State Fire Marshal Offers Halloween Safety Tips

State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey offers fire safety tips for celebrating Halloween.

More children are injured by cars than fire on Halloween, so it’s important for children to learn and practice pedestrian safety and for drivers to use extra caution. Drive more slowly and watch for children who may forget to cross at corners and use crosswalks.

Other tips for Halloween costumes, decorations and trick-or-treating:

· Use a small flashlight or battery-operated tea light in pumpkins instead of a candle.

· Make sure your home is well-lit inside and out and that there is a clear path to your door.

· Keep decorations like cornstalks away from heat sources and lit candles.

· Be sure all parts of costumes are labeled flame retardant.

Click here for a list of Berkshire County Halloween events, including town by town trick-or-treating hours.

North Adams to Begin Study of Veterans Memorial Bridge Alternatives

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:21AM / Monday, April 15, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey says the requests for qualifications for the planning grant should be available this month. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Connecting the city's massive museum and its struggling downtown has been a challenge for 25 years. 

 

A major impediment, all agree, is the decades old Central Artery project that sent a four-lane highway through the heart of the city. 

 

Backed by a $750,000 federal grant for a planning study, North Adams and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art are looking to undo some of that damage.

 

"As you know, the overpass was built in 1959 during a time when highways were being built, and it was expanded to accommodate more cars, which had little regard to the impacts of the people and the neighborhoods that it surrounded," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey on Friday. "It was named again and again over the last 30 years by Mass MoCA in their master plan and in the city in their vision 2030 plan ... as a barrier to connectivity."

 

The Reconnecting Communities grant was awarded a year ago and Macksey said a request for qualifications for will be available April 24.

 

She was joined in celebrating the grant at the Berkshire Innovation Center's office at Mass MoCA by museum Director Kristy Edmunds, state Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, District 1 Director Francesca Hemming and Joi Singh, Massachusetts administrator for the Federal Highway Administration.

 

The speakers also thanked the efforts of the state's U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, U.S. Rep. Richie Neal, Gov. Maura Healey and state Sen Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III, both of whom were in attendance.