Dalton Planning Board members work to clarify plans submitted by Berkshire Concrete for a special permit for excavation. The proposal has drawn opposition from neighbors who have complained about dust and debris. The hearing was continued to next month.
Citizens rise in opposition to the permit; the board also read out 32 letters it received asking it reject the permit. Laughter accompanied the board's asking if anyone wished to speak in favor.
About 100 people attended the public hearing in Nessacus Middle School.
Berkshire Concrete's attorneys look through their paperwork.
DALTON, Mass.— Berkshire Concrete needs to provide more updated, accurate, and clear plans for the Planning Board members to feel comfortable approving its special permit.
More than 100 people attended a public hearing on Wednesday at Nessacus Regional Middle School to voice their concerns about Berkshire Concrete's request for a special permit.
During the meeting, which lasted more than three hours, board members expressed confusion around Berkshire Concrete's plans, due to inconsistencies in the documentation and its vagueness.
Berkshire Concrete, a subsidiary of Petricca Industries, is requesting a renewal of its current permit and requests continued excavation on the unauthorized dig site on parcel 105-16, part of which has since been partially mitigated, and continues the work up towards Renee Drive, on parcels 101-25 and 105-12.
Berkshire Concrete's attorney, Dennis Egan Jr., of Cohen Kinne Valicenti & Cook LLP, highlighted the history of the organization's special permit dating back to 1992 and explained how the permit applies to the entire approximately 200-acre parcel.
"Courts nationwide have ruled that in the context of graveling, mining, because of the nature of the use it's understood that it would progress and not just take place in one particular area," he said.
In this case, the application includes the parcel 105-16, which has been subject to reclamation due to the clerical error.
"When you operate a business, an operation over several decades, missteps are going to happen," Egan said.
"I don't think the measure as to whether a property owner is respectful of the town or its neighbors is whether or not the missteps happen. I think the measure is how that's responded to, how the property owner responds."
Egan demonstrated how in March of 2025, when the Board of Health issued a cease and desist order due to sand blowing off Berkshire Concrete's site, they immediately contacted him and promptly contacted a reclamation consultant and implemented a reclamation plan.
Additionally, Berkshire Concrete has had ongoing communications with the town, including multiple site visits with town officials and representatives, Egan said.
Egan acknowledged that a mistake was made and Berkshire Concrete owns it.
"None of the operations were illegally done. There was a simple oversight, a mistake. I think all parties thought that parcel 105-16 was permitted," he said.
"It was, in fact, not permitted ... again, Berkshire Concrete owns it, and put into place that reclamation plan. Listened to the concerns of the town people and the boards."
During the meeting, the board had Town Planner Janko Tomasic read all the 32 letters the town has received, all of which express disapproval for the proposed special permit.
When asked if anyone in the audience would like to comment in favor of the permit, the room remained silent, aside from several chuckles from audience members.
The letters and comments from residents reiterated what has been said at several meetings — that the dust is a nuisance, and believed to be, by residents, an environmental concern and health risk.
Based on all the letters and no one speaking in favor of the permit, "it's clearly obvious that the majority, if not everybody in this town, has an issue with this. That they want you to deny this," resident Michael Hill said.
In response to the dust, residents established the Clean Air Coalition to provide updates on what they described as slow progress towards a resolution. This is separate from the town's Clean Air Committee.
Clean Air Coalition member Lisa Pugh said Egan's statement that missteps are not a measure of good behavior; actions are, is accurate and proves the residents' points.
"When we have a history going back decades, that's more than just a mistake and to say missteps are not a measure of good behavior, but the reaction to those are — that is exactly true. I think that we have seen tonight, the reaction to those missteps, the lack of reaction," she said.
"So, he has proved his point to us beautifully. So, thank you for making that statement, because it has been proven tonight that your reaction to those missteps has been woefully inadequate."
She said Berkshire Concrete received a cease-and-desist order in February and if it was concerned about the missteps, it would have been mitigated then.
Egan confirmed during the meeting on Wednesday that Berkshire Concrete has appealed this determination.
"If they were truly acting in good faith, truly wanting to do the right thing, they would not be mincing words and hiding behind legal precepts. They would be doing the right thing," Pugh said.
Berkshire Concrete mined parcel 105-16 off Bridle Road without a valid permit from December 2022 until spring 2025, Select Board member Tony Pagliarulo said.
Pagliarulo said the map of 105-16 was nearly illegible, and that Berkshire Concrete included other parcels that had been routinely mined over the decades but omitted 105-16. However, six months later, in July 2023, he said, they filed a notice of intent with the Conservation Commission correctly listing 105-16 but failed to list the parcel in its special permit applications to the Planning Board for the following two years.
"To be kind, what I've just described, I find highly irregular," Pagliarulo said, and that during that time, dozens of trees were taken down and thousands of cubic yards of earth was removed.
"Acres of exposed and unprotected landscape proved right for westerly winds to blow dirt and dust regularly upon our neighbor's adjacent property contaminating the air they breathe," he said.
"It was only through our neighbors' repeated complaints did this situation come to our community's attention."
Pagliarulo highlighted the ongoing steps the town has taken to address the issue and that this past summer Berkshire Concrete initially agreed for the town to collect sand samples — permission that has since been withdrawn.
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