image description — The town would have to determine which circuit to tie into if it moves forward with a photovoltaic array. This shows the 18C BERKSHIRE circuit.

Dalton Green Committee Aims to Obtain Data for Town Solar PV Arrays

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:29PM / Saturday, March 30, 2024Print Story | Email Story

DALTON, MASS. — The Green Committee is working to obtain information from Eversource to inform the possibility of developing solar polar photovoltaic arrays in town.

The committee approved using $250 during its meeting last week for a pre-application to Eversource. This application will provide data that will inform how to develop a solar PV array in town.

The efforts to develop PV arrays is supported by the state Department of Energy Resources' Green Communities initiative and has been part of the town's master plan since 2016.

One of the master plan's goals in the infrastructure section is to improve the town's energy efficiency.

To minimize the tax impact of this goal, one of the objectives is to "support the development of solar farms on town property to reduce the cost of electricity for the town."

Upon submitting a pre-application, Eversource is required to send back a range of data within 10 business days otherwise it's free.

The town needs to determine how much it can load the two circuits available. There are two lines that come into Dalton — 18C BERKSHIRE and 19A DOREEN.

According to a Eversource representative, the company cannot provide that information without submitting the pre-application.

Eversource's DC Hosting Capacity map does not have all the information needed to inform future projects and is inaccurate because it represents people who submitted applications but may not have a live PV array, Green Committee member Todd Logan said later.

The Green Committee will use the Senior Center as a mock location for a 375-kilowatt solar array in its pre-application because the two circuits border the center. The 18C BERKSHIRE circuit is located on High Street and 19A DOREEN on Glennon Avenue. Dalton would have to determine which circuit to connect to.

Since the Green Committee is not proposing building a solar array on the land in front of the Senior Center, this gives the town "the opportunity to figure out which circuit would be best suited for an income generating and power generating PV array," Logan said.

The pre-application will provide data, including the substation transformer rating, the substation's circuit voltage and name, the phase available near the site, and the distance from the phase service if it's a single phase.

It also includes standards for the interconnection of distributed generation, including information on aggregate connected facilities that have not yet been interconnected, the interconnecting customer's network types and nearby feeders, and potential system constraints that may impact the proposed facility, among other things.

Tags: green committee, photovoltaic, solar array,

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Pittsfield Schools Get Additional Chapter 70 Funds

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:09AM / Tuesday, August 18, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield schools received almost $459,000 in additional Chapter 70 funds, and officials are looking to restore some positions.

On Tuesday, the City Council accepted an additional $458,660 for the Pittsfield Public Schools fiscal year 2027 budget. Mayor Peter Marchetti confirmed that they were Chapter 70 funds, the primary source of state aid for public elementary and secondary schools in Massachusetts.

"What I can tell you is, during the budget process, [State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier] was talking about two different pots of money that she was looking to get, and so some of this came from the per pupil aid amount. That's what the increase in our funding was for,” he explained when asked about how it will be spent.

"It was her intent, and it was the intent of the superintendent, to save positions. Positions that we were cutting from the budget. But I can't give you a definitive answer because the School Committee has not engaged in the conversation of where that money will go inside the school budget," he said.

The School Committee can appropriate the funds at its discretion. Marchetti, also School Committee chair, agreed to notify councilors where those monies went in the budget, per Ward 7 Councilor Kathy Moody's request.

The Pittsfield Public Schools' original $86,855,061 budget included $68,886,061 in Chapter 70 funding. PPS faced a more than $4 million deficit during this process.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Bonnie Howland on Wednesday told the School Committee that they have discussed adding at least four paraprofessionals.

"We're going to try to stretch the money as far as we can," she said, explaining that they talked about maintaining the assistant principal of teaching and learning and Reid but were notified that it will be grant-funded.

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