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Editor's note: In the nineteenth century every Berkshire newspaper was anchored locally — the Pittsfield Sun, The Stockbridge Evening Star, the Great Barrington Currier, the Valley Gleaner (Lee) and more — but in their pages, each had columns for other towns. If your town has a story to tell, a problem or a solution to share, let us know. So feel free to send SU your news periodically, and we will run a Dateline: Sheffield, Dateline Monterey, Dateline: Lee etc.

Dateline: Lee

From the Town of Lee — For Immediate Release

Records Request Reveals That BRPC Director Purposely Tried to Exclude and Mislead Lee's Rest of River Committee Member

Email records from BRPC Director Tom Matuszko shows a message to Attorney Matt Pawa stating "If you did want to discuss strategy with the Committee it might be better to do so closer to the May 4th date in case our Lee Committee member opponent gives those discussion comments to HRI's attorney (alternatively, and having watched way too much TV, you could provide misleading information to throw their attorneys off track.)"

In addition, when asked repeatedly by newly appointed Rest of River (RoR) member Josh Bloom, Mr. Matuszko is on record during a public meeting stating that he could not recall if any such conversations took place with Atty. Pawa prior to RoR meetings.

The Town of Lee and its residents have expressed numerous concerns over the Rest of River Committee's actions that have taken place over the past few months. In particular, the Rest of River Committee's vote to send counsel to the First Circuit Court to support GE's toxic waste dump in the Town of Lee and Pawa's statement at the First Circuit Court hearing where he stated that all 5 communities (including Lee) supported the controversial plan.

The Town of Lee filed a dispute on the vote to pay Attorney Pawa $15,000 to support GE's toxic waste dump in Lee. However, some Rest of River towns used delay tactics (such as filing objections to the selected mediator) to essentially deny Lee's request for mediation on the controversial vote.

Other related issues include an open meeting law violation that was up held by the Massachusetts Attorney General for an inaccurate and substandard agenda posting for the vote.

Furthermore, Mr. Matuszko refused to add public comment to meeting agendas following the controversial vote and subsequent open meeting law violations. Lee member Bob Jones made a plea to the other committee members from Lenox, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield several times to allow public comment, but no other members would even second his motion.

The Lee Select Board also reached out to the Lenox, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield Select Boards to discuss the matter and all 4 boards refused to engage in a meeting.

All three Lee Select Board members voiced concern and consternation regarding these recent events.

The Back Story

By Bob Jones

It has been a long and strange journey. Born at Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington, I grew up and have lived in towns in the Housatonic River corridor my entire life. In my early years, the river was an open sewer, serving homes and businesses. Wisdom and technology prevailed, waste treatment plants came into being, and our friend, the river has done a remarkable job of cleaning itself over recent decades. That's part of the story.

The other part does not have such a happy ending. Using PCB's in their production of transformers, GE corporation, for decades, poured massive amounts of PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls) into our river, along our roadsides, into ponds and landfills up and down the county and beyond. Originally produced by Monsanto (now the producer of the "weed killer" Roundup), production of PCB's was stopped in 1977 because of evidence they build up in the environment and can cause harmful health effects. There are volumes of information supporting this conclusion.

In 2010, the task of addressing the problem was undertaken by the EPA and GE, including local towns in the process. Sheffield, Great Barrington, Stockbridge, Lenox, and Lee were asked to form a "Rest of the River" Committee so that the towns might have a place at the table to voice concerns and craft an agreement that would be fair and beneficial to all. The structure for RoR called for all five towns to be represented by one attorney. As an aside, you can't do a real estate closing in Massachusetts with one attorney... Go figure. Each town would designate a "representative" (or, two, but with only one vote per town) to the committee. This representative would confer with the Select Board, making decisions on behalf of the citizenry. Each town contributed tax dollars to a legal fund.

The resulting agreement in 2016 called for the removal of contaminated soil from the river, to be transported out of the Berkshires to licensed storage facilities elsewhere. It was not a perfect solution, but one that most environmental groups agreed to.

Almost immediately, GE appealed to the courts. Given that Pittsfield (home to GE's facility) had agreed to the dumping of PCB's in their borders, they set a precedent. Toxic waste dumps are acceptable in the Berkshires. Here's where the real fun begins...To be continued

Editor's note: Jones is Chair of the Lee Select Board

Photo: Lionel Delevingne