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The plan is to bring the trail from its current end at the Berkshire Mall toward Crane Avenue in Pittsfield.

State Asks For Redesign of Pittsfield's Rail Trail Extension

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Unistress has been growing its operations west alongside the Berkshire Mall Connector Road. To avoid the business, the trail is being redesigned to move east.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The extension of the Ashuwilticook Rail Trail to Crane Avenue needs to be redesigned to alleviate safety concerns while cutting through Unistress property.
 
The city has already spent a quarter of a million dollars designing the extension in preparation to receive $2.5 million in federal highway funds for the construction. Now, after a 25 percent design hearing, the state is asking for a redesign to circumvent the Unistress property. 
 
"It was going through the middle of their property so there were concerns with truck traffic," Commissioner of Public Services David Turocy said. 
 
According to Parks and Open Space Manager Jim McGrath, the original design for the 1.5-mile extension started at the overflow parking lot near the mall and cut through the middle of Unistress land to connect to the jail road. It went along that road and again passed across a Unistress utility road to reconnect with the rail bed.
 
Now, the city is looking to move the alignment from that overflow parking lot to run next to Route 8 and then cut back to reconnect with the rail line.
 
Essentially, the previous plan circumvented the Unistress operations for the most part to the west and now will circumvent it to the east.
 
"As we got further looking into the design and understanding the impacts to the Unistress operations particularly, a design change was required," McGrath said.
 
Turocy said the original design was limited because of wetlands concerns surrounding for former rail bed, which is owned by the state. But since then, Unistress has somewhat moved its operations further in from Route 8, opening the window to bring the trail further east. 
 
The decision to redesign came from the state Department of Transportation two weeks ago, after a joint meeting between city officials, the engineers Fuss & O'Neill, and Unistress.
 
"They need to look at some of the alignment revisions. It is primarily looking at the two ends of the trail," said Peter Frieri, of MassDOT District 1. 
 
Turocy added that the city is also looking at the other end where the rail bed cuts through Miller Petroleum and John's Building Supply. There he hopes to determine the best ways to handle parking and a rest area.
 
The redesign, however, puts the city in a time crunch to complete the engineering as well as requiring additional money to fund the work.
 
Mayor Linda Tyer says she hasn't yet determined where the additional funding will come from for the changes but remains committed to the project. She said the city is currently in the process of updating its open space and recreation plan, and that will help determine the future.
 
"I like the alternate route because it is safer and a more enjoyable experience," Tyer said on Thursday. 
 
Tyer said she has been a "champion" of bike paths since her days as a ward councilor. But in order to start developing spurs throughout the city, the bike trail has to get there first.
 
"We need to connect the mall to Coltsville. This is a really important segment for getting the rail trail into the city of Pittsfield," Tyer said. "The bike path is the kind of thing a millennial or the next generation would want to see in a place to live. I just wish it wasn't taking us so long."
 
She added that Unistress officials have been willing and supportive of the extension, despite any disruption it would cause to its operations, and for that she is grateful.
 
The work has been a long time coming. Back in 2012, city officials were making pitches to receive the construction money. But the funds were allocated to head north to extend the trail in Adams. The state Department of Transportation has now allocated the $2.5 million for construction through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program. 
 
Frieri said the federal funds will be available on Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year, and the goal remains to get the extension out to bid by Sept. 30, 2018. The current estimate is $2,251,210. 
 
Despite the needed redesign, city and state officials remain optimistic that the extension will happen, it is just a matter of getting to that point.
 
"At the end of the day we want to see this bike path extension and we want it to be safe," McGrath said. 
 
The state and the federal government have been slowly extending the trail over the years. It currently runs from the Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough to Lime Street in Adams. Money is earmarked in 2020 to bring it into North Adams — the city has committed to money to design that. The north end, the $4.7 million Mohawk Bike Trail through Williamstown to North Adams is set to start construction next year.

Tags: Ashuwillticook Rail Trail,   bike path,   

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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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