Common Good Bank Testing Berkshire Waters

By Nichole DupontiBerkshires Staff
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Members of the Common Good Bank have been working to inform the public of an alternative style of banking.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Ask most Americans about the current banking system and they will shake their heads in disgust. That was about all they could do, until now.

The Common Good Bank, a project which began nearly three years ago, is making Berkshire County its ground zero for success. CGB founding member Robert Connors of Canann, N.Y., said the area is ripe and ready for financial change.

"It's a terrible time in our economy but it's a great time to start something like this up," he said in a phone interview. "There are definitely people in our country who are oblivious to what's happening, who are just getting by. There are a lot of social activist types here who are interested because they see it; I see it. The state can't make money fast enough. They have to deal with it quickly and locals have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis.”

The day-to-day turmoil of the economy has led, according to Connors, to a day-to-day feeling of disgust among many local residents and business owners.

"People know there's something wrong but they don't know what to do about it," he said. "Now, we can do something."

Doing something, specifically starting a bank, is worth the challenge said bank campaign manager Rick DeVoe. Since August, DeVoe, who has traveled from Tennessee, has been campaigning non-stop in order to get the ball rolling for CGB's charter bank in the Berkshires.

"What we are doing in this campaign is chartering the bank in Massachusetts," he said. "The bank will operate under federal regulations and be FDIC approved. The state requires that you have $10 million to start a bank. Typically you go for a few wealthy investors to make that happen. We're targeting about 5,000 founding members; bringing people not based on what they can afford to invest but on their belief in what we're doing."

The concept of a bank for the "common good" was roughly draw in an article by William Spademan of Ashfield, now president of the sponsoring organization Common Good Finance. The founding group has been holding informational meetings in the neighboring counties the past couple years.

DeVoe said the greatest challenge of getting CGB off the ground is explaining its mission and logistics to potential founding members.

"We want them to understand monetary politics," he said. "That's too much to take in in one sitting. That's why we've planned our informational meetings to happen in three stages; real democracy, real money and real power."


Connors, who himself has been through the informational meetings, said that while the devil's in the details, the big picture is not difficult to comprehend.

"It's hard to explain concepts of mutual credits," he said. "People are motivated by the concept that there will be a truer democracy and true economic power in this. We can support local businesses based on what the members choose. We are acting within our existing laws to do this."

The bank's website describes it as having the "spirit of a credit union with the power and growth potential of a stock savings bank."

According to DeVoe, the CGB works like a traditional bank in that every account holder has stock in it. The key difference he said is where the profit goes after the dividends are handed out.

"We agree amongst ourselves where the dividends go into the community," he said. "We collectively will decide what lending priority there is for the bank; whatever is in the best interests of the community. For instance, we may not opt to do car loans because there are already several agencies for that, but we might decide that giving a loan to retrofit a home is a good thing."

DeVoe said he hopes to have the charter bank up and running by Thanksgiving of next year.

"The money is going to come, the idea is already resonating with people," he said. "It's really about when we open our doors that we are going to know what we are doing and continue doing it."

There will be an informational meeting on the Common Good Bank on Saturday, Dec. 18, at 3 p.m., at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on 67 East St. For more information, call 518-781-4686 or visit www.commongoodbank.com.

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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