Nov. 12, you may have noticed a familiar name on the Amherst roster: No. 10, DJ Petropulos, sophomore quar-terback, 6’2”, 220 lbs.

The Petropulos name dominat-ed the high school sports pages of Berkshire County in the 1970s and ‘80s for Drury High, mostly in basketball but also on the golf scene.

David, Jim, Karen, Sara and Nick totaled over 3,000 points as a family, with Sara topping the list with over 1,200. They were not done after high school, as David went on to total over 1,000 points, splitting his time between Worcester State and North Ad-ams State (now MCLA), while Jim excelled for four years at Worcester Poly Tech. Sara took her skills to Colgate University, where she established some re-cords and garnered multiple awards.

Holding down the fort and steering the ship during this time were parents George and Mary. After a career in basketball and football at Drury, George went to Boston University on a football scholarship and later played bas-ketball at NASC, graduating in 1954.

George taught in the North

Adams school system and was the Drury golf coach for many years. An avid golfer, he once held the course record at Waubeeka Golf Links and had a handful of holes-in-one.

It was also neighborhood knowledge that Mary didn’t lose many driveway one-on-one games with the kids (at least until they could tie their own shoes).

George and Mary currently re-side in Florida.

After an outstanding career at Souhegan High School in Am-herst, N.H., in football and base-ball, young DJ, son of David and Maren, was highly recruited by many schools including Williams.

On a very successful Lord Jeff squad, he has seen some action, however most of it – to this point – has involved a clipboard and ball cap. \Coach EJ Mills has guided Amherst to a 22-2 record the past two years and DJ has cracked the lineup in two of those games.

Coach Mills carried five QBs on last year’s roster and two will graduate in June. Competition for next years signal caller should be intense.

It is questionable if DJ is the most accomplished athlete in his own family. His older sister, Ty-ler, was first spotted in Sports Il-lustrated for her achievements as a top distance runner, athlete and valedictorian of her class in their famous “Faces in the Crowd” section.

She has excelled at Harvard as an lacrosse player, where she has been a four year starter and cap-tain of the team her last two years.

Check the tape

NBC had the coverage of this year’s Kentucky Derby. Excellent camera work, great pre-race fea-tures but, as usual, they were not perfect and continue to make the same mistakes every year. Here are my views from the couch.


LENOX – Beautiful weather only enhanced the day as over 300 cyclists lined up to partake in two races last weekend.

The first annual Berkshire Cy-cling Classic featured both a shorter 100 km race and the fea-tured 130 km race that served as an official qualifier for the UCI World Cycling Tour champion-ships to be held in August in South Africa.

The Lenox-based race was the only qualifying race in the Unit-ed States and one of only 15 in the world. To make the world championships a rider had to finish in the top three of their age class.

Many riders made long jour-neys just to get to the starting line, including eventual world championship qualifier Warren Scott, who came all the way from South Africa to compete.

“The people of Lenox have been just great and we have en-joyed our time here so much,” said Scott from the podium after the race.

In total the riders represented

A pedal to remember Young local rider grabs attention at Lenox bike race

Berkshire Sports Guy:

A true Berkshire County

sports family


Riders takeoff to start the first Berkshire Cycling Classic in Lenox last weekend.

see BIKE page 14


Erik Zabel (L) and Bill Humphreys (R) at the starting line before the Berkshire Cycling Classic. Zabel is a past Tour de France racer and Humphreys is the author of “Jersey Project”see TAPE page 15

Documents

May 10th Issue