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| News and events in Pittsfield, Mass.
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Pittsfield Goes Back to School With Tighter Cell Phone PolicyBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
01:13PM / Saturday, August 24, 2024 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee has tightened the district's cell phone regulations but some recognize that it may not be enough.
On Wednesday, a revised policy was passed that holds students' phones in the main office on a second infraction. By the fourth, the student is assigned Restorative In-School Education (RISE) and a caregiver must pick up the device.
A tiered cell phone policy was accepted last summer and after more than 6,300 infractions occurred in the subsequent school year, administrators went back to the drawing board.
Over the past month, teachers, families, and committee members helped inform a refined policy that interim Assistant
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Massachusetts Unemployment and Job Estimates for July 2024| 12:39PM / Saturday, August 24, 2024 | |
BOSTON, Mass. — The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced the state's July total unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, a 0.3 percentage point increase from the revised June estimate of 3.2 percent. The Massachusetts unemployment rate was 0.8 percentage points lower than the national rate of 4.3 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over-the-year, the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was up by 0.3 percentage points. The labor force increased by an estimated 22,000 from the revised estimate of 3,806,600 in June, with 12,100 residents more employed and 9,900 more residents unemployed over-the-month. The state's labor
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Wahconah Park Restoration Advancing With Support From Parks CommissionBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
12:20PM / Friday, August 23, 2024 | |
 PITTSFIELD, Mass. — While there are some unknowns, the restoration of Wahconah Park is advancing.
On Tuesday, the Parks Commission supported a move toward the project's development and design phase. Mayor Peter Marchetti has received a final report from the Wahconah Park Restoration Committee recommending a $28.4 million rebuild of the grandstand and parking lot.
"Although there are still some unknowns on how we're going to close the gap of funding, I think it's imperative that we take the next step and move on and get ourselves into the development and design phase," he told the commissioners.
"We all know that the longer we wait, the more
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Berkshire Athenaeum Short Story Contest Winners| 08:17AM / Friday, August 23, 2024 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield's Public Library, and the Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum announced the winners of the 46th Annual Short Story Writing Contest for Children and the 27th Annual Short Story Writing Contest for Young Adults. Entries were combined into five age categories with a total of 28 submissions. A committee of judges read through the submissions and rated the entries on originality, appeal, writing style, and artwork, if applicable. All short story submissions are on display in the Children's Library now through September 21, 2024. The winning submissions are also displayed on the library's website. When asked 0 Comments
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Dalton Advisory Panels Nixes Fire Station AddBy Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
05:15AM / Friday, August 23, 2024 | |
DALTON, Mass. — The Public Safety Facility Advisory Committee eliminated the possibility of including a fire station in a public safety building. Committee members highlighted several reasons, including the Fire District's separation from the town, its disinterest in purchasing a station, and its "house [being in] disorder." The Board of Water Commissioners oversees the Fire District and the Fire Department. The district had reconsidered the prospect of purchasing a former automotive garage, located at 385 Main St., to turn it into a fire station. The advisory committee members alluded to how this prospect has stalled 0 Comments
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The Retired Investor: Taxing Social Security Benefits Hurts SeniorsBy Bill Schmick,
05:02PM / Thursday, August 22, 2024 | |
In this election season of competing promises, one idea stands out as a good way of redistributing income from the haves to the have-nots. More than 70 million needy Americans would benefit directly by cutting federal taxes on Social Security. Let's face it, retirees have been getting the short end of the stick for a long time. For years, with interest rates at practically zero, retired savers, unwilling to bet on the stock market, have received scanty returns on their savings. Fast forward to the pandemic and its aftermath. Elderly Americans, if they were lucky enough to dodge serious sickness or death as the highest-risk segment of the population, they were faced with 0 Comments
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ROPE to Host Ghana Experience Event| 04:02PM / Thursday, August 22, 2024 | |
 PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Rites of Passage & Empowerment (R.O.P.E.) program will host its Ghana 2024 Experience event at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24 at the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC), 45 Woodlawn Ave., Pittsfield. The program, which is free and open to the public, will feature reflections from R.O.P.E. scholars and ambassadors who traveled to Accra, Ghana in July for the group's bi-annual service-learning trip. Following the program, Ghanaian-themed refreshments will be available. "R.O.P.E.'s journey to varied regions of Ghana continues to be transformative. Having this educational experience greatly impacts our Mentees identity, 0 Comments
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Pittsfield's Site 9 to See Mill Town DevelopmentBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
12:43PM / Thursday, August 22, 2024 | |
Tim Burke, CEO and director of Mill Town, speaks at Thursday's announcement about the development plans for the parcel. PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mill Town Capital is continuing its investment in the city by purchasing 4.7 acres of Site 9, William Stanley Business Park's largest parcel.
Across the street at 100 Woodlawn Ave., the investment firm intends to build a mixed-use development that includes housing. This will be a far cry from the abandoned, moonscape-looking block that General Electric left behind.
"Mill Town has had an interest in Site 9 since 2018. During this time, we have invested in it and developed over 200 units of housing in
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BCC Theatre Program Gets at Boost With Grant | 11:15AM / Thursday, August 22, 2024 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Community College (BCC), thanks to a federal Carl D. Perkins Grant, will install new equipment and hire a full-time faculty member this fall. The grant covers expenses for a new LED lightboard, which complements a recently upgraded mixing board. In addition, a new full-time Assistant Professor of Theatre, Jack Golden, will join BCC in the fall semester. "We are so pleased to have been awarded Perkins Grant funding for a new state-of-the-art LED lightboard, which will allow us to train students on the most up-to-date technology used in the field," said Matthew Muller, Dean of Humanities, Behavioral and Social Sciences. 0 Comments
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Pittsfield to Host Community Input Forum on Future of City Parks| 08:00AM / Thursday, August 22, 2024 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City of Pittsfield's Community Development Department will be hosting a community forum, on Wednesday, Aug. 28 from 6:00-7:30 p.m.,to gather input as part of an ongoing update to the city's Open Space and Recreation Plan.
The forum will be held at City Hall, located at 70 Allen Street, in the Council Chambers.
The forum is designed to help city leaders learn more about the goals and objectives of the various park users and stakeholder groups and to hear thoughts about the city's future park and recreation needs. All residents that are interested in local park, open space, and recreation issues are encouraged to participate.
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Pittsfield Begins Educational Outreach on TotersBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
05:32AM / Thursday, August 22, 2024 | |
 PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Are you informed about the new trash system that will roll out this fall?
Mayor Peter Marchetti kicked off a series of four community meetings on Wednesday to educate the public. The city has approved a five-year contract with Casella Waste Management that moves from unlimited curbside collection to automated collection with 48-gallon toters for trash and recycling.
"We've made it this far. Right now, it's the rollout," Marchetti said to a crowd at the Ralph J. Froio Senior Center.
"So if we do a terrible job of the rollout and a terrible job of educating, it's going to be a terrible experience for
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Software Upgrades Impacting Pittsfield Online Permitting| 03:00PM / Wednesday, August 21, 2024 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Due to software upgrades, the City of Pittsfield's City Clerk's Office permitting system, PermitEyes, will be temporarily unavailable beginning at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 22 through Monday, Aug. 26. Beginning on Tuesday, Aug. 27, the new version of PermitEyes will be live for the City Clerk's Office. The new PermitEyes 20/20 program will be an upgrade to the current permitting program with an entirely new look and feel aimed at making the process more user friendly. Applicants will be able to view and track the progress of their application from the PermitEyes homepage as it goes through the approval process. To move all the data from the 0 Comments
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