A photo taken early Tuesday morning, Nov. 19, shows a wildfire on East Mountain in Great Barrington. The photo was taken from the Castle Street area.
GREAT BARRINGTON — Fire crews overnight have been monitoring a slow-moving, but growing 100-acre wildfire on East Mountain, a remote and forested area, that appears to have started around midnight Tuesday. No injuries have been reported.
Authorities said the wildfire poses no immediate threat to public property, but they urged residents to remain vigilant and avoid the area. Authorities have named it the Butternut Fire. About 50 to 75 crew members were on the ground with another 20 working at the incident command center.
"Though the fire looks very dangerous to the general public, it is not," said Ryan Brown, the Lee fire chief who led a morning press conference at the Great Barrington Fairgrounds area.
Fire crews were stationed at areas to ensure no structures are threatened.
No evacuation orders have been set.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, smoke continued to rise over the mountain to the east of downtown. The wildfire was burning trees and ground clutter; firefighters had not actively begun fighting the fire because the area is difficult to access, but scouts and drones were monitoring the wildfire's progress. Accessing the area requires hiking on foot, according to authorities at the Great Barrington Fire Station.
Multiple agencies, including the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, were on the scene and monitoring the situation.
Another angle of the fire, which authorities have named the Butternut Fire.Photo by Stephen P. Willig, courtesy of The Berkshire Eagle
The fire comes as a severe drought in the region and across the state has increased the risk of wildfire.
Authorities have been warning the public against any outdoor fires or anything that might cast a spark. Massachusetts is in a so-called Red Flag Warning, the highest warning level for wildfire potential because of dry conditions, wind and warm temperatures.
A Great Barrington Fire Department spokesperson said firefighters are using a drone to help determine the extent of the fire.
Ryan Brown, the Lee fire chief who is handling public information, said the terrain is difficult and that the vegetation is dry. Brown said that a tornado came through the area several years ago and left a lot of ground clutter that may be fueling the wildfire.
"The rain the other day did not help," Brown said.
The rate of the fire's spread was about 60 feet per hour, Brown said.
As of 7:45 a.m., the Great Barrington Fire Department was deploying resources to address the situation. Structural firefighting crews have been strategically staged in case their support is required.
Fire Chief Scott Turner and Police Sargent Adam Carlotto are working closely with Town Manager Mark Pruhenski to coordinate efforts, according to a news release sent by the town.
This wildfire adds to the more than 500 fires reported across Massachusetts since Oct. 1.
The Brookside Bridge, which had been closed to traffic for structural reasons, was re-opened on Tuesday morning to provide emergency access and resident safety due to the East Mountain fire in Great Barrington.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, smoke continued to rise over the mountain to the east of downtown.Photo by Ben Garver, The Berkshire Eagle
Norma Bosworth
125 years ago —
April 1901
U.S. Attorney-General Griggs, who resigned from President McKinley’s cabinet last week, expects to spend the month of July with his family at the Hillhurst, Norfolk.
A peddler crossing Canaan Mountain a few days ago met with quite a serious accident. His horse slipped and fell into water so deep that he had to tie up the horse’s head to keep it from drowning while he went for assistance. After several hours’ labor with plenty of help they succeeded in rescuing the horse and cart.
SHARON — Miss Lottie Miller, the Central girl, is ill with the grip at her home on Sharon Mountain.
LIME ROCK — The Barnum, Richardson Company is receiving a car-load of Fancy Oregon seed oats this week.
100 years ago —
April 1926
Adv.: WANTED — Household assistant for summer months in house with all conveniences. No objection to elderly woman. Mrs. Walter Angus, Taconic.
Local motorists are warned to operate their cars very slowly and carefully while passing through the town of Amenia. A new traffic cop in that place is taking his duties very seriously.
