May All Your Christmases Be White

If you are in need of a little injection of Christmas spirit amid all of the chaos of the season, you are in luck: It looks like we might have a white Christmas here in northern Berkshire County.

That will make us pretty special, according to Accuweather.com: The standard for a white Christmas is an inch of snow on the ground during the morning. The regions most likely to have a blanket of snow on the ground this Christmas include, the Northeast, the Upper Midwest and the mountains of the West.

Most of the forecasts agree that snow showers will start in North County overnight Sunday night into Monday morning, Christmas Eve, then becoming more scattered later, with showers more likely between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. With highs in the mid-30s, the snow likely won't pile up or stick to the roads too much, but this system could leave 1 to 3 inches of the white stuff on the ground to cover up the brown mud and gray muck left by a fairly uneventful December.

There has not been a winter storm warning announced as of late Sunday, but the National Weather Service has issued a "hazardous weather outlook" for the entire region to warn of the light snow expected to fall on Christmas Eve - during the day anyway.

So if you have any last minute shopping to do, use caution, as the roads could get a little wet. If you're lucky enough to have the day off from work, it looks to be a pretty day to curl up with some cocoa and watch the snow fall while you finish preparing for Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone, from iBerkshires.com, and happy New Year, too!

Cost, Access to NBCTC High Among Concerns North Berkshire Residents

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Thursday, April 25, 2024

Adams Select Chair Christine Hoyt, NBCTC Executive Director David Fabiano and William Solomon, the attorney representing the four communities, talk after the session. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public access channels should be supported and made more available to the public — and not be subject to a charge.

 

More than three dozen community members in-person and online attended the public hearing  Wednesday on public access and service from Spectrum/Charter Communications. The session at City Hall was held for residents in Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg and North Adams to express their concerns to Spectrum ahead of another 10-year contract that starts in October.

 

Listening via Zoom but not speaking was Jennifer Young, director state government affairs at Charter.

 

One speaker after another conveyed how critical local access television is to the community and emphasized the need for affordable and reliable services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. 

 

"I don't know if everybody else feels the same way but they have a monopoly," said Clarksburg resident David Emery. "They control everything we do because there's nobody else to go to. You're stuck with with them."

 

Public access television, like the 30-year-old Northern Berkshire Community Television, is funded by cable television companies through franchise fees, member fees, grants and contributions.

 

Spectrum is the only cable provider in the region and while residents can shift to satellite providers or streaming, Northern Berkshire Community Television is not available on those alternatives and they may not be easy for some to navigate. For instance, the Spectrum app is available on smart televisions but it doesn't include PEG, the public, educational and governmental channels provided by NBCTC.