Town Moderator Bruce Garlow and state Rep. William 'Smitty' Pignatelli at Thursday night's forum.
BECKET, Mass. — State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli knows the state doesn't provide communities enough money to fix all of their roads.
In the town of Lee there are 14 bridges, all which need a $1 million or more to be repaired. The state won't provide anywhere close to that amount.
Instead, Pignatelli helping to usher in a local option tax in Lee on sales from eight gas stations, many of which line the way to the Massachusetts Turnpike. The 3 cents per gallon could ultimately generate some $150,000 to $200,000 a year to help fix roads.
"I am a huge advocate of local options and local control," the Lenox Democrat said.
He calls it a creative way to find the money to fund needed projects in communities across the state. In Lee, the idea of a gas tax provides a lot of income from passing vehicles on and off the MassPike. For others, the tax wouldn't make sense.
"I don't think it would benefit Otis, with one gas station," Pignatelli said.
It was 30 years ago when his father, then a Lenox selectmen, ushered in the local tax on hotel stays in Lenox. Pignatelli said Lenox saw a boost of $1 million in revenue generated in the first year. That's led the town to invest upward of $2 million per year to fix town roads.
"It did not deter anybody from coming to Lenox and booking a hotel," Pignatelli said. "It bailed out the town of Lenox."
The local option taxes, the newest being Lee's attempt for special legislation, is just one of the an array of issues Pignatelli discussed during more than two hours with the Becket Democratic Committee on Thursday night. In the informal session at Town Hall, the group numbering more than 20 peppered the representative with questions and ideas about a number of issues in front of the state legislature.
Health care and solving the opioid crisis both rank high on Pignatelli's concern list.
"I read the obituaries differently today than I ever did before," he said.
Drug abuse has been growing in the county to a point where "heroin in the Berkshire is cheaper than a six pack of beer," he said. While programs like prescription monitoring has slowed pills falling into the wrong hands, it's not enough, he said.
It's not just young people who are dying from overdoses, he said, it's impacting all ages. He says the United States consumes significantly more pills than any other nation.
"We are a pill society. It is a real problem in the Berkshires," Pignatelli said. "Pills on the street are like Skittles. They are everywhere."
Pignatelli has been a longtime advocate of requiring health insurance companies to cover addiction recovery. With any another life-threatening disease, companies pay for care all the way through and the community rallies behind the survivor. With addiction, insurance companies cut off care after only a few days and society shuns the addict, he said.
He is pushing for bills in the Legislature to change that dynamic. He is looking for insurance companies to be required to cover patients for more than just the initial detoxification but also the ongoing substance abuse therapy.
With such a drug problem in the state, Pignatelli is opposed to multiple recreational marijuana bills in the legislative pipeline. He says there are already enough problems trying to keep alcohol and tobacco out of the hands of youth and marijuana would be no different. Additionally, he said there needs to be more investigation into driving impaired enforcement when it comes to drugs. The county only has one police officer certified to administer drug sobriety tests.
"Sometimes I think we are doing things with the cart before the horse," Pignatelli said. "I think it is going to happen but I'm not crazy about it."
Pignatelli is also taking on the topic of dental care. He's identified a gap in the Berkshires of children seeing dentists. He called it an "embarrassment" that there are children in the state who are never seeing the inside of a dentist's office.
"We're having a hard time attracting dentists to come to the Berkshires," he said, adding that there are a total of 63 dentists now and many of them are nearing retirement.
There is a problem with dental work with the state's Mass Health Program too. The insurance will cover the extraction of a tooth but won't cover the filling of a cavity, which Pignatelli feels is backward.
"We were the first state in the county [to require health care for all residents]. We need to accelerate that. Oral health care is the next phase," Pignatelli said.
He has a bill filed to improve access to dental therapists, who are just short of the qualifications of a dentist. However, the dentists are opposing it because it could distract from their business. Then again, he said dentists are coming out of college with $200,000 in debt and wouldn't have the volume in the Berkshires so instead, they stay out east and charge for high-end work, Pignatelli said.