50 years ago —
April 1976
Over the strong objections of a prominent dairy farmer seeking to preserve his view, the Hartford Electric Light Co. has placed a new 80-foot-high transmission pole in the middle of a pasture at the foot of Roberts Hill near the Goshen- Cornwall line. The farmer is Willis Ocain of Cornwall Hollow, the fourth generation of family that has farmed in the same locations. He criticized HELCO and its parent company, Northeast Utilities, for not consulting him on the location of 11 new poles on his property, contending that the pole in the middle mars a prized pastoral scene and violates terms of an easement previously granted by his grandfather.
LAKEVILLE — “Virtually all” of the merchandise taken in a Saturday night break-in at Community Service had been recovered, proprietor Michael Turnure said Tuesday. Several persons saw the burglary in progress but did not report it, according to Turnure. Two garbage cans full of stolen goods were found in the Community Service lumber yard across the street from the store, he said. A wheelbarrow from the store apparently was used to carry the things to their hiding place.
Champion Cairnwoods Quince, leading male Cairn terrier in the country and owned by the Taylor Colemans, returned in triumph to his home at “Wolfpit” in Sharon on Sunday. In competition with 278 other terriers, he was named winner by Judge Peter Knoop at the Western Pennsylvania Kennel Association Show at Pittsburgh. Quince, on a national rating, was one of the top 10 terrier male producers in 1974 and 1975 and top Cairn in dog show wins for the same two years.
25 years ago —
April 2001
CORNWALL — Celebrating 25 years of touring with international arts programs, East-West Fusion Theatre actress Teviot Fairservis from Cornwall Bridge has been selected as a “Connecticut Master Teaching Artist” by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. She has performed and taught for East-West in more than 2,000 schools in 30 states.
SALISBURY — It’s been a rough year for the venerable stone kettle outside Town Hall. The century-old fountain has been vandalized twice in recent months. And, adding insult to injury, local health authorities have now decreed that natural spring water will never be allowed to flow through it again. The Torrington Area Health District required the town to shut off the spring water supply to the kettle in 1998, when traces of coliform bacteria turned up in tests of the water. The water now coming from the fountain is actually regular old tap water provided by Bridgeport Hydraulic Company.
Kent Memorial Librarian Deborah Custer was feted at a well-attended party in her honor last Friday evening. After working more than 20 years at the facility, Mrs. Custer is retiring and moving to Maine.
CANAAN — “It’s so simple,” is often used to describe the most ingenious inventions. But few will be saying “Why didn’t I think of that” when they hear of an idea at one local farm. For now, they are affectionately called “poop pots” by the Freund family at their East Canaan farm. And the name says it all. They look like the peat pots used for starting plants indoors. The difference is they are made from composted cow manure. No, they don’t have an odor and they are perfectly hygienic.
These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.
Bill Schmick
Airlines and passengers alike are buffeted by everything from weather to war. Long lines at the security gates, cancelled or delayed flights, war, weather, and the stock market have hurt both commercial carriers and their human cargoes.
March had not been good for either airline or its passengers. More than 12,500 U.S. flights were delayed by storms in some cases on. Daily basis as storms buffeted the East Coast and other locales. American Airlines, Southwest, and Delta delayed or canceled 45% of flights in a recent week. This is nothing out of the ordinary. Severe weather this winter has become just another liability for both carriers and passengers.
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began, conflict forced the cancellation of more than 52,000 flights to and from the Middle East. Since then, airlines that once relied on flying over Iran and other Gulf states must find alternative routes to their destinations. Geopolitical strife seems to be cropping up wherever you look (or fly over). What was once an efficient and finely tuned worldwide aviation travel network is now at risk of becoming a patchwork of fragmenting connections and workarounds.
As a result, not only are airplanes burning more fuel since they are forced to travel longer distances, but flights are getting longer and longer to get from point A to point B. Not only does this eat into carriers’ profitability, but it also adds to the woes of your typical passengers. The price of flights is rising along with oil, making it harder to travel long distances, even if one is lucky enough to catch a flight.
Geopolitical conflicts have become a nightmare for travelers.Thousands have been stranded in the Middle East, and before that by the Venezuela/U.S. raids, and let’s not forget the past four years of ongoing conflict between the Russia and Ukraine war.
