Referendum Madness

Last week the Pittsfield City Council ordained (in a 6-5 vote) a new law prohibiting public consumption of marijuana, the fine being $300. This is exactly like the public consumption law for alcohol that we currently have on the books. (In case you didn't know, having a beer on the beach at Onota Lake is illegal.) The difference between these two situations is that alcohol is not a banned substance, and marijuana is. For this reason, five of us voted against the new law because we felt it was redundant, not in line with voters' response to Question #2 in November, and it also had the appearance of sour grapes on the part of government.

Some argue that marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxed just like alcohol. And personally I would be inclined to consider that if it ever came before Massachusetts voters. What do you think?

-Mike Ward

BACKYARD MOTOCROSS TRACKS

It’s too bad that we even need to consider this type of regulation, but unfortunately the notion of courtesy disappeared some time ago. When I was a teen there was an understanding that you pushed your dirt bike through the neighborhood to get to the woods. A couple times I got lazy and fired up my bike to get to the trails quicker and boy did I get the hairy eyeball from my neighbors. My offense would have only caused about a half a minute of noise pollution but it was unacceptable so I went back to pushing. Today we have residents building practice tracks right in their back yards. If you have a couple hundred acres of land to play with this might be reasonable, but where do we draw the line? Pittsfield’s zoning ordinance has a “permitted uses table” that regulates a wide range of activities. For example, shooting ranges are only allowed by special permit in zones R-20 and R-43. Like shooting ranges, practice motocross tracks can produce a lot of noise. But unfortunately this activity is not addressed in our current zoning ordinance.

What do you think? Should off road vehicle (ORV) recreation be regulated in residential zones?

GE Purchases Land in Ward 4?

General Electric recently purchased land on Noble Farm property for some $600K. Some have speculated that this could have something to do with a continued PCB cleanup operation on the Housatonic. At the risk of sounding like Colonel Klink I must confess "I know nothing" about it, but I seriously doubt that it involves GE growing corn.


-Mike

Williams Street Recreation Path

Sometimes called a bike path, sometimes called a greenway, and
always controversial, the proposed path that would connect Williams
Street to East Street is currently being studied for feasibility by an
engineering firm called BSC Group of Worcester.

My opinion on this project hasn't changed.

1) I'm a big fan of recreation paths in general for purposes of exercise,
recreation, and alternative transportation.
2) I think this particular location offers a singular opportunity to connect
two city neighborhoods that share an elementary school (Williams).
3) There are valid issues that need to be addressed including safety,
privacy for the abutters, and environmental impact.

The ongoing engineering feasibility study is expected to produce results
and recommendations in June.

What's your opinion?

Houston...

There are currently issues with Blogger that are causing some... problems.

It appears that all former "Contributors" will have to switch, or, rather, upgrade to this new Blogger service. It appears all one must do is sign in as usual and accept the new terms of service--THAT, or create a new account altogether.

Anyone wanting to be added as a contributor, or those of you wanting help creating an account and/or blog of your own, please e-mail me:

timkushi@yahoo.com

Put in the subject line: W4 BLOG HELP

Sorry for any troubles this may have caused those frequent commentators whose participation in the Ward 4 dialogue I know Mike honestly appreciates.

-Tim Kushi

Cameras for traffic control?

At a recent Public Health & Safety subcommittee meeting Chief Riello shared some options for using cameras in law enforcement. One example was planting surveillance cameras downtown or in an area that you want to watch (as Springfield has done recently). Another example was installing cameras on traffic lights to catch scofflaws.

And a third type was the hidden camera for traffic speed control. As Bernie pointed out, this function could be provided by a vendor hired by the Police Dept. The vendor would place a device that inlcudes a radar unit and a camera at some roadside location. The device would record images of any vehicle traveling above a certain speed. According to the Chief, the photos are from both the front and rear of the car and provide a crystal clear image of the license plate and driver's face.

The driver never knows what happened, and receives a citation in the mail with the recorded speed and photographs. The driver is of course free to appeal this citation, just like any other.

Knowing the problems with speed enforcement, I am all for trying this. And if it results in the complete breakdown of campaign finance law, as suggested, then we can certainly discontinue the experiment.

What do you think?

Pay-As-You-Throw Garbage

Thanks to everyone who participated in the pay-as-you-throw survey. As of December 17th at 5:00, 25 people have responded and the results for question one are:

Do you think Pittsfield should limit the "free" collection of garbage to one can per home?
Yes (9 votes) 36%
No (11 votes) 44%
Depends on the size of the can. (5 votes) 20%
The results of the open-ended "care to comment" question seem to be more interesting. There were so many varied opinions, suggestions, arguments on both sides, and vented feelings that I decided to share them all in the blog. All comments are anonymous and I removed names if they had been provided. I encourage you to continue this debate or respond to any of the comments below.
-Mike Ward

Hospice House

Now that HospiceCare in the Berkshires has presented detailed plans for a Hospice House on Williams street, what is your opinion of the proposed project?

Community Preservation Act

Community Preservation Act

By now you've heard something about it. Maybe you even went to the Community Preservation Act website for more information. And you probably know that I'm advocating for Pittsfield to adopt it.
So, if it passes in November, how would you invest CPA dollars?

~Mike

Thank you, Tim!

Thanks to Tim Kushi for setting up this blog, and to Dave Nichols for suggesting it.

Let the unfettered discussions begin!

Welcome

Welcome,

To meet the need of more space for the voluntary growth in dialogue on Mike Ward's Ward 4 e-mail list, this blog--"Pittsfield's Ward 4 - In Depth"--has been created.

Any and all individuals wishing to contribute to the development of the Ward 4 dialogue are welcome to join--but Ward 4 members with the interests, concerns, and ideas they'd like to share are especially encouraged to join.

Right now this blog is set to receive comments from anyone, whether you have a blog or not. However, if you do not sign on as a member you will not be able to post original topics.

If you have any questions please reach either me, Tim Kushi, at timkushi@yahoo.com, or Councilor Mike Ward himself at mikeward4@gmail.com

Thanks,
Tim Kushi