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From left, John Barrett III, Lisa Blackmer, moderator state Rep. Paul Mark, Stephanie Bosley and Kevin Towle participate in Monday's forum for candidates in the Democratic primary for state representative.
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Barrett is former mayor of North Adams, serving for 26 years; Blackmer is a North Adams city councilor and past president of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
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Bosley, the daughter of former state Rep. Daniel Bosley, has worked for municipalities and nonprofits; Towle was Cariddi's legislative aide since last year and has worked in politics for a decade.

Democratic Candidates for State House Discuss Issues in Lanesborough

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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Paul Mark, who represented Lanesborough when it was part of the 2nd Berkshire, moderated the 90-minute panel. 
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Education and transportation were among the chief topics of conversation at a Monday forum for Democrats running to fill the unexpired term of deceased state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi.
 
The four candidates on the ballot in the Oct. 10 Democratic primary discussed their platforms and qualifications to represent the 1st Berkshire District on Beacon Hill in a 90-minute forum hosted by the town's Democratic Committee and moderated by state Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru.
 
North Adams' John Barrett III, Lisa Blackmer and Stephanie Bosley and Lanesborough's Kevin Towle are vying for the right to face the presumptive Republican nominee, Christine Canning, in November's special election.
 
On Monday, the candidates largely agreed on many of the major issues before them but offered slightly different approaches to solving problems and different resumes.
 
When Mark asked each of the candidates to list his or her top priority for the 14 months left in Cariddi's term, each said some aspect of education would be a main focus of their tenure.
 
"I would pick workforce development and vocational training," Bosley said. "We have jobs in the Berkshires that need to be filled, and we need to make sure we have jobs of tomorrow here. We should be training people for biotech and clean energy.
 
"Linking the jobs we have here and the jobs we want here to to the people we have here will strengthen the economy."
 
Blackmer said funding for schools would be a priority, but she also linked that to unrestricted local aid and funding for roads.
 
"It's estimated that it will take $500 million to $600 million to put all the towns' roads in good repair," Blackmer said during the forum. "Right now, we're funding it at $200 million. … That needs to change."
 
Towle listed a number of priorities if he is elected, starting with education, and Barrett, a former teacher who has made Chapter 70 education funding a cornerstone of his campaign, returned to the theme of equitable funding for economically disadvantaged school districts.
 
"Funding for schools impacts the schools and the property taxpayers," Barrett said. "[The state is] not living up to the commitments they made. That's what needs to happen. … They keep dropping the state income tax, but what they're doing is putting the onus back on the property taxpayer to come up with the money to fund the schools.
 
"That's what I'll say to the governor. It has to start with you. You make education a priority in the state."
 
Towle suggested that the education funding problem can be solved, in part, by recreational marijuana tax revenue.
 
"In addition to changing the Chapter 70 formula, I'd advocate for the distribution of tax revenues the way Colorado did," Towle said. "Every school district in Colorado has a new school or renovation from recreational marijuana. We don't know what the revenues will be here, but if Colorado is an example, we will see something significant."
 
Blackmer agreed with the need for Chapter 70 reform as part a broader state commitment to education.
 
"I have worked and advocated for regional transportation for schools," Blackmer said. "The state made a promise that schools would get transportation aid. It reneged. I would not. … We need universal comprehensive pre-kindergarten programs. And we need to follow that through to higher education. MCLA is an economic driver and gives all the kids in Berkshire County an opportunity for an affordable education."
 
Towle said he has called for expanding public education to make it free and accessible from pre-K through college.
 
The candidates split slightly on the question of regional transportation priorities.
 
Towle, Blackmer and Bosley each said usable passenger railroad links from Boston to Albany, N.Y., with stops in the Berkshires should be a priority for state government.
 
"As someone who drives to Boston several times a month on business, I want high-speed rail," Blackmer said. "I don't just want rail. I want high-speed rail."
 
Bosley noted that the town of Bennington, Vt., recently made rail service to Albany a priority and suggested that the two states could cooperate on a passenger line that runs through Williamstown, on the Vermont state line.
 
Barrett said his first priority would be to expand opportunities to travel by bus. Building railroads, he said, will require an infusion of federal dollars.
 
"I can guarantee you as sure as we're here tonight, they'll be back here 10 years from tonight still talking about the same issue unless the federal government undertakes to address the infrastructure needs of the country," Barrett said. "As a state legislator, I can make sure I'm at the table to make sure we get something that connects our end of the state to the other end of the state.
 
"We have to start pushing the federal legislators. That's the job of the state Legislature."
 
All four candidates agreed on some of the hot-button issues that will be coming up in the Legislature and could be coming before voters in the form of ballot initiatives in the near future: the "Fair Share" millionaires tax, "safe staffing" laws for medical facilities and raising the minimum wage.
 
On the last point, Blackmer, citing her experience as a human relations manager in the hospitality industry, advocated for a measured approach to raising the minimum wage as one of a number of reforms to help workers.
 
"We know we have a lot of small businesses that can't afford that, so it needs to be gradual," she said of the increase to a $15 minimum wage. "There are other things that come into play like time off. We finally have guaranteed sick time, but we need to have more so that if they get sick or a family member gets sick, they're not stuck without a paycheck.
 
"It's part of a package of things we need to do to help working families."
 
A couple dozen members of the public attended Monday's event, which was filmed by Williamstown's community access television station, WilliNet, and will be available on the station's website.
 
The format for the evening called for audience members to submit in advance written questions that were read by Mark. Although Mark said he would allow candidates extra time to respond to specific points raised by an opponent if he felt it necessary, none of the candidates sought or were given "rebuttal" time.
 
The lone Republican in the special election, Lanesborough's Canning, was not invited by the town's Democratic Committee to participate in the pre-primary event.
 
On Monday night, she took to Facebook to complain about her exclusion, alleging that "a police officer was hired to make sure I was silenced."
 
On Tuesday morning, Lanesborough Police Chief Timothy Sorrel confirmed that he was asked last week by the town manager to have an officer at Town Hall in anticipation of a large crowd.
 
Sorrel noted that Canning, as any member of the public, was welcome to attend the forum but would not have had a seat at the table with the invited candidates. He said he was not aware of any incident involving Canning.
 
"We all know Christine, so I'm sure [the officer] probably spoke to her," Sorrel said. "I don't think it was anything official, probably just, 'Hey, how are you doing.'
 
"The officer said it was uneventful, so I assume everything went OK."
 
Williamstown's League of Women Voters is sponsoring a forum for the candidates in the Democratic primary on Wednesday, Sept. 20. A representative of the Williamstown League said it would be happy to host an October forum for the candidates in the general election.

 


Tags: 1st Berkshire,   candidate forum,   Democratic Party,   primary,   special election,   


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Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships

LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock. 
 
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
 
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
 
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). 
 
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
 
 MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities. 
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