Adding insult to injury, depending upon the airport, air travelers were encountering long airport security lines, some of which snaked out to the sidewalks surrounding the airport. Many major airports were experiencing nearly 3 hours in TSA lines, causing massive delays and missed flights during peak hours. Delays of at least 1 hour were reported in Atlanta, New Orleans, Charlotte, and Houston.
The culprit was the partial federal shutdown of Homeland Security funding, which had led to staffing difficulties at the Transportation Security Administration. Security personnel, until this week, had not received a paycheck for weeks. The U.S. Senate is still squabbling over funding.
The president sent his ICE agents to help but reports were that they were simply making matters worse. Finally, Trump ordered the head of Homeland Security to find the money and pay the TSA workers. He did. Readers might wonder why Trump had not simply done that in the first place.
Like consumers, airlines are also grappling with higher energy prices. A sharp spike in jet fuel costs have decimated profits. Since the start of the war, the global average price of jet fuel has soared 58%, based on International Air Transport Association data. Since then, it has almost doubled. Fuel accounts for 20-25% of airline operating costs, and average prices have risen from $2.50 before the crisis to $4.57 per gallon now. Although some airlines hedge, many do not, and hedging often covers only part of their fuel needs.
Advance purchase fares more than doubled for transcontinental flights in the first week of the war. Fares to the Caribbean jumped 58% and 43% to Florida. Several airlines, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region, have either increased fares or announced fuel surcharges. Air India, for example, tacked on a $50 ticket charge for all flights to Europe, North America, and Australia. Cathay Pacific doubled fuel surcharges starting March 18th.
U.S. airlines on domestic flights are prohibited from levying a separate fuel surcharge. Instead, they include fuel costs in the overall ticket price. Flyers can expect ticket prices to increase this summer unless oil prices drop back to pre-war levels in the next week or so. In the meantime, expect premium add-ons like seat upgrades, extra legroom seats, checked bags, or priority boarding to be adjusted upward.
Airline stocks have dropped sharply since the Iran war, driven by higher fuel costs and flight disruptions. U.S. airlines have generally underperformed the market this year, reflecting persistent concerns about weaker demand and limited pricing power. The industry also faces elevated labor costs and ongoing pilot shortages.
However, in recent days, some brave-hearted traders have been buying the dip in this area. Airline management says revenues are still increasing in both international and domestic travel, despite the challenges they face. Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines all raised their revenue outlooks for the year. Consumer demand is still robust, they say, despite the long lines, added expense, and frustration.
Some airlines are now warning that they will be cutting back flights on less travelled and therefore less profitable routesAnalysts are warning that the higher oil prices climb and the longer they remain elevated, the greater the risk that flyers will pull back, and with them, the airlines’ stock prices.
Bill Schmick is a founding partner of Onota Partners, Inc., in the Berkshires.Bill’s forecasts and opinions are purely his own and do not necessarily represent the views of Onota Partners, Inc. (OPI).None of his commentary is or should be considered investment advice.
Ruth Epstein
Bryan Failla
SHARON – The Town of Sharon has named Torrington resident Bryan Failla as its new Parks and Recreation director, following the retirement of longtime director Matthew Andrulis-Mette, who held the position for 27 years.
Failla, 34, said the role is a natural fit, noting that he has “always been a sports guy,” while acknowledging that he has big shoes to fill.
“The community loves Matt,” Failla said. “I’m not coming in to change things – I’ll be building upon what Matt’s done.”
Failla said he plans to start by getting to know the community and its needs, adding that he enjoys working with people of all ages.
Before coming to Sharon, Failla served as an athletic director at Region 20’s Plum Hill Middle School for two years. He also spent six years in law enforcement as a police officer with the Winchester Police Department.
Failla holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he played baseball, and a master’s degree in sports administration from Arkansas State University. He said he enjoys playing golf and volunteering with the Torrington Police Athletic League (PAL).
Sharon’s Parks and Recreation Department oversees the Little Rascals summer camp, summer concerts, an annual triathlon, a summer crafts fair and senior bus trips, in addition to a variety of recreational activities.
