Latest news with #GreatBarrington
Yahoo
09-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Many interested groups': Closed Western Mass. college campus attracts potential buyers
A group of alumni, residents and nonprofit leaders are among those interested in purchasing the closing Bard College at Simon's Rock campus in Great Barrington. The group, which formed a 501(c)(3) partnership called Simon's Rock Village, intends to preserve the campus as a community resource, according to a statement. Read more: Why transforming vacant college campuses into housing isn't easy They intend to 'open as a hub for affordable housing, learning, arts and wellness for the Berkshires and beyond,' the group said. Those goals are informed by community-wide surveys and conversations, according to their website. 'Simon's Rock showed me what a true community of thinkers and dreamers can accomplish when we all work together. Simon's Rock Village is our way of giving back and ensuring that future generations have the same chance to grow, create and belong as we did as students. Our vision is to make sure that spirit of innovation and inclusion continues to thrive for our community and everyone in the Berkshires,' said Stephen Lieberman, president of the nonprofit and 2003 graduate. 'We're committed to ensuring future generations can learn, create and belong here.' Outside of Simon's Rock Village, there are 'many interested groups' looking at buying the campus, according to Taun Toay, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Bard College. For instance, there is another group of 20 community members that formed in December who have expressed interest, according to the Berkshire Edge. Read more: Could shuttered college campuses help solve the Mass. housing crisis? Bard College at Simon's Rock announced it would be closing its Great Barrington campus in November due to declining enrollment. Bard Academy, a two-year ninth and 10th grade high school, also closed in Western Massachusetts. Both relocated to Bard College's Massena Campus near its main campus in New York. The closure led to 116 layoffs. In response to the closure, the town of Great Barrington passed a zoning proposal to add additional zoning such as multi-unit housing, assisted living residences and professional offices to expand the campus' potential uses. Other Massachusetts colleges have closed recently. Eastern Nazarene College, a private liberal arts college in Quincy, announced in June it would close due to financial issues. Read more: Town vote paves the way for new uses for closing Western Mass. college The Bard College at Simon's Rock campus will be sold by JLL Commercial Commercial Real Estate and Property Investment of Chicago, which is creating a marketing plan for the 275-acre property. Simon's Rock Village is raising $100,000 in operating funds and seeking community pledges to purchase the campus. Their priorities are to keep the Kilpatrick Athletic Center open for over 350 local families, maintain the Daniel Arts Center for performances and exhibitions and repurpose campus housing for affordable housing. The organization was spearheaded by alumni such as Marla Goldberg-Jamate '83, David Long '80, Charlie Derr '82, Elisa Sideli '83, and Jonathan Lothrop '82, according to the group's website. The group is part of Youbilee, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to social innovation and community empowerment. More Higher Ed Trump admin seeks dismissal of Harvard lawsuit, citing 'serious national security' risks Trump orders colleges to prove they don't consider race in admissions 'Severely lacking': Trump admin has backlog of 27K student loan complaints Legal document shows discord between Harvard and Trump admin amid negotiations Harvard and Trump admin await judge's decision as deadline ticks closer Read the original article on MassLive. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
This Operatic Comedy Was Once a Delight. Why Is It Ignored Today?
