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A firefighter carries a hose at the combat challenge two years ago.

Pittsfield Fire Department to Host National Firefighter Challenge

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Fire Department and other Berkshire County firefighters will again test their endurance locally in the national Firefighter Combat Challenge.

The combat challenge is an obstacle course designed to test first responders as they perform strenuous tasks that come into play at the scene of a fire. At the same time, it demonstrates the intensity of the profession's physical demands to the public.

Wearing full bunker gear and Scott Air-Pak breathing apparatuses, competitors will race as they re-enact the physical demands of real-life firefighting by performing a series of duties.

"We call it the toughest two minutes in sports, it takes an average firefighter between two minutes and 30 seconds to about four minutes to finish it," Deputy Chief Dan Garner said.

"Some of the very fast firefighters can do it under two minutes, the super-fast ones can do it in under a minute and 30 seconds."

Competitors will have to climb a five-story tower carrying a 45-pound hose pack, hoist a 42-pound hose pack from the ground, chop a 160-pound I-beam to move it 5 feet, drag charged hoses and a life-sized, 175-pound "victim" 100 feet as they race against themselves and their opponents and the clock.

The challenge can be done as individual participation, in teams of three to five firefighters from the same department, in two-person tandems, and in relays with three to five team members.

This year's event will take place Sept. 16-18 at Berkshire Crossing (555 Hubbard Ave.)  It is a family-friendly affair sponsored by Berkshire Money Management and is free to watch.

The Pittsfield Fire Department will have its firefighters competing as well members of other Berkshire County departments. The Berkshire County Special Response Team will challenge PFD in an exhibition relay.

Retired firefighters are also welcome to join the competition.

"Ideally, I'd love to have 300 firefighters compete over the two days," Garner said.

For the little ones, there will be a scaled-down version of the event called the Greylock Federal Credit Union Kid's Crawl, Drag, and Squirt Course that is sponsored by the bank. It will be free to kids ages 4-12.


There will also be food trucks, fire safety demonstrations, and a demonstration from Eversource.

This is the PFD's second time hosting the challenge. It came to Pittsfield first in 2019, when it attracted firefighters from all surrounding communities and had more than 1,000 attendees throughout the two days.

The challenge circuit sponsored by 3M Scott Fire & Safety is in its 30th season. It is a traveling caravan that consists of around three 18-wheelers — one containing a five-story scaffold tower — support staff, and some dedicated fans.

"It started out 30 years ago, it was created by this doctor in Maryland at the University of Maryland, they were coming up with criteria for the firefighter's exam and they came up with the five-station agility assessment," Garner explained.

"And they kind of implemented it in the Washington, D.C., area for the departments out there to see how it was working, and they found that the firefighters were actually becoming pretty competitive with each other to try and beat each other's time and stuff, so what they ended up doing was the doctor that invented it saw an idea there and he created the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge. The rest is history."

They typically travel to 20-25 United States locations in a year, even making it Alaska.

Annually, the challenge attracts hundreds of U.S. and Canadian fire departments and is expanding to countries around the world including New Zealand, Poland, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Canada, Dubai, Slovenia, France, and South Africa.

Lenco Rescue Vehicles and Berkshire Bank are also sponsoring the challenge. Garner said the combination of support from local organizations is what made the event possible.

The individual races will be held Friday, Sept. 17, starting at 5 p.m. The tandem and relay races will be held Saturday, Sept. 18, starting at 10:30 a.m.

More information can be found about the challenge course, registration, and rules at www.firefighterchallenge.com

For more information about the Pittsfield event, email Dan Garner at dgarner@cityofpittsfield or call 413-448-9754.


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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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