The department will also see a staffing change beyond the leadership transition. Former director Andrulis-Mette said his previous role has been split into two separate positions: a director — a role Failla has been hired to fill — and a maintenance staff member from the town crew to oversee the athletic fields and beach.
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Patrick L. Sullivan
Peter Vermilyea, a social studies teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School and author of the newly published “Litchfield County and the American Revolution,” speaks at the D.M. Hunt Library on April 4 about how Litchfield residents turned a statue of King George III into 42,088 musket balls.
FALLS VILLAGE – Litchfield County may not have been the site of major battles during the American Revolution, but its residents made their mark in other ways – including turning a statue of King George III into 42,088 bullets.
Peter Vermilyea, a social studies teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School and author of the newly published “Litchfield County and the American Revolution,” walked an audience through the story of Oliver Wolcott — a prominent Litchfield County citizen — and the fate of the King George statue during a talk Saturday, April 4, at the D.M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
The statue, made of lead and covered in gilt, was erected in Manhattan’s Bowling Green on Aug. 16, 1770, to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Prince Frederick, the King’s father.
King George III was popular at the time, having signed the repeal of the hated Stamp Act.
The New York Sons of Liberty, however, saw things differently. Vermilyea said they had lobbied for a statue of William Pitt, who led the fight against the Stamp Act.
But Parliament balked at the cost, especially to honor a colonial.
So alongside the gilded equestrian statue of the king in Roman finery stood a pedestrian-standing-statue of Pitt.
“The imperial message was clear.”
That message would not last. On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in New York.
The city was on edge anyway. The British occupied the harbor with about 32,000 troops, while George Washington and his army of roughly 20,000 shared the city with a civilian population of about 20,000.
Washington read the Declaration to the troops and assembled civilians.
The troops went back to barracks, but the civilians had other ideas.
They marched to Bowling Green and pulled down the statue of King George.
Among those watching was Litchfield’s Oliver Wolcott.
He was the son of a governor, a governor himself as well as a member of the legislature.
Vermilyea said Wolcott was a Puritan and a conservative in every sense of the word. He was the last man to approve of or join in any sort of mob action, such as destroying a statue.
Vermilyea said the American Revolution was essentially a conservative action.
The colonists had been left more or less alone by the Crown for 100 years, until the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
And the colonies had prospered.
After the French and Indian War, however, the British became far more involved in the colonies and imposed the various taxes and levies that sparked the Revolution.
Far from being radicals, the colonists “wanted to go back to 1762.”
But events were moving fast, and by April of 1776, Wolcott wrote in a letter to his wife that independence was inevitable.
“A final separation between the countries I consider as unavoidable.”
Once the statue had been toppled and broken into several big pieces, Wolcott and the sheriff of New York took charge.
Wolcott told the crowd that the statue could be melted down for musket balls in Litchfield, and the pieces were loaded into an oxcart.
The journey was not easy. Loyalists intercepted the cart and made off with about half of the lead. Still, Wolcott and the remaining fragments reached Litchfield.
In a shed in an apple orchard next to Wolcott’s home, the community got to work. The statue was reduced to 100 pieces, each weighing about 20 pounds.
Fires were built, and the lead pieces were melted in kettles and poured into molds.
Wolcott, methodical by nature, kept detailed records on who produced what.
A Mrs. Marvin produced 6,058 bullets – referred to as “cartridges,” although they were round lead balls, not modern cartridges– while a woman named Mary Ann led the effort with 10,790.
Washington later said the ammunition made from the statue had been “exceedingly useful.”
Patrick L. Sullivan
Kevin Papacs explained how he changed his approach to instruction.
FALLS VILLAGE – First-year teachers in Region One have been working alongside veteran educators as part of the Teacher Excellence and Mentorship (TEAM) program, a statewide program required for teachers with an initial educator certificate. Local participating educators presented on how those collaborations translated into classroom practice on Tuesday, March 31.
Kevin Papacs, a new physical education teacher at Salisbury Central School, worked with longtime music teacher Rob Nellson.
