Professional park builders will lead the efforts that began on Friday.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — It was almost a year ago exactly when Eddie Taylor went before the Parks Commission and said the renaming of Pitt Park was "reigniting a fuse."
The name change for those in support was not just a name, it was the start of a movement.
"This is bigger than the park name. This is sincerely the beginning of reigniting this fuse," Taylor said at the time.
Now a year later, the energy behind the name change is leading to a community build project in which the neighbors of the Columbus Avenue Park are volunteering their time to replace the playground, just the second of three major capital improvements planned for the park.
"The old playground was a pressure treated playground, it wasn't up to code. It was time to replace it. We've got a lot of volunteers down here today helping to build this playground over the course of today and tomorrow," the city's Parks and Open Space Manager Jim McGrath said. "This is a great effort in a great little park in a great neighborhood."
On Friday, a number of volunteers had begun the project and all day on Saturday dozens more are expected to join in. The volunteers will be working with professional playground buildings from Miracle Recreation and the designers Site Specifics to build the new playground.
"This effort is important because really what we try to do at the end of the day is foster stewardship within our parks and there is no better way to do that in a neighborhood than to get folks who live in the neighborhood and other volunteers who care about their parks to come out and help," McGrath said.
Last year, the city rehabilitated the basketball court. This fall the playground, funded by a $70,000 allocation from the city's federal Community Development Block Grant funds, is being replaced. And next spring, the city is looking to install a new shelter, which Greylock Federal Credit Union has already donated $25,000 toward.
"Durant Park is a well-loved park in this neighborhood and as we begin to think through the improvements at the park we heard from many different neighbors and stakeholders that they wanted to see some real capital improvement in the park," McGrath said
The name change and the neighborhood getting together were the main inspiration for the new capital improvements. Those advocating for the name change were the same who helped craft the master plan for the park.
"There was a lot of energy after the name change and the city is happy to work with the neighbors to seize on that momentum and get some great things done," McGrath said." With a refocused energy on the park, we've been able to identify capital improvements that the neighbors want to see."
About a dozen volunteers on Friday were unwrapping the pieces of the new playground, which is expected to be completely built by Saturday evening.
The momentum behind Durant is one of multiple community efforts to rehab city parks.
The Parks Commission approved the renaming of the field at Clapp Park in honor of the former Pittsfield High School coach Buddy Pellerin and the citizen group behind that is raising some $250,000 for improvements there in conjunction with the master plan for that.
At Springside Park, another group of citizens have crafted master plans and applied and received $50,000 from the state to fix up the Springside House and are raising funds for other improvements there.
"This city loves its parks and it is nice to see so many people advocating for their parks and coming out and helping. It is promising to me, the future of our parks system. We can't do it along. We don't have enough people, we don't have enough funds," McGrath said.
Before heading back to work at Durant Park on Friday, McGrath said a community build such as the one for the playground these two days isn't just a benefit to the Parks Department but one that "benefits everybody." And that's exactly what the Durants would want.
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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