Not only are children not seeing dentists as often, the entire family structure is changing.
Pignatelli remembers growing up on a street with a dozen other kids, all who would get together after school and play sports. They would walk into each other's homes like it was their own.
But now, blocks may only have a couple children on them whose parents are busy working second jobs or who have single parents. There are more "latchkey kids" at home alone at a young age until late at night. Meanwhile, poverty has increased so much that Pittsfield was able to implement a program to give all students free breakfast and lunch.
And the neighbors don't know what each other are doing.
"We need to start taking care of one another a lot better than we have been," Pignatelli said.
The answer for the lawmaker though doesn't sit on Beacon Hill so much as it does in the neighborhoods.
"We need to get community back in education," Pignatelli said. "Our kids are ill prepared even to go to our community college."
Students are being taught enough to pass tests and then graduated. In college it is taking six or so years for bachelor's degrees because the students are entering their first year so far behind. When they do graduate, the jobs aren't here in the Berkshires, he said.
"We're losing industry, we're losing population. We're aging in place. The largest employer in Berkshire County is our health care system," Pignatelli said. "There is a big change and culture shift going on in Berkshire County."
Pignatelli said he is supporting efforts to expand dual-enrollment programs to get qualified high school students onto college campuses earlier. That'll expose them to the responsibilities of college while also saving the family money, he said.
The county's economy is being buoyed by tourism but Pignatelli says the state isn't spending enough. Each year the state allocates some $14 million toward travel and tourism but that is a drop in the bucket compared to other states.
"It's been a struggle with every administration to get our travel and tourism budgets up to where it should be," Pignatelli said."We've got to work on our shoulder seasons. We've got to work on year round."
Additionally, the legislator said he would like incentives in the solar industry to be reconsidered. He says the benefits right now are going to corporations and the electric companies and are not being passed on to the customers.
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Pittsfield Kayak Kiosk Proposal Withdrawn After Pushback
Whenever Watersports has withdrawn its proposal for a kayak rental program at Onota Lake. Safety concerns arose around the company's self-serve model though it was stipulated that users sign liabilities away with a waiver as part of the process.
"It's unfortunate. I had hoped the outcome would be different and I think (Recreation and Special Events Coordinator Maddy Brown) and you as well thought this was an opportunity to provide an additional level of services, recreation opportunity to folks at the park through a modern-app-based system," Park, Open Space, and Natural Resource Program Manager James McGrath said to the Parks Commission on Tuesday.
"It would have cost the city nothing to have this sited. We wouldn't be responsible for any maintenance but there would be maintenance to the units and to the boats, etc. Everyone was going to get life preservers and there are instructions through the app so we thought it was it was safe and secure and a good fit for the park."
In December, the commission granted a request for the pilot program and City Solicitor Stephen Pagnotta had been reviewing and revising a proposed contract that had not yet been approved. Last week during City Council, residents Daniel Miraglia and Gene Nadeau submitted a petition requesting a legal opinion on the proposal from the solicitor.
Miraglia expressed concerns about the lack of a bidding process, safety hazards, and the impact on a local business that rents kayaks on the lake. Onota Boat Livery owner Caryn Wendling was upset to hear that an out-of-town company would be allowed to operate the kiosk on the same lake as her business and also cited safety concerns.
Councilors asked that Pagnotta look into items such as the commission's authority with entering into contracts and if a bidding process would be needed for this.
Later that week, a request to the Conservation Commission for determination for the kiosk at Burbank Park located within the buffer zone associated with the inland bank was withdrawn. According to the application, it was proposed to be located before the beach area coming from the main parking lot.
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On Thursday, the panel approved a notice of intent application for the use of EarthTec QZ within a specified treatment area of the lake.
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Residents mapped out a West Side they would like to see during an input session this week, utilizing multi-use properties to create robust density. click for more
Town Moderator Bruce Garlow and state Rep. William 'Smitty' Pignatelli at Thursday night's forum.
