This was a bad Hurricane for Berkshire County. I think the storm was easy on us compared to upstate NY and Vermont.we had very little damage just a lot of rain. I have a small stream 3 foot wide behind my house and it went over the banks 20 feet wide in some places. never seen so much water before.
HURRICANE IRENE BERKSHIRES BROLL
Video with nat/sot of flooding and tree damage in Otis, MA and Sandisfield, MA on Route 8. First clip shows a massive Hemlock tree falling across the road, bringing down power lines. Video Rating: 0 / 5
The phone’s mic isn’t really picking up the rumble that we are hearing… we thought jets were evacuating somewhere, as it was a deep loud rumbling noise!
In Nothern Berkshire County we got very little wind, No wind damage here. Iwas very calm and I expected we were in the eye and itwould start blowing anditnever did. We almost always miss the big storms,they go by either north or south of us. I think it hassomething to do with Mount Greylock and surounding mointains protect us and move north and south a bit.
Floods and Ice in Berkshire County
Rain and Ice fell on Berkshire County, leaving 10000 people without power. For More on the Story, visit www.berkshireeagle.com Video Rating: 0 / 5
Fire, police and medical emergency personnel respond to a mock disaster scenerio dealing with a dirty (radioactive) bomb in Pittsfield , MA. Berkshire Eagle Video by Ben Garver. This is only a drill!
Excelsior Printing Announces Formation of Excelsior Integrated, LLC and Acquisition of Assets
North Adams, MA (PRWEB) December 07, 2011
Excelsior Printing Company’s Chairman David Crane and CEO Brendan Burns announce the formation of a new company, Excelsior Integrated, LLC. Excelsior Integrated has acquired the assets of Berkshire Information Systems, Inc. (“BIS”), a leading provider of fulfillment, inventory management and electronic commerce services since 1978. “For several years now, Excelsior Printing has worked with Berkshire Information Systems on various projects that mutually benefited our customers. We have grown to admire the capabilities of BIS and, especially, its people,” said David Crane. “When the opportunity arose to acquire the assets of the company and work more closely with its customers, we felt we had to act quickly. It is very exciting to establish a new company that complements our existing business and keeps important jobs in Berkshire County.”
Excelsior Integrated, LLC is an independent company and continues to maintain its current customer relationships with numerous corporations, media companies and tourism offices. “Our customers will now benefit from a tight integration with the capabilities or our new sister company, Excelsior Printing,” said Shawn Ouillette, Executive Vice President of Excelsior Integrated and former BIS executive. “In the past when one of our tourism customers asked us to help them create a brochure or other marketing materials we would make suggestions of companies to work with, but ultimately had no real influence in the process. Now, with Excelsior Printing we can create integrated product offerings that allow for great value and outstanding service.”
The joint capabilities of the two companies create a powerful combination from a customer’s point of view. “Over the last several decades the Printing Industry has experienced a lot of pricing pressure due primarily to the proliferation of technology,” said Brendan Burns, CEO of Excelsior Printing. “Ultimately, this has benefited customers. What has been more difficult for customers is that they face their own competitive pressures and often need to manage three or more vendor relationships to support their marketing and business development needs. Now, together with our new sister company, Excelsior Integrated, we will be able to jointly offer a streamlined solution for most of their needs, and at great value along with the outstanding service Excelsior has always been known for.”
Excelsior Integrated, LLC management will consist of Brendan Burns, CEO (also CEO of Excelsior Printing), David Crane, Chairman, Shawn Ouillette, Executive Vice President and the former employees of BIS. The Company plans to remain in the former BIS facilities in Lee, MA.
Founded in 1892 and reborn in 2005, Excelsior Printing is dedicated to providing its customers with creative, cost-effective printing, digital communications, mail and distribution programs that provide a competitive edge. Specialty business divisions include SeedPrint, packaging for the seed industry, and Oatmeal Studios, greeting card publishing. For more information on Excelsior, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, visit us at http://www.excelsiorprinting.com, or email Julianne Fruscio at jwfruscio(at)excelsiorprinting(dot)com.
“If your dog is fat,” the old saying goes, “you aren’t getting enough exercise.” But walking the dog need not be just about a little exercise. Here are 10 cool things you can see in the Berkshire Hills while out walking the dog.
