THE PROBLEM WITH PITTSFIELD

Residents Raise Alarm About Drug Dealers; Town Works To Respond

Priscilla Lemieux enjoys a smoke before bed, usually around 11 p.m.
But she doesn't enjoy the activity she sometimes sees at that time,
across the alley from her apartment. She sees cars coming and going,
never staying long enough for a cup of coffee, and she says she
knows what's happening.

She's seen drugs and money exchange hands.

"Right over there," Lemieux said recently, pointing out her living
room window.

"There are cars going in and out of there all the time, and they're
only stopping by for a minute or two," she said. "You're not stupid.
I'm a recovering drug addict. I know what to look for, and I know
what I see."

Lemieux, 28, and others in the area say they've witnessed young
people, perhaps in their late teens, maybe their early 20s,
conducting drug transactions on downtown streets. They occur near
businesses and apartment buildings, a few hundred yards from the
police station.

"I know this is happening," Lemieux said. "I keep close to the
streets in this town. I live right downtown, and I have acquaintances
who hear stuff and see stuff, and I see stuff personally. It's pretty
much common knowledge in this town."

Residents say the problem is not as blatant as it once was. Not since
the town held a meeting last month to discuss how to combat the
problem. And not since a petition was circulated by Larry Berube,
who's owned Zoya's restaurant, in the town's center, the past 4
years.

"It was out in the open, but now that I've started this, It's gone
back under," Berube said. "You know it's out there, though."

Berube is in the center of the storm. Just hours after he submitted
his petition to the town administrator last month, his 11-year-old
son's bedroom window was smashed sometime after 1 a.m.

"My wife thought she heard something," Berube said, seated in his
empty restaurant last week, shortly after closing. "We looked outside
and didn't see anything. The next morning we got up and the window
was broke."

Berube, 48, looked defeated. He said his restaurant and home, a
half-mile away, have been vandalized 13 times since he began his
crusade to clean up the town. There have been no arrests.

He walked past empty booths in his restaurant and past the kitchen
grill that hadn't been cleaned yet from a day's worth of cooking.

He pointed to the back door that had a black swastika drawn on it. He
said his front window had one also, but it came off with window
cleaner. He said a screen at his house had been slashed.

"Pittsfield's a good town," Berube said. "I like living in
Pittsfield. There's good and bad points. It's a beautiful town. But
the last year-and-a-half, it's gotten out of control."

Paul Rogers, 39, is a lifelong resident. He owns the video store and
hair salon, housed in the same building, on Main Street. There are
apartments upstairs.

"I would see people coming and going, coming and going, coming and
going," Rogers said. "I said to the (police) chief, 'On many
occasions I see this going on, why can't we put a surveillance camera
there? Why can't we do something?' To appease me from time to time he
would just say, 'Oh yeah, yeah, we'll do something.' Well, nothing
ever came about from it."

Just up Main Street, near the green banners on light posts that read,
"Welcome to historic Pittsfield," is the police department, where
Chief Robert Wharem has been forced to defend himself and his
department recently. Rogers and Berube claim the police haven't been
aggressive enough against the dealers they say are taking over the
town.

Wharem said the town's drug problem is no different than other areas.
He said Pittsfield's congested nature - 600 apartments in a small
area - make it easy for merchants and neighbors to detect buying and
selling.

"That in and of itself draws inner-city problems," Wharem said. "What
happens is these individuals see stuff that makes them believe that
it's more rampant than it was before, which is not the case. . . . I
believe what they're seeing is it's more visible than it was two years ago."

Wharem also said that with just a full-time chief and one full-time
detective, coupled with limited financial resources, the police can't
be everywhere all the time and can't purchase the necessary
equipment. Dealers see a cruiser and quickly cover their tracks.

To prove his point, he drove his cruiser through town. "This lady,
what is she doing?" he said. "How do we know? We can't be judgmental
without a reason. We have to see in three minutes what (residents)
have all day to see."

Meanwhile, Pittsfield continues to battle drugs and blows to its
reputation. Past events, like vandalism in the town cemetery and a
violent act in which a Pittsfield Middle-High boys' soccer player
broke an opponent's leg, have added to its black eye.

Lemieux, who cleans houses for a living, has three children, ages 3
to 9. Despite her complaints about drug activity, she defends
Pittsfield. "When you see it in the newspaper, it's mostly bad stuff,
but there's a lot of good stuff. They have the Balloon Rally, they
have Old Home Day, they have an amazing Pittsfield Youth Baseball
Association. . . . And the elementary school is top notch."

Soon Lemieux's 9-year-old son, Jacen, returned from school. He walked
to the far corner of the living room, across from the fish tank, to
begin his homework.

"Guess what, mama?" Jacen said. "The teacher said I'm getting better
in everything."

"That's wonderful," Lemieux answered. "That's really great."