State Senate Panels Hears Struggles and Successes of Western Mass

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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State Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, is leading a 'Commonwealth Conversation Tour' across the state as he begin his leadership term. The town hall forums kicked off in Great Barrington.
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Patricia Begrowicz received a $2.4 million electric bill in 2014 for her business, Onyx Specialty Papers Inc. 
 
"The cost of electricity puts us at a competitive disadvantage," she told eight state senators Wednesday morning at the Berkshire South Community Center.
 
Onyx exports half its paper products produced in Lee overseas and its competing with companies around the world — with lower electric rates. Contributing to those high electric rates in Massachusetts are efficiency programs the Legislature put in place to reduce energy usage.
 
But Onyx is such a high user of electricity that none of those programs fits its business. Begrowicz says the company has contributed $750,000 toward efficiency programs and received less than $150,000 back in incentives. It has been paying in and then doing efficiency projects on its own — like converting to natural gas.
 
Energy is an issue that makes it more difficult for Begrowicz and her 155 employees to keep the business in the Berkshires.
 
She was one of more than a dozen to detail issues facing Western Massachusetts to the collection of senators.
 
The town hall forum in South Berkshire was the first under the new leadership of Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D- Amherst. Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, hosted the event, which attracted about 100; the senators left by bus after the two-hour forum to an event in Springfield.
 
"This is all part of a new beginning for us. We really need to reach out and give people the opportunity to communicate with us and really help us set the priorities going forward," Rosenberg said. 
 
Similar events are being held across the state in what the senators have dubbed the "Commonwealth Conversation Tour." Great Barrington kicked off the tour and featured Sens. Downing, John Keenan, Eric Lesser, Michael Rodrigues, Rosenberg, James Welch, William Brownsberger and Donald Humason.
 
"We wanted to get off of Beacon Street and onto Main Street in communities all across the commonwealth," Rosenberg said.
 
They heard Begrowicz's request for an energy policy that both helps businesses stay competitive while still providing incentives to protect the environment. But they also heard some of the things business leaders in the Berkshires are doing to build a post-industrial economy. 
 
David Curtis, economic development specialist with 1Berkshire, told the senators that local businesses need every type of support. They need help with getting access to capital through loan programs, they need the right space, and they need mentoring programs. 1Berkshire has been active in helping open collaborative space in North Adams and Pittsfield and in building a "world class" internship program," Curtis said.
 
That is all part of an effort to grow small business. 1Berkshire is only a few years old and is a collaboration between the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, Berkshire Visitors Bureau, and Berkshire Creative. Joining together under one roof in Pittsfield was eyed primarily as a "one-stop shop" for businesses to access resources but has grown to much more than that, according to Berkshire Chamber President Jonathan Butler.
 
"Collaboration and being unified is the best opportunity we have," Butler said.
 
They have built teams spanning across the three agencies to tackle larger issues. Butler said the biggest issue facing the county is population. The demographics show a tremendous drop off in the age brackets of 22 to 40.
 
"We have a significant gap between the ages of 22 and 40 that have formed over the last number of years," Butler said. "Population is something we took at as a threat to the Berkshires."
 
One way to grow population is to turn visitors into residents. Berkshire Visitors Bureau President Lauri Klefos said the bureau if focused on branding the county in a way to accomplish that goal.
 
David Christopolis from the Hilltown Community Development Corp. said artists are attracted to the rural environment of the Berkshires. He said there are eight cities in Western Massachusetts housing half of the population in Berkshire, Franklin and Hamden Counties. There are 67 towns with less than 2,000 people each. 
 
Eight senators and nearly 100 residents, business leaders and officials attended the event.
"We're an urban state and most people in the state wouldn't consider Massachusetts has having any rural areas. But we know," he said.
 
The rural character is an attraction but the rural towns face different challenges than the cities and and more densely populated towns. He advocated for the passage of a bill that will open a state office for rural affairs.
 
