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Northern Berkshire Habitat Marks Completion of Latest Home

Paul Austin hands new homeowner Alison Rice a gift — a homeowner's guide — from the Habitat board

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nearly 200 people have left their mark on Alison Rice's new home.

Some in the form of tiny shiny purple dots.

"We want you to be reminded as you look around your home of the people here and the many many others who helped with this house," the Rev. Rick Spalding, chaplain of Williams College, said, after passing around a bowl of the dots to be "planted like little seeds" as he offered a prayer.

Rice also received more practical house warming gifts — a propane certificate from H.A. George, a bag full of samples, garden tools and a book on home repair.

"It's great," she said afterward as cake was passed around. "It's a great group of people."

Nearly a dozen volunteers were gathered at the West Shaft Road house on Saturday to celebrate this latest completion of a Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity project.

"This is a closing for us with the volunteers, but a beginning for Alison and her two children in their new home," Paul Austin, board president and project manager.

It's season of change for Rice. She her children Connor, 13, and Samantha, 10, moved in last month and she started a new job a Kapiloff Glass.

But the work on the home started last year.

Rice was selected to participate in the program in fall 2013. By that time the structure had been selected and gutted.

"I heard about it on the radio and decided to apply," she said.

Cost, Access to NBCTC High Among Concerns North Berkshire Residents

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Thursday, April 25, 2024

Adams Select Chair Christine Hoyt, NBCTC Executive Director David Fabiano and William Solomon, the attorney representing the four communities, talk after the session. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public access channels should be supported and made more available to the public — and not be subject to a charge.

 

More than three dozen community members in-person and online attended the public hearing  Wednesday on public access and service from Spectrum/Charter Communications. The session at City Hall was held for residents in Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg and North Adams to express their concerns to Spectrum ahead of another 10-year contract that starts in October.

 

Listening via Zoom but not speaking was Jennifer Young, director state government affairs at Charter.

 

One speaker after another conveyed how critical local access television is to the community and emphasized the need for affordable and reliable services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. 

 

"I don't know if everybody else feels the same way but they have a monopoly," said Clarksburg resident David Emery. "They control everything we do because there's nobody else to go to. You're stuck with with them."

 

Public access television, like the 30-year-old Northern Berkshire Community Television, is funded by cable television companies through franchise fees, member fees, grants and contributions.

 

Spectrum is the only cable provider in the region and while residents can shift to satellite providers or streaming, Northern Berkshire Community Television is not available on those alternatives and they may not be easy for some to navigate. For instance, the Spectrum app is available on smart televisions but it doesn't include PEG, the public, educational and governmental channels provided by NBCTC.