In the standard repertoire, comic opera more or less starts with Mozart. Of course, others came before him, but his towering command of the form — the way he fully realizes characters from high and low backgrounds and gives them personal dignity, quirky foibles and exquisite arias — casts a long shadow over all of them. Still, there's a two-hander from the first half of the 18th century, a few decades before Mozart's birth, that anticipates the comic style to come. Pitting a wily maid against a buffoonish master — stock types that Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti would continue to mine for the next 100-plus years — it entertained audiences with its delightful music, relatable characters and reversal of the traditional power dynamics accorded by gender and social station. This is Georg Philipp Telemann's 'Pimpinone,' from 1725, which came eight years before Pergolesi's better-known piece with the same premise, 'La Serva Padrona,' but is rarely heard today. The Boston Early Music Festival, though, is presenting it in a rare staging at Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday and Saturday, then at Caramoor in Katonah, N.Y., on Sunday. 'It's one of those quirks of history that 'Pimpinone' hasn't become a repertory piece, because it really deserves to be,' said Steven Zohn, a Telemann scholar. 'Pimpinone' belongs to a long-obsolete genre of classical music, the intermezzo, a short comedy intended to be broken up and performed between the acts of a dramatic or tragic opera. Its everyday characters have jobs, worry about money and fall prey to gossip, in stark contrast to the noble bearing and life-or-death stakes of the mythological and historical personages of opera seria. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
27-06-2025
- CBS News
2 Massachusetts educators charged with manslaughter after student drowns on field trip
Two educators are facing manslaughter charges after a student drowned on a summer field trip in western Massachusetts last July. Twelve-year-old Giver Essien was with classmates when she went missing in a pond in Great Barrington. The Berkshire District Attorney said Pittsfield educators Linda Whitacre and Meghan Braley did not follow state-mandated water safety regulations. The teachers allegedly had more than double the number of children swimming at once than legally allowed for one lifeguard. "Nobody knew who was in the water when, where or at what time and that is all against the law in Massachusetts," said Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue. Shugrue said required swim tests were not completed before the trip either. Giver Essien's father recalls getting the devastating news. "When they called me and said I can't find her, I was like, what do you mean you can't find her?" Richard Essien said. "Then in 10 minutes she calls again and says we found her. She was under the water. I said which water?" Giver Essien, 12, died on a field trip in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Family photo That call came from one of the two Pittsfield educators who are now criminally charged in the girl's death. Warnings ignored The investigation, according to the DA, found that at least three children reported to Braley that Giver was unable to swim and had gone under the water, but the warnings were ignored. The DA also says the teachers didn't notice she was missing until 30 minutes after all the other kids had gotten out of the water. Those details are a gut punch for Richard Essien, who is urging parents to check in with their child's summer camps. "This is the season. With this kind of weather, whether you like it or not, the kids might want to go to the water. Be careful. Cautious," Essien said. The teachers face three charges including involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment of a child. The DA said he doesn't think they intended harm but claims their "reckless conduct" led to the 12-year-old's death.
Washington Post
11-06-2025
- Washington Post
The secret police descending on Small Town, U.S.A.
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Maybe they really were immigration officers, just as they claimed. Or maybe they were a ragtag vigilante group, arbitrarily snatching brown-looking people off the street. 'It could have been like a band of the Proud Boys or something,' said Linda Shafiroff, recounting the agents who showed up outside her office in masks and tactical gear and refused to show IDs, warrants or even the names of any criminals they were supposedly hunting.
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Boston Globe
30 years ago today, a destructive tornado tore through a small Massachusetts town
Advertisement There wasn't much left of the Great Barrington Fairgrounds after a tornado struck the night of May 29, 1995. RYAN, DAVID STAFF PHOTO The sheer force of the Great Barrington tornado toppled tall trees like matchsticks on May 29, 1995. RYAN, DAVID STAFF PHOTO It was the strongest tornado that the state of Massachusetts had seen since the June 9, 1953, twister that struck Worcester. During that evening of May 29, 1995, which was the observed Memorial Day that year, a cluster of severe thunderstorms had pushed into Berkshire County and triggered a tornado warning from the National Weather Service office out of Albany, N.Y. At first, the supercell that spawned the Greater Barrington tornado actually had produced a prior tornado in Eastern New York, an F2 that traversed 15 miles. As the storms pushed over the Massachusetts state line, huge amounts of moisture and wind shear from neighboring storms helped the supercell restrengthen, spawning the larger, deadly tornado. Advertisement Numerous vehicles and buildings were impaled by flying debris from trees, fences, and other timber. Multiple buildings lost their roofs or flat-out collapsed, including the local fairground, a supermarket, and a gas station. Bud Rodgers takes a breather after helping to clear trees from the yard of his neighbor, who, along with his family, escaped injury when their roof collapsed during the Great Barrington tornado of 1995. CHIN, BARRY GLOBE STAFF PHOTO Radar imagery on the evening of May 29, 1995, shows a supercell (deep red) pushing through Great Barrington. NWS The tornado was designated as F4 strength under the original Fujita scale, which had a strict and only wind threshold to measure tornado strength. An Enhanced Fujita Scale was implemented in 2007, taking into account damages to building structures and wind and there's a good chance that the Great Barrington twister would have been deemed an EF5 tornado by today's standards. The Enhanced Fujita Scale takes into account wind speed as well as building damage. The wind speed threshold is also lower than the original Fujita scale. NOAA Tornadoes form within supercell thunderstorms with wind shear, a change in direction and speed of wind as you move higher into the atmosphere. Ample moisture will make the air light enough and be lifted vertically, which can create a rotating column of air or tornado. Changes in directional wind shear as air rises vertically into the atmosphere will initiate rotation. Boston Globe Strong updrafts will tilt the tube of rotating air upright, forming into a tornado. Boston Globe Ken Mahan can be reached at
