St. Stanislaus School benefit, 9 to 4 in Kolbe Hall, Adams. Bake sale, snack bar, games, Chinese auctions, money raffle, crafts, and pierogi.
Blackinton Union Church, 1373 Massachusetts Ave., North Adams; 10 to 2. Crafts table, bake sale, Chinese auction, the Christmas table, and kid's grab bag. Lunch $4, $2 kids.
First Congregational Church, North Adams, 9-2.
Nov. 28 Becket Federated Church, Route 8, holiday bazaar from 9-3. Lunch, crafts, baked goods, holiday and other items. Information: Mary Peltier, Parish House, 413-623-5217.
Dec. 5
Holiday Fair at First Congregational Church, 25 Park Place, Lee, from 10 to 3; handcrafted items, raffles, children's shop, bake sale, cut Christmas trees and lunch from 11 to 1. Includes angel-themed goods from SERRV. Information, 413-243-1033 or www.ucc-lee.org.
Dec. 12-13
North Adams Country Club, crafts 9-4; food from That's a Wrap from 11-2. Information: Sheryl Morehouse at 413-822-3329.
Planning a bazaar this season? Submit information to info@iberkshires.com to have it listed here.
We're trying out blogs to offer shorter, easy-to-find news. Let us know what you think.
Send press releases and announcements to info@iberkshires.com. Need to contact someone at iBerkshires? Here's how.
Mammography Dispute The government's issued controversial new guidelines stating that women shouldn't get annual mammograms until age 50, rather than age 40.
iBerkshires will be meeting with local medical experts Monday. Have a question you'd like answered on this issue? Send it info@iberkshires.com with "mammogram" in the subject line.
State Says Spawning Stress Lead to Fish Kill; Residents Point to Drawdown
By Noah Hoffenberg iBerkshires Correspondent 04:07PM / Sunday, August 16, 2009
HINSDALE, Mass. — State officials are attributing a massive fish kill late last month at Ashmere Lake to stress from seasonal mating.
However, the Peru/Hinsdale Conservation Commission chairman thinks the large number of dead fish are related to April's extreme drawdown of the lake, and has told the state so in a letter.
"I posit that the extraordinary fish kill that has occurred was directly due to this illegal drawdown, especially since it was spawning time, and that ... the north side was suffering from stagnation, low oxygen levels and low water levels," Chairman Michael Frederick wrote in a letter to state officials on Aug. 1.
The state, on the other hand, attributes the fish kill to spawning-related stress.
"Please do not laugh, and when I get updates and appropriate clarifications, I will pass the info on to everyone,” wrote Christopher Hookie, the DCR's Central Berkshire district manager, Division of State Parks and Recreation, in an e-mail to dozens of area residents and officials. "Remember, I am only the messenger. ... (how can I put this) ... the fish apparently died because of excessive stress due to spawning/mating."
According to Hookie, hundreds of dead fish began appearing in both basins (the lake is split by Route 143) during the last week and half of July. Both sides of Ashmere Lake showed signs of fish kill, wrote Hookie. The lake straddles the Peru and Hinsdale line.
After being contacted by a concerned longtime lake resident, Frederick stopped on the lake's causeway in late July. He spotted dead fish on both sides. He said in an interview Friday that a number of other longtime residents had said they had seen more numbers of dead fish this year than in any other that they could recall.
"Every summer, there's some [fish kill]," Frederick said he was told by a state fisheries expert in Westborough. "Because of a lack of rainfall and heat, that causes an oxygen problem somehow, and certain smaller fish will perish."
Frederick noted how this year's rainfall has been extraordinarily high. Hookie wrote that only perch, blue gill and sunfish were killed off.
"Apparently the rare conditions were right in the lake for all the fish species to do their thing at the same time, and many of the fish died due to stress," he wrote, adding state officials took a sample of dead fish for testing, and residents will be notified if any other causes for the deaths becomes apparent.
A 1993 brief on conditions at the lake by the Department of Fish and Wildlife notes: "Winter drawdowns conducted to limit the amount of aquatic vegetation have apparently caused fish kills at this lake in the past."
The extreme drawdown and fish kill occurred simultaneously to ongoing repair work on the Ashmere dam. The 1,525-foot-long, 32-foot high earthen dam — deemed a high hazard structure by the commonwealth — soon will be expanded to about twice its current footprint.
Metal sheeting has been installed, the old spillway has been removed, and the forms are being set to construct concrete footings, said Frederick. Sheeting and hay bales are also being placed in adjacent wetlands areas.
Have Berkshire hilltown news? Contact Noah Hoffenberg at hoff1013@gmail.com.
When are these elected officials,going to understand,that they are responsible to us. They need to contact Town and City officials should of been contacted for their imput and reccomendations.The State did the same lack of commuinication when they applied herbiside and did clear cutting on Staford Hill,in Cheshire.We as voters need to start raising our voices and let these representives of ours,start representing us!!!!
from: D.McCarthy
on: 08-27-2009
If a private citizen or - God help them - a corporation had been involved in such wanton destruction of wildlife the state D.E.P. and their greeniac friends in the press would be calling for heads to roll. But, since it is the state who's the villain not a peep out of any of them. Then they wonder why we don't trust them anymore.
from: Tom G
on: 08-26-2009
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