PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city has some 25 miles of roadways that it cannot completely service.
Commissioner of Public Services David Turocy brought the issue of unaccepted streets to the City Council on Tuesday night. Turocy says one-eighth of the city's streets are unaccepted and therefore he is restricted in how he can maintain them.
"Our hands are really tied with the current restrictions of what we can do on unaccepted streets," he said.
A City Council subcommittee will look deeper at the issue to develop a management plan for those roads.
Overall, Turocy says a "curb to curb" pavement job is not allowed by the city code. He says the city can do some pothole work but not much more. Further, the city cannot use any state Chapter 90 funds on those roads.
"The big issue is the cost for this," Turocy said, estimating the cost of the needed repairs on those roads at $20 million. "There is so much to do to bring them up to city standards."
Unaccepted roads can be found all over the city but they aren't owned by the city — they are owned by property owners on the streets, who own to the middle of the road.
Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Simonelli said his ward has more unaccepted streets than any other ward.
Simonelli said he wants the 80 roads in his ward to be maintained by the city at a driveable level but doesn't necessarily want the roads to become city streets.
"I'm not looking for the unaccepted streets in my ward to be accepted. I'm not looking for a million dollars per road. What I am looking for is to bring them up to some acceptable measure so people feel like they are getting their tax money worth," he said.
Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi, however, said he wants city funds to be focused on accepted streets that need work, and the unaccepted roads should be secondary.
"While I see the need for unaccepted streets to get addressed, especially minor repairs, but the focus should be on the accepted streets," Morandi said.
Turocy said the majority of city funds do go to city-owned ways but the unaccepted streets are open to the public and are being used on a daily basis. He said those owners pay taxes, too, and should get some level of repairs — levels of repairs he is restricted to providing because of the city code.
"I think there are some options. I am sympathetic to the plight of people on unaccepted streets," Turocy said.
The commissioner said there are already about three miles of roads that are in a condition to be accepted without any additional work. Those include the section of Valentine Road from Lakeway to Peck's Road. Should the city accept more roads, the city's Chapter 90 allocation rises.
Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell said he'd like to see numbers showing what it would cost for the city to accept 10 miles of repair and accept 10 miles of unaccepted streets and what that would do for the Chapter 90 funding.
Turocy suggested looking at changes to the city code, figuring out what exactly the city can offer for repairs to the roads, and ultimately create a menu of options to manage the streets.
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Central Berkshire School Officials OK $35M Budget
By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School Committee approved a $35 million budget for fiscal 2025 during its meeting on Thursday.
Much of the proposed spending plan is similar to what was predicted in the initial and tentative budget presentations, however, the district did work with the Finance subcommittee to further offset the assessments to the towns, Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis said.
"What you're going see in this budget is a lower average assessment to the towns than what you saw in the other in the tentative budget that was approved," she said.
The fiscal 2025 budget is $35,428,892, a 5.56 percent or $1,867,649, over this year's $33,561,243.
"This is using our operating funds, revolving revenue or grant revenue. So what made up the budget for the tentative budget is pretty much the same," Director of Finance and Operations Gregory Boino said.
"We're just moving around funds … so, we're using more of the FY25 rural aid funds instead of operating funds next year."
Increases the district has in the FY25 operating budget are from active employee health insurance, retiree health insurance, special education out-of-district tuition, temporary bond principal and interest payment, pupil transportation, Berkshire County Retirement contributions, and the federal payroll tax.
The students have also been able to build friendships and experience new things, such as dancing for community events, taking a trip to Ireland and participating in competitions.
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Because of this, traffic will be reduced to one lane of travel on First Street (U.S. Route 7) and North Street between Burbank Street and Abbott Street from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday through at least May 6.
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Independent Connections officially unveiled its Massachusetts branch on Thursdsay with a ribbon cutting. The IT solutions company's specializations include consulting, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.
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Taylor Garabedian scored a team-high 22 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Abby Scialabba scored 16 points for the ‘Canes, who got 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists from Ashlyn Lesure. click for more