Letter: CHP Supports MCLA Homeless Shelter

To the Editor:

CHP Berkshires [Community Health Programs] wishes to express its support for repurposing a dormitory at MCLA into a residence for homeless families. This is a commendable and progressive initiative in our Northern Berkshire community.

There are reasonable questions about what support services would be available to residents of Berkshire Towers. CHP Berkshires and its mobile health team already care for residents of a Pittsfield shelter, and we are prepared to provide medical care for Berkshire Towers residents as well, if this plan comes to fruition. CHP North Adams Family Medical and Dental is open to all patients, and our practice staff is uniquely committed to caring for underserved patients. And we are confident that other nonprofits in our area will step up as partners in this important effort to help meet the needs of families.

CHP Berkshires serves patients who are well off, and patients who have little. For those with little, housing insecurity and homelessness are key stressors for families, especially those with children. We are prepared to step up to provide health care at Berkshire Towers.

Michelle Derr
Senior vice president of family services, CHP Berkshires

Dawn Kohanski
Associate medical director, CHP Berkshires

Clarksburg OKs $5.1M Budget; Moves CPA Adoption Forward

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
08:44PM / Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Newly elected Moderator Seth Alexander kept the meeting moving. 

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The annual town meeting sped through most of the warrant on Wednesday night, swiftly passing a total budget of $5.1 million for fiscal 2025 with no comments. 

 

Close to 70 voters at Clarksburg School also moved adoption of the state's Community Preservation Act to the November ballot after a lot of questions in trying to understand the scope of the act. 

 

The town operating budget is $1,767,759, down $113,995 largely because of debt falling off. Major increases include insurance, utilities and supplies; the addition of a full-time laborer in the Department of Public Works and an additional eight hours a week for the accountant.

 

The school budget is at $2,967,609, up $129,192 or 4 percent over this year. Clarksburg's assessment to the Northern Berkshire Vocational School District is $363,220.

 

Approved was delaying the swearing in of new officers until after town meeting; extending the one-year terms of moderator and tree warden to three years beginning with the 2025 election; switching the licensing of dogs beginning in January and enacting a bylaw ordering dog owners to pick up after their pets. This last was amended to include the words "and wheelchair-bound" after the exemption for owners who are blind. 

 

The town more recently established an Agricultural Committee and on Wednesday approved a right-to-farm bylaw to protect agriculture. 

 

Larry Beach of River Road asked why anyone would be against and what the downside would be. Select Board Chair Robert Norcross said neighbors of farmers can complain about smells and livestock like chickens.