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The pipes are wrapped to contain the asbestos that should have been abated.
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Commissioner Bruce Collingwood says mold is growing on his wall.
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And his ceiling.
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Supplies are kept on pallets for when the basement floods.
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Commissioner Garner says water drips right through the window.
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Despite just recently being cleaned, this door jam is growing mold again.
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More mold growing in the ceiling tiles.
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The city is required to keep an array of records, which are stored in the basement.
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Sand bags are stored downstairs in preparation for the flooding.
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Bianchi Outlines Plan To Move Inspectors To 100 North Street

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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The mayor holds up the floor plan for the second floor of 100 North St. with offices designated to departments and their employees.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Building Commissioner Gerald Garner says his nose can block out the pungent odor that hits him the moment he starts the descent into the City Hall basement.

He hasn't put his finger on exactly what the smell is — some mixture of moisture, mold and poor air ventilation — but it has been strong enough that contractors looking for permitting have refused to go into the basement, where most of the inspectors have offices.
 
"We're kind of used to it," Garner said on Thursday, as he led a tour around the building inspector's offices.
 
Garner said he doesn't know everything about radon but he knows the detector the state installed in his office shows more than double an acceptable level.
 
In another office, he points to mold growing on the ceilings — likely from the basement flooding so often. He knows there is asbestos in the walls and throughout the air system. Nearly all of the pipes drip. The bathroom has basically become a custodian's closet because of the poor condition.
 
"I've never had a sinus problem in my life until I started working here," Garner said. "It is just not a good environment."
 
Commissioner of Public Utilities Bruce Collingwood says his office has flooded twice in recent years, destroying supplies and leaving moldy walls and ceiling tiles in its wake. 
 
The city had given the offices a new paint job and some asbestos were abated. But Garner says as soon as the new paint smell wore off, the poor conditions just revealed themselves again.
 
Mayor Daniel Bianchi says his employees should not be working full time in that environment. And any business seeking permits for a new project or homeowners seeking permits to improve their homes shouldn't have to go into such an environment.
 
"When you go into a place that isn't welcoming, it sticks with you," Bianchi said. "How many people are discouraged from doing business with us?"
 
Whether it is the smell or the lack of space to spread out maps or even having to trudge up and down stairs to get to the various offices, Bianchi says it isn't convenient for a contractor. He wants the city to be more welcoming.
 
The mayor is looking to move all of the inspectors' offices — health, building, utilities, fire, a community development agent and a conservation agent — into leased offices across the street at 100 North St. this fall. The cost would be about $126,000 to rent the space, including utilities, custodial and maintenance, for the first year, with the price dropping in years two and three. A floor plan has already been mocked up to take up the building's second floor.
 
"It is easy for people to get to and is in a well-maintained building," Bianchi said. "For what we are getting, we are getting a good facility that will be great for customer service and it will be a convenience for contractors."
 
Bianchi said the expenditure makes sense for business development, managing the city's employees and for constituent services. For big commercial projects, the move create a "one stop shop" for all of the needs. For the employees, they get an improved working environment, which Bianchi said is the second most important thing in getting the most out of workers. And constituents will have an easier time weaving through the bureaucracy of permitting if they want to make improvements to their property.
 
The city had released a request for proposals for office space and Scarfoni & Associates, a major commercial landlord in both Pittsfield and North Adams, was the only one that responded. The mayor negotiated a lease agreement for $14 per square foot for one year with two subsequent one-year options for $13 a square foot and then $12 a square foot. 
 
The 100 North St. space is ready to be moved into and Bianchi says it won't take any extra time or effort to prepare it. The offices were recently renovated when aerospace company Bae Systems had occupied them.
 
"We've got the lease in hand and I can sign it whenever," Bianchi said. "I want to make sure we work out all of the bugs."
The storage space for blueprints, which the city is required to keep on file, is nearly full.

The mayor said he is working on the details for each department and  permitting operations. He hopes to make the move in the calendar year's fourth quarter.

He doesn't quite know yet what to do with the vacated basement space but says there is a significant need for more storage. Currently many of the basement rooms store legal records and supplies.

"I think it would make sense for storage space," Bianchi said, adding that there are some other opportunities such as offices for board or commission meetings if needed or temporary workers such as accountants.
 
The mayor says he has been working on the proposal for months. Back in January, he knew he wanted to do something but didn't know where. He requested $100,000 in the capital budget just in case it was needed. The City Council rejected that because the proposal didn't have any details.
 
Bianchi said that was added to the capital budget before the RFP was released so he didn't have any specific plans then. He just sought the authority to use capital funds. However, Bianchi says the Scarfoni proposal is within the budget.
 
"I put the $100,000 in the capital budget because it hadn't gone out with the RFP yet," Bianchi said. "We have a lot of things that are authorized but we never spend."
 
Some city councilors, however, are still upset that they haven't seen the details of the plan. Last Tuesday, Councilor at Large Barry Clairmont filed a petition demanding answers to an array of questions about the move be answered at the September meeting. Further, Clairmont is calling for a "non-binding vote" from the council about the move.
 
"I think it is important for the mayor to know if he has our support moving forward or not," Clairmont said. "Certainly, this will affect future budgets."

Tags: building inspector,   city hall,   inspections office,   leasing,   

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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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