Towns must pay more for science center

FALLS VILLAGE — The new Science and Technology Center at Housatonic Valley Regional High School is going to cost about $60,000 more than originally thought, because the state is requiring the school district to comply with prevailing wage laws on the project.Region One School District Business Manager Sam Herrick delivered the bad news at the regular monthly meeting of the Region One Board of Education at the high school on Monday, Jan. 9.The project was unusual from the outset in that all the funds have been raised privately. Individuals and businesses have donated not only cash but in-kind services, materials and volunteer labor.“We were working under the premise that private funds mean no prevailing wage,” Herrick said.The project did receive some federal funds under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the “stimulus”). Herrick said those funds were used for buying materials, and, it was believed, did not trigger the state’s prevailing wage law, which applies when the total cost of work by all contractors on a new public works project exceeds $400,000 and the total cost of remodeling or rehabilitation of a public works project exceeds $100,000.The total cost of the center will be about $500,000.Herrick said the state Department of Labor got involved as the result of an inquiry from a subcontractor. “We learned that the fact that it’s a public building trumps funding sources,” Herrick said.Herrick asked the board to acknowledge that the additional money will come from the capital reserve fund — specifically, from funds earmarked for roof repair at the high school.Later in the meeting, Mark Burdick, a teacher at Housatonic, expressed the popular mood when he said he was “disappointed” by the news, pointing to the widespread support from the community in terms of money and services.

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Kevin Kelly’s After Hours

Kevin Kelly’s After Hours

Kevin Kelly

Photo by Christopher Delarosa
“I was exposed to that cutthroat, ‘Yes, chef’ culture. It’s not for me. I don’t want anyone apologizing for who they are or what they love.”— Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly doesn’t call himself a chef; he prefers “cook.” His business, After Hours, based in Great Barrington, operates as what Kelly calls “a restaurant without a home,” a pop-up dining concept that prioritizes collaboration over competition, flexibility over permanence, and accessibility over exclusivity.

Kelly grew up in Great Barrington and has roots in the Southern Berkshires that go back ten generations. He began working in restaurants at age 14. “I started at Allium and was hooked right off the bat,” he said. He worked across the region from Cantina 229 in New Marlborough to The Old Inn on the Green at Jacob’s Pillow before heading to Babson College in Boston to study business. After a few years in Boston kitchens, he returned home to open a restaurant. But the math didn’t work. “The traditional model just didn’t feel financially sustainable,” he said. “So, I took a step back and asked, ‘If that doesn’t work, then what does?’”

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Books & Blooms’ tenth anniversary

Books & Blooms’ tenth anniversary

Dee Salomon on what makes a garden a garden.

hoto by Ngoc Minh Ngo for Architectural Digest

On June 20 and 21, the Cornwall Library will celebrate its 10th anniversary of Books & Blooms, the two-day celebration of gardens, art, and the rural beauty of Cornwall. This beloved annual benefit features a talk, reception, art exhibit, and self-guided tours of four extraordinary local gardens.

The first Library sponsored garden tour was in June 2010 and featured a talk by Page Dickey, an avid gardener and author. This year’s Books & Blooms will coincide with Ellen Moon’s exhibit “Thinking About Gardens,” a collection of watercolors capturing the quiet spirit of Cornwall’s private gardens. Moon, a weekly storyteller to the first grade at Cornwall Consolidated School and art curator for The Cornwall Library, paints en plein air. Her work investigates what constitutes a garden. In the description of the show, she writes: “there are many sorts...formal, botanical, cottage, vegetable, herb...even a path through the woods is a kind of garden. My current working definition of a garden is a human intervention in the landscape to enhance human appreciation of the landscape.” Also on display are two of her hand-embroidered jackets. One depicts spring’s flowering trees and pollinators. The other, a kimono, was inspired by Yeats’s “The Song of the Wandering Aengus.”

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