Papacs said his initial tactic of using direct instruction on stretching and warm-ups worked well at first, but after the holidays he noticed less enthusiasm.
Working with Nellson and doing research, he came up with a strategy of allowing the students to design their own five- to seven-minute warmup plan.
Papacs said the tactic worked at first, “but then it faded a bit.”
To keep the ball rolling, he and Nellson had the students keep a journal, recording how much time and how many repetitions they spent on each exercise.
Four of the six classes showed improvement.
“So I brainstormed with my colleagues,” Papacs said.
Papacs had students lead the warm-ups, and instruct their peers. “So it wasn’t just me walking around, it was the kids saying ‘good job,’” he said.
Papacs said the new method allowed him to spend more time with students who needed additional support.
Papacs said he meets with Nellson once a week.
He was philosophical about what worked and what didn’t.
“Failure is information too,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be a home run every time.”
Asked if he is more confident than at the beginning of the year, he said “Oh, absolutely.”
Emily Piescki is the art teacher at Kent Center School. She worked with second grade teacher Ane Starr.
Piescki said she realized that the students needed a gradual approach, “instead of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.”
In a watercolor class, the children were “having a great time, but not focused.”
So she developed a template and took the students through it, step by step.
Once the students knew the names of specific techniques, they could ask specific questions rather than general ones.
The moment of truth came with hand-made ceramic bells.
“They all fired correctly,” Piescki said. “If you’ve ever worked with clay you know that’s a huge win.”
Starr and Piescki meet once a week.
Starr said “I think I’m learning as much as Emily. She’s a rock star. She doesn’t need me.”
John Coston
Approved site of a proposed 186-foot cell tower on a 40-acre parcel at 78 Goshen Street East.
NORFOLK – The Connecticut Siting Council has approved a new cell tower for South Norfolk that will provide cellular coverage for customers who currently have spotty or no cell service along the Route 272 corridor between Norfolk and Torrington.
Last October, the council had approved the plans of Tarpon Towers III and Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, for a 186-foot tower to be located on a 40-acre parcel at 78 Goshen Street East. On March 13, its decision was finalized.
The tower site will be approximately 2,000 feet from the road between Goshen Street East and Estey Road and will be accessed from Estey Road. It is about 650 feet from the nearest residential structure on Estey Road.
An earlier proposed location drew significant opposition from residents of Old Goshen Road and Smith Road. At the time, residents organized an effort to potentially purchase the land from the owner, but the effort fell short. Last spring, Verizon instead selected the Goshen Street East site owned by Paul Chapinsky Sr.
“Luckily they decided to move on and go elsewhere,” said Sloane Klevin, of Old Goshen Road, who led the effort against the first location. “The big issue has always been emergency and town vehicles that have no cell service,” she added, noting that when town snowplows get stuck turning around on her property, they can’t call for help.
The plan to put the tower in its new location drew more than two dozen residents to an informational meeting in March 2025 at Botelle School in Norfolk, where they raised some opposition and concern about the project and its access off Estey Road. Later, at an August 2025 official Siting Council public hearing on the matter, no members of the public signed up to speak, but neighboring property owners opposed the project in written testimony.
Norfolk currently has four cell towers that service multiple providers. The new tower is expected to improve service for residents of Norfolk, Goshen and Winchester along Route 272. According to Cellco’s filing with the Siting Council, the company currently “has a coverage deficiency on Route 272 (4.9 miles in Norfolk and 2.1 miles in Goshen) and on Route 263 (0.4 miles in Goshen and approximately 3.0 miles in Winchester).”
“Based on a lack of reliable wireless service for Cellco in the Norfolk, Goshen and Winchester area, including Route 272 and Route 263 and surrounding areas, the Council finds a specific need for the facility,” the Council wrote in its findings of fact.
Last summer, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection found that the tower’s site is within the habitat area of the eastern red bat, a species of special concern, and within range of the northern long-eared bat, an endangered species on state and federal lists. As a result, the site work will avoid tree clearing from April 15 to Sept. 30.
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