Sarah Stevens is the prime example of what 1Berkshire's efforts are aimed to do. Stevens is now the vice president of marketing for Iredale Cosmetics, a large local manufacturing company with a national reach. Stevens moved to the Berkshires not for the job, but for the community.
 
"I came here after being a weekender for five or six years in Becket. We chose it as a contrast to Manhattan," Stevens told the senators. "The reason why we lived here is a personal, lifestyle choice and not for the job."
 
In her 30s she uprooted and came to the Berkshires - finding her place with a high ranking position with Iredale. She says the Berkshires has the things that "millennials" like but there needs to be more of it.
 
Stevens said millennials need activity like Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art's Wilco or Beck concerts. Or similar shows at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. 
 
Joseph Thompson, director of Mass MoCA, said cultural venues are more than just an attraction for tourists — though the institutions certainly do that. But they are also educating and creating jobs in an array of fields.
 
It starts with visitors, according Mahaiwe Executive Director Beryl Jolly, and grows from there. The Berkshire attracts people through the arts who then decide to stay. Part of the attraction is the mix of old history and the modern cultural scene.
 
"It is visitors who become second-home owners and then become residents," she said. "It is a good system. We are very vibrant."
 
For those who do live here, Pittsfield Mayor Daniel Bianchi and North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright sent the senators the same message — the municipalities need more state aid.
 
"My ask of you is that you push and push really hard for an increase in local and school aid," Alcombright said.
 
He says the city is "alive and well" but struggling financially. In 2010, percent 54 of the city's budget was state aid but because of cuts it has dropped to 46 percent, he said. He says the city has a "staggering" number of capital needs so Chapter 90 funds for municipal highway projects are critical.
 
Bianchi has a major issue in the failing Columbus Avenue municipal parking garage. That is right in the heart of downtown and is needed to provide critical access to cultural venues, shops and restaurants. But Pittsfield doesn't have the money to fix it, he said, that has to be done by the state.
 
"We've had a rebirth downtown and we are currently working with the developers of a 45-room hotel right in the center of our downtown," he said. "At the same time, we had a failure of one of our parking garages, which is adjacent to one of our cultural facilities."
 
Pittsfield also needs $3.5 million in road repairs each year but Chapter 90 comes no where close to that.
 
But both cities have been able to do some things well. Bianchi pointed to the new high school project as an economic development initiative to provide skilled workers for applied materials and injection molding companies. And he touted the Berkshire Innovation Center, which is eyed to be an incubator-type space for small science-based businesses to grow.
 
Alcombright said North Adams is working on privatizing Western Gateway Heritage State Park, developing scenic rail rides with Adams, installing a 3.3 megawatt solar project at the covered landfill, the new elementary school under construction and a strong relationship with the Massachusetts Collect of Liberal Arts.
 
Interim MCLA President Cynthia Brown agreed with that relationship and said the institution brings a lot to the county. But, a key aspect of the school is its affordability.
 
"We have a very needy student population financially," she said, but the strength is that, "we are considered a value for what we offer.
 
She advocated for enough higher education funding for tuition and fee increases. Berkshire Community College President Ellen Kennedy advocated for the same, saying in the last decade public higher education has been treated more like a luxury like private schools.
 
"We ask you, our state senators, to continue to work with us to keep higher education affordable," Kennedy said.
 
Berkshire Community College is eyed to play a collaborative role with Pittsfield, and with local businesses, as they try to provide the skilled work force needed for companies to stay here.
 
For Rosenberg, the collaboration among all of the various entities stood out in the Berkshires meeting.
 
"What stood out for me is the level of collaboration that is going on in the county and how organizations are creating synergies," Rosenberg said.
 
Downing already knows that as the senator who represents the most cities and towns in the state.
 
"Maybe the solution out here is a little bit different from some of our urban areas. It is a rural area and we know that the only way to solve these problems are that we work together first and then we look to the state as a partner," Downing said.

Tags: state officials,   State Senate,   testimony,   town hall forum,   

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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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