BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

BULLETIN! 4-20-16, 4:30 p.m. — Let THE PLANET break it here first. Something’s up at The Berkshire Eagle. Employees have been told to clean up their work areas and to report tomorrow for an 8:30 a.m. meeting with HR dressed up (coats and ties). At 9:15 a.m., the paper plans a formal press conference. Local press and big shots (politicians, morticians, etc.) have been invited. Sounds to us like The Boring Broadsheet has been sold.

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(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2016) — If you click on the City of Pittsfield website, up comes the home page — eventually. It’s a slow loader, with everything first showing up literally under water, an apt metaphor for a fake factory going under. On the page you will find a calendar. When you click on a date, it lists the public meetings set for that date. Of course, this being Pittsfield, they do not list the times. That takes another click.

On April 25, you will find that your heroes on the School Building Needs Commission (SBNC) will be meeting at the Pittsfield High School Library at the “convenient” time of 5:15 p.m. That is to help limit participation by the solid public: people who hold jobs or run households. That is just one example of how the SBNC works hard to keep your proboscis out of their business. At least, they conceive of it as their business, and, since there is hardly any public participation, who’s to dispute that? Such sneaky business with meetings times holds true of virtually all of the Pittsfield School Department‘s business.

The agenda represents a paragon of generalization, but a few things are bound to slip out. For example, we learn that there will be an update from the “Color Subcommittee Meeting.” They will be reporting that red is blue, blue has shiny metallic armor, and the dish has run away with the spoon. There’s also listed a “Groundbreaking Ceremony.” Does this pertain to the $200 million Taconic High School, the project that will officially sink the city?

Rumored Setbacks May Add Untold Million$

THE PLANET wonders where the report is on the construction setbacks:

* A major sewer backup

* Hitting much more rock ledge than anticipated

* Finding more PCBs than expected.

Sewer Backup — Hard to say what caused this, which happened shortly after construction crews began digging up and poking the footprint for the new school. Officials are mum, but sources say it was allegedly related to some kind of grease or lubricant getting into the sewer line following the line being punctured by a piece of heavy equipment. Added cost? Substantial but unknown.

Rock Ledge — Having to deal with more rock ledge has caused all sorts of problems, sources tell THE PLANET. Building on or around ledge can cause major problems later on with the building’s foundation. Builders will now have to blast where they didn’t before. They may have to blast at least five feet greater in width and depth to allow a proper foundation to be built. Extra costs may also include reinforcement and pinning prior to blasting. It sounds like they will have to pin the foundation’s footings to the ledge with rebar. You engineers out there: Does that make sense? Added cost? Enormous but unspecified.

PCBs on Site – It’s long been known that PCBs have been found on the building site. The SBNC has even listed the need for remediation. It tried to bury this as a small, undocumented line item only to have THE PLANET uncover and publish it. Now we have conflicting reports about the amount of PCBs. Have old, rotted barrels of the stuff been uncovered? Rumors are flying. One of the old timers, a man we’ll call Al, drove forklifts and trucks for GE back in the 60s. He says the THS site was “one of our favorite” dumping sites – all done with company and city approval. Will the SBNC come clean? Will it either refute or confirm rumors of a large PCB cache. And will it also tell us if “PCB Remediation,” which they themselves admit needs to be done, has or has not been included in the official construction figure of $121 million?

With these three items, our $200 estimate is looking more conservative every day.

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“How can we keep love alive? How can anything survive, when these little minds tear you in two. What a town without pity can do.” – Gene Pitney, “Town Without Pity.”

“OPEN THE  WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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