Patrick Announces Funds For Pittsfield Common, Streetscape
 Jim McGrath shows the plans for the First Street Common to Gov. Deval Patrick, in the middle. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Gov. Deval Patrick announced nearly $4 million in funding on Tuesday to finish major infrastructure improvements in the city.
Patrick announced an additional $1.7 million in grants to complete the First Street Common project — providing the funding to finish it a year ahead of schedule and with all of the envisioned amenities.
And he announced $2 million for Phase 3 of the downtown streetscape project, which has already spruced up North and South streets.
Announcing those investments at a luncheon with the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, Patrick said these are just examples of a "winning strategy" for economic growth.
"Growth requires investment. To support business growth and the opportunity that depends on it, government must invest along side with business. For the past seven years we have invested in education, innovation and infrastructure," Patrick said.
Patrick is entering his final year in office after announcing he will not seek another term. He advocated for future governments to pick up where he left off because "there is so much more to do." He recapped a series of infrastructure projects the state has funded under his administration in an attempt to show his plan has worked.
"This strategy of investing in education, innovation and infrastructure is a winning one for the commonwealth and I'm going to demonstrate that and try to keep it going," Patrick said.
Locally, Patrick pointed to elementary schools opening as "innovation centers," the new labs at Taconic High School for a manufacturing partnership with Berkshire Community College, lighting up the 1,200-mile fiber optic network, helping Crane move a production line from Maine to North Adams, the new Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation, renovations at Berkshire Community College, fixing up the former Adams Memorial Middle School, redevelopment of a historic Lee block, projects at the Mount Greylock Visitors Center, Naumkeag, The Mount, Jacob's Pillow's Barrington Stage, Tanglewood and the Clark Art Institute as well as an array of road and energy projects.
"Education, innovation and infrastructure — that is our growth strategy and its working," Patrick said. "Massachusetts has climbed out of the recession faster than most other states and is growing faster than the national growth rate. Early this year, we regained the number of all jobs lost during the great recession — one of the first states in America to do so and we continue to add jobs."
The state is in a good position to attract companies as well as being financially stable, he said.
"Our budgets are balanced and on time. Our bond rating is the highest in the commonwealth's history and we have one of the largest rainy day funds in the country," he said.
The First Street Common is envisioned by city officials to be a driver of economic growth and supported by Patrick for that reason.
"I think this is a project that is so meaningful. It is probably to most significant urban park in Berkshire County and it is going to have implications for economic development," Mayor Daniel Bianchi said after showing the governor around the half-completed renovation.
The new round of funding will finish the final two phases of the park that includes a performance pavilion, new basketball courts, facilities, seating, walkways, community gardens and a "spray ground" (a water park-type area for children).
 The governor was the keynote speaker at a Berkshire Chamber of Commerce luncheon. |
"This will be a very important destination not just for the neighborhoods but also the region," James McGrath, the city's parks and open space project manager, told Patrick.
McGrath said the designers have combined the final two phases into just one, yearlong construction. He hopes to have the final phases break ground next summer and be completed in summer 2015.
Bianchi said this round of funding is particularly important because Patrick has supported the first two phases in the past but he is in his final year of office.
"Unfortunately, with governmental projects, you never know. The best intentioned projects can wane with the change of an administration so this is great news for us," Bianchi said.
Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard Sullivan said improvements have already begun to spur business around the area.
"This is a great project but it is also an economic development project. We're seeing multiple benefits from these projects, you are seeing some housing investments in the neighborhoods and the mayor is talking about other developers and opportunities that are coming forward because of these strategic investments right here in downtown Pittsfield," Sullivan said.
Sullivan has followed the project since the beginning and participated in the ribbon cutting on the first phase. Knowing the projects had all of the funds to be completed was good news for Sullivan.
"It wasn't a case where we had to go back and take some things out to fit a budget. We are able to do everything that the vision encompassed," he said. "It is a great feeling when you can take multiple years of planning and design work and make it happen."
He credited the city's staffing for making it possible to receive the funding for both phases at once.
"Pittsfield was uniquely situated in that they had plans available, they had designers under contract and they were ready to go," Sullivan said.
However, completing that and the streetscape project isn't enough for Patrick. The governor's previously proposed spending bills were reduced by the Legislature.
"This strategy is not rhetorical. This is how we use public investment of time, money and ideas to stimulate private-sector growth. But, there is still so much more to do," Patrick said.
He called making those investments a "choice" and hopes the future administration will continue making those types of improvements. Overall, Patrick said the goal is to increase opportunities for everybody.
"Opportunity is what makes all of our civic ideals possible. Without opportunity our civic ideals are nothing but rhetorical flourishes. But opportunity is not inevitable. It doesn't just happen. Each generation of Americans has had to strive and to sacrifice making opportunity real," he said. "Making opportunity real requires action"
The luncheon was attended by hundreds of business representatives as well as Sullivan, state Reps. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, Tricia Farley-Bouvier and Paul Mark, North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, Bianchi and representatives from both U.S. Rep. Richard Neal's office and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's office. There were also an array of town officials and former elected officials.
Tags: governor, parks & rec, public parks, streetscape,
