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With a light summer agenda, the City Council hammered out a handful of traffic items.

Pittsfield Council Opts To Remove 'Annoying' No Turn On Red Sign

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Most drivers don't really understand why there is no right turn on red here.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council opted to get rid of the "annoying" no turn on red sign at West Street and Valentine Road, despite concerns raised by the city's engineer.
 
Councilors Anthony Simonelli and John Krol petitioned to remove the sign that stops people from taking rights off of West Street and onto Valentine Road in its own separate lane. The move calls for taking down the sign and a traffic light to allow for those in the turning lane to take a right on red.
 
"It is a really annoying sign at an intersection that a lot of people don't follow anyway," Krol said.
 
However, City Engineer Ricardo Morales did a sightline analysis and realized that the sign is there for a reason. He said there is only 135 feet of sight distance for vehicles on West to see others coming straight on Jason Street, when there should be 240 feet. Morales said that people creep onto the crosswalk to stop instead of at the stop line where they should now. 
 
"The issue here is probably mitigated by vehicles going over the stop bar and standing on the crosswalk before taking the turn," he said.
 
Morales said to properly change it to match safety standards would require changing the corner, reducing the turning radius, and repositioning the crosswalks to make the stop lines closer.
 
"I don't know why this was installed but having this be a sight distance issue, that could very well be the reason," Morales said.
 
Simonelli, however, said Jason is not a well-traveled road and there haven't been any crash issues there, even with people ignoring the sign. At the Traffic Commission meeting to discuss it, the department had no data on recent traffic accidents there.
 
"I don't think it is a dangerous intersection," Simonelli said.
 
There is no crosswalk or sidewalk on the easterly side of Valentine so students at Taconic aren't walking there, the view obstruction is minor, and there are far more dangerous intersections throughout the city that have rights on red, Simonelli argued.
 
Councilor At Large Peter White lives on Jason Street and travels that road often. He said never understood why that was there and agrees that the intersection hasn't been an issue. Ward 3 Councilor Nicholas Caccamo has a similarly questioned no turn on red sign in his ward at the intersection of Newell and East Street. He said the only issues there, with heavier traffic, is neighbors have trouble getting out of their driveways if the sign wasn't stopping the flow. But, that's not an issue at West and Valentine, he said.
 
The council approved it unanimously but raised concerns about the process. The Traffic Commission approved it unanimously provided the sightline analysis came back clean. At the meeting, Morales didn't feel there would be an issue and agreed that he'd do the study in time for Tuesday's council's meeting to be able to move the process along. But the results weren't what he initially expected.
 
"My recommendation was to do this evaluation expecting there wouldn't be a problem but that's not what I found," Morales said.
 
Krol felt it was odd that the Traffic Commission would act on it without all of the information. Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell suggested sending it back to Traffic for more discussion but he didn't receive support from other councilors.
 
"I am kind of baffled by the process, how can we have the Traffic Commission approve this unanimously and then the engineer come back with new information?" Krol said.
 
The council also raised a concern about a request from the Police Department to make School Street police parking only - except for one handicapped spot at the corner of School and North Street. The Traffic Commission also approved that but it was never sent to them by the council in the first place - the petition was made directly to traffic. Such petitions are supposed to go to the City Council, which then decides which committee should review it. 
 
That subversion of the council irked some councilors who felt the need to reiterate that petitions must come to them first.
 
The Council also accepted a report on a petition from Ward 5 Councilor Donna Todd Rivers to put up a no commercial vehicles sign at Westwood Road and Barker Road. The city had a sign there before but it was taken out. The Department of Public Services simply put a new one up when the petition was filed.
 
Councilor At Large Earl Persip also questioned Mayor Linda Tyer on the salary for new Building Commissioner Jeffrey Clemons. Former Commissioner Gerald Garner left to take a similar job in Adams for higher pay. Persip said the city's commissioner has a lot more responsibilities so salaries have to be competitive so the city doesn't lose employees.
 
"I think it is important that we try to bump this up because I don't want to see us trying to find a new building commissioner in two years," Persip said.
 
The salary had been somewhat of a debate during the budget hearings. A few councilors felt it would have been unfair to hire somebody to replace Garner, who had been with the city for a long time, at a higher rate. Tyer, however, did ultimately hire him at more than Garner would have gotten.
 
"I do think he makes a point about compensation being a challenge, especially in building commissioner positions," Tyer said of Persip's concerns and revealed that Clemons is starting at about $73,000 whereas Garner would have been given $70,000 this fiscal year.
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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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