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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State Fire Marshal: New Tracking Tool Identifies 50 Lithium-Ion Battery Fires
STOW, Mass. — The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services' new tool for tracking lithium-ion battery fires has helped to identify 50 such incidents in the past six months, more than double the annual average detected by a national fire data reporting system, said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine.
The Department of Fire Services launched its Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Investigative Checklist on Oct. 13, 2023. It immediately went into use by the State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit assigned to the State Fire Marshal's office, and local fire departments were urged to adopt it as well.
Developed by the DFS Fire Safety Division, the checklist can be used by fire investigators to gather basic information about fires in which lithium-ion batteries played a part. That information is then entered into a database to identify patterns and trends.
"We knew anecdotally that lithium-ion batteries were involved in more fires than the existing data suggested," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "In just the past six months, investigators using this simple checklist have revealed many more incidents than we've seen in prior years."
Prior to the checklist, the state's fire service relied on battery fire data reported to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System (MFIRS), a state-level tool that mirrors and feeds into the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). NFIRS tracks battery fires but does not specifically gather data on the types of batteries involved. Some fields do not require the detailed information that Massachusetts officials were seeking, and some fires may be coded according to the type of device involved rather than the type of battery. Moreover, MFIRS reports sometimes take weeks or months to be completed and uploaded.
"Investigators using the Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Checklist are getting us better data faster," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "The tool is helpful, but the people using it are the key to its success."
From 2019 to 2023, an average of 19.4 lithium-ion battery fires per year were reported to MFIRS – less than half the number identified by investigators using the checklist over the past six months. The increase since last fall could be due to the growing number of consumer devices powered by these batteries, increased attention by local fire investigators, or other factors, State Fire Marshal Davine said. For example, fires that started with another item but impinged upon a battery-powered device, causing it to go into thermal runaway, might not be categorized as a battery fire in MFIRS or NFIRS.
Albert Ingegni III was applauded for four decades of service on the Zoning Board of Appeals during City Council. Mayor Peter Marchetti presented him with a certificate of thanks for his commitment to the community.
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