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Pittsfield Residents Bring Chicken Complaint to Council Committee

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Ward 2 residents are going up against a flock of chickens that are reportedly disturbing abutters with sanitation concerns.
 
The Ordinances and Rules committee on Monday addressed Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi's petition to review the keeping of chickens at 16 Kensington Ave. In a 3-2 vote, the panel postponed voting on the matter until its June 7 meeting. Councilor at Large Earl Persip III and Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio opposed postponing because they felt the panel had no purview.
 
The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a hearing on May 19 during which it will determine if the birds are being kept in accordance with the special permit obtained for their keeping. In this situation, the ZBA holds authority over revoking the chickens' residency.
 
"The City Council and this committee I don't think has any role in determining whether or not those chickens are being kept under the conditions of the special permit," City Solicitor Stephen Pagnotta said.
 
If a violation is cited in the May 19 meeting, the ZBA will have the authority to reverse the building inspector's determination of compliance and instruct and/or fine the homeowner.
 
Morandi said his constituents have sanitary concerns about the fowl because they roam free in a fenced area of the resident's property rather than being contained in a coop. He did not state how many residents have complained.
 
"The key here is sanitation, by those chickens roaming free, there are species out there in a fenced-in area, and they should be kept inside a coop like [the city code] says they should be," He said.
 
"These residents have reached out to me and there's a concern for their health, there's a concern that the building commissioner, as well as the Board of Health, is not adhering to what the code says, the state and the city building code, and especially that sanitation with public health is involved."
 
The city's guide for keeping chickens says they "shall be kept within a coop and enclosure at all times," and gives minimum sizes per bird and setbacks from buildings. 
 
In late 2020, the birds' owners requested and obtained a special permit to keep the chickens on their property. The permit came with a set of conditions granted by the ZBA.
 
Abutter Charlene Wehry of Yorkshire Avenue has been vocal about her opposition to the chickens on the next street, voicing her concerns on the open microphone segment of City Council and calling into this meeting.
 
Wehry requested that a building inspector investigate the situation, to which he made a determination that the chickens were being kept in accordance with the special permit. She elected to appeal the building inspector's determination to the ZBA, which was filed this past Friday.
 
Persip did not support continuing the petition, adding that they only have one side of the story and are not an investigative body.
 
"What does putting it off to the next meeting do for us?" he said. "We're not the investigative body, I don't know what putting it off does versus not putting it off or ruling one way or the other. This does not fall under us, we're not the investigators, we're not the zoning board, we have one side of information, so I guess I just don't know what putting it off does, we're not the hearing officer for this."
 
Maffuccio said he "sympathizes and understands" the abutter's concerns, as he went through a similar situation about 15 years ago that came down to being a Health Department issue.
 
For this reason, he wanted this petition to go to the Board of Health rather than being continued.
 
"Before this goes through the full process that's already in place we don't have really any jurisdiction on this, before we see what [the ZBA's] ruling is, there's no way we could really make any decision on this tonight," Councilor at Large Pete White said.
 
"However, depending on how it goes at ZBA, we may need to re-address this not as an amendment, we have an ordinance in place, it may be time to review that ordinance based on whatever ZBA's role is and there'll be an existing non conforming use if we make any changes to the ordinance so it would have no effect on anything that's in place now but it may have to be reviewed after."
 
Chairman Nicholas Caccamo added that continuing this agenda item does not mean the panel will embark on a full review or rewriting of zoning for chickens. Continuing this item until after its ZBA hearing is a courtesy to the resident and petitioner who brought the issue forward, he said.  

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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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