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Berkshire County Kids Place is one of several nonprofit service agencies that have received CDBG funds through the city.

Pittsfield Human Service Programs Receive CDBG Funds

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The city has allocated about $138,000 of additional Community Development Block Grant funds into local human service programs. The Office of Community Development's Program Manager Justine Dodds said there is additional funding available for qualifying organizations.

At the Jan. 12, City Council meeting, Pittsfield received its second allocation of Community Development Block Grants in the amount of $475,103.00. The federally funded program is designed to help small cities and towns meet a broad range of community development needs.

In total, the city has received $1,264,444. The first allocation was accepted by the City Council on April 28, 2020. These two allocations are separate and in addition to the city's annual entitlement allocation.

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding, the grant has the same guidelines as the CDBG but also has to be used for preparing for responding to or preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The Elizabeth Freeman Center will be funded an additional $25,000 for employee hazard pay, personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies, and additional hotline staffing.

"They have experienced, unfortunately, a higher volume of calls because of the pandemic," Dodds said.

Berkshire County Kids place applied for an allocation and have been funded $24,120 for modifications to space. The facility requires touch-less technology to prevent the spread of COVID-19, bathroom modifications, and plexiglass separations among other changes to conduct business in a safe space.

United Cerebral Palsy applied for a $25,000 allocation and received it. UCP is switching a lot of counseling programming advocacy work to a telehealth model and is doing virtual training with clients on how to access needed services. It provides the laptops and means for technology, but the grant is paying for staff to assist clients in accessing services remotely.



Berkshire Nursing Families received a $10,000 allocation. It is getting a higher volume of referrals from pediatricians and doctors' offices because patients are not coming in as frequently, making it a service that needs support. BNF is also conducting Zoom groups and a number of virtual services that need to be beefed up, which requires funding.

"They have adapted pretty well to doing these curbside consultations, and so they're doing a great deal with that," Dodds said. "I just recently monitored their programs recently and was rather impressed with how they have coped with it."

The remaining two allocations are $22,000 for a consulting space $32,000 for a daytime warming shelter at the Christian Center.

During the pandemic, the Christian Center has partnered with the city and most of the agencies that are handling the homeless and at risk of being homeless population. Over the summer, they put together a group with different service agencies such as Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority and ServiceNet to provide counseling services to housing insecure individuals with the intent of securing housing and accessing needs.

This group met twice a week in an outside tent on the Christian Center's property, as food services were being conducted inside and the two could not be blended. Because of the winter conditions, this service needs to be moved inside and the $22,000 grant will go toward reworking a space on the property into a safe space for service agencies to meet with clients.

The Christian Center's $32,000 grant will be used to purchase a temporary trailer as a daytime warming shelter for the hours that ServiceNet's shelter is closed during the daytime.  This has been a long-anticipated facility, as temperatures are reaching dangerous lows, and many places that individuals seek warmth in such as the Berkshire Athenaeum are currently closed to the public.

"We looked around at a number of options and ways to do this but it seems like this is the thing that's going to make the most sense,"  Dodds said.


Tags: CDBG,   

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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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