CCC BUILDINGS
During the Great Depression of the 1930s President FranklinRoosevelt put thousands of unemployed men to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Work camps were set up across the country with the mandate to build roads, reforest denuded lands, and construct recreational facilities for public use. Some of the greatest legacies of this “Tree Army” are in the Berkshires, including Bascom Lodge on the summit of Mount Greylock. Designed by Pittsfield architect Joseph McArthur Vance, the rustic shelter was designed to blend in with the landscape using native materials of stone (Greystone schist) and lumber (red spruce and oak).
GLACAL ERRATICS
The great ice rivers of the last Ice Age melted from Massachusetts about 15,000 years ago, scraping and shaping the landscape and leaving behind a fair share of debris. Strange rock formations from retreating glaciers are known as erratics. The greatest oddity in Pittsfield State Forest is a glacial erratic known as Balance Rock. The massive 165-ton limestone boulder teeters precariously upon a small, 3-foot piece of bedrock.
GRAZING CATTLE
Does your dog have any herding instincts? At Tyringham Cobble the canine hike begins in an open field where you may find yourself hiking with your dog through a free-ranging herd of Hereford cattle – as they have done for 200 years.
MASSQUATCH
A canine hike in October Mountain State Forest may be your best chance to spot Massquatch, New England’s version of Bigfoot. There have been occasional sightings of a hairy, oversized, human-like creature in Massachusetts across the years from the Atlantic beaches to the Berkshire Mountains. The Berkshire Eagle twice reported encounters at October Mountain in the 1980s, including an up-close and-personal at a former Boy Scout camp near Felton Lake.
MODERN ART
After World War II interrupted his career as a Williams College librarian, Lawrence Bloedel purchased the former Nathan Field farm with his wife Eleanore. In 1948 the couple retained Edwin Goodell to build a house to accommodate their expanding collection of contemporary American art. He responded with a modern, window-dominated design adorned with simple lines. In 1966, Ulrich Franzen delivered a Victorian Shingle-style house for the Bloedels’ grandchildren, known as The Folly. The Bloedels donated their blend of architecture and nature to the Trustees of Reservations in 1984 and when you hike with your dog at Field Farm today you can walk among 13 modern sculptures, including works by Richard M. Miller, Jack Zajac, Bernard Reder and Herbert Ferber.
MYSTERIOUS GLENS
Nathaniel Hawthorne called the Ice Glen, a cleft in the rocks between Bear and Little mountains behind the town of Stockbridge, “the most curious fissure in all Berkshire.” It is a ravine without a stream – all the water around Ice Glen flows on a south-north axis while the gorge is aligned east to west. In fact, the glen, stuffed with stacked boulders and draped with hemlocks, was once a glacial lake. Tucked away from the sun’s rays, the season’s last snow melts here, hence its name. Further west, beyond West Stockbridge, Stevens Glen was once one of the busiest tourist destinations in the the county. In the late 1800s Romanza Stevens built bridges and staircases to the Glen and its waterfall and charged 25 cents for tourists to view the magic of Lenox Mountain Brook.
RARE DAMS
In Natural Bridge State Park, the site of a marble quarry until 1947, is a dam built totally of marble blocks, etched in black on the edges. As Ed Elder, who operated the property as a roadside tourist attraction, would describe it, “This is the only marble dam outside Athens, Greece.”
SACRED RELIGIOUS SITES
Shaker communities were required to clear the summit of a nearby hill for worship. Near Hancock around 1842, this site was atop Mt. Sinai, now known as Shaker Mountain. The trail today leads to two Shaker sacred sites that have been leveled out on the top of Mt. Sinai and Holy Mount. When the Shakers worshipped here non-believers were not allowed on these grounds.
SLUICES, SPOUTS AND CASCADES
All over the Berkshires your dog can view and swim under hydrospectaculars. Some are reached with hardly a hike (Campbell Falls, Windsor Jambs, Wahconah Falls), others with a little effort (The Notch Brook Cascades, Bash Bish Falls, Tannery Falls) and other waterfalls are rewards for a spirited canine hike such as Sages Ravine in Mount Everett State Reservation.
STONE WALLS BUILT FOR THE AGES
The stone walls found throughout Massachusetts are some of the most beautiful walls ever built. The fact that so many can be found in Berkshire woods attests to the skill used in construction. You could not just pile up rocks found around your property and call it a wall. When a stone wall was finished it needed to be inspected by a fence viewer. If a wall was deemed sound the owner could not be liable for damage done to his crops by other farmer’s animals.
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“If your dog is fat,” the old saying goes, “you aren’t getting enough exercise.” But walking the dog need not be just about a little exercise. Here are 10 cool things you can see in the Berkshire Hills while out walking the dog.