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To Stockbridge Updates:

I encourage both citizens and their respective Town Officials residing in The Housatonic River Corridor to question the Rest Of The River (ROR) committee about their interactions with the EPA, the attorneys, and of course General Electric Corporation.

Additionally, all the subsequent meetings of the ROR committee held after the public input meetings do not appear to comply with the open meeting law.

We are literally being sold down the river by the ROR Committee, the EPA, and GE. The ROR committee is complicit in abetting this convoluted cleanup plan. Everyone should be completely informed on how this very long cleanup timeframe will affect their lives and the health and economic impact to themselves and their communities. What happens upstream will affect all of us downstream.

If this current cleanup plan is allowed to come to fruition, we will all continue to suffer the health and economic impacts for generations.

What happens upstream will impact all of us residing downstream.

Ask the hard questions of your Town Officials, the ROR committee, the EPA, and GE. Follow the money and you will learn that the cleanup is a very small percentage of GE's worth compared to the enormous economic threat it is to our tiny villages.

Let us all join our fellow citizens in the Town of Lee and support their efforts in fighting this very important battle for our community's health and welfare.

Gary Pitney

Editor's note: Pitney is Chair of the Board of Assessors and a member of the Planning Board.

To Stockbridge Updates:

There will be an Environmental Protection Agency/Citizens Coordinating Committee) (EPA/CCC) meeting held at the Lee Library on Wednesday, September 13th from 6-8 PM.

This is a meeting with groups directly involved in the proposed cleanup of the Housatonic River, more specifically, the removal of PCB's over a fifteen year period.

Residents of Stockbridge, Lenox, Great Barrington, and Sheffield interested in our river and the river cleanup are welcome. The exchanges at these meetings will have a major impact on decisions made that will impact future generations in the Housatonic River Corridor

If you cannot attend in person, please request a link for the meeting ad please convey concerns to the EPA, via email to Kelsey Dumville at: dumville.kelsey@epa.gov.

Robert Jones, Chair, Lee Select Board

Photo: Lionel Delevingne

In the next issue:

Commentary

Here is an irony. Many moved here in a "Flight to Safety from COVID". They arrived only to learn we don't have enough nurses, doctors, dentists, or hospital beds. What is the extent of the medical and dental service crisis, and what is the solution?

Ever considered if prognosticators are right about future population decline? What if there is a second flight to safety? A flight from the ravages of climate change - form excessive heat, severe storms, fire, and floods — and our population actually swells?

As our expert consultant evaluates the sewer system in Stockbridge — what is our role? What questions should we be asking? What are the impacts on the health of the lake? The growth and density of the Town? What are the costs? Who has the greatest need? Who has vested interests? What are the best interests of the Town? Who decides, do we, or do we rely on the experts?

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Photo: Jay Rhind