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The Select Board recognizes the service of Daniel Filiault, who resigned as emergency management director and from the Traffic Commission, at Monday's meeting held at Wahconah Regional High School prior to a special town meeting.

Dalton Select Board Announces Availability of Bardin Property

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board honored Emergency Management Director Daniel Filiault for his 42 years of service during their meeting on Monday night. 
 
The former police chief has resigned from all appointed positions including the emergency management department and Traffic Commission so that he can retire and spend more time with his family and pursue other interests. Filiault had continued to be an active volunteer in the town's operations since his retirement in 2004 after 11 years leading the Police Department. 
 
His resignation will be effective July 1 and he will be replaced with Glenn Lagerwall. 
 
The board has also announced the availability of the Bardin property for purchase, which is the first formal step in the town disposing of the property. 
 
During the town meeting on May 2, residents urged the town to sell the land rather than lease it. 
 
The land is in both Dalton and Windsor, which led to issues about the ownership and the possible violation of an agricultural preservation restriction if it was sold by Dalton.
 
Some residents argued that the only way to resolve an APR violation would be to sell the land in Dalton and Windsor to the same person making it whole. 
 
However, town officials cannot guarantee that the Dalton parcel be sold to the same person as the Windsor parcel because they have to put the land up for bid separately. 
 
The board has also signed an agreement with CNRK Inc. of Northborough whose mission is to "facilitate environmental progress through the ethical and responsible collections of second chance clothing, shoes and household items."
 
CNRK will collect textile and other household items from a box at the transfer station that it has provided and pay the town 7 cents per pound. 
 
"As textiles will soon be prohibited from municipal solid waste, we believe this is a win-win solution for the impending problem," Town Manager Tom Hutcheson said. 
 
In other news: 

• The board approve interdepartmental transfers for the following budgets: town manager, telephone/internet/email, town clerk, snow and ice, and employee fringe benefits. The finance committee also approved these transfers last Wednesday. For more information check out our previous article.

• The town is still in search for a highway mechanic.

• Anyone interested in the position of part-time recording secretary reach out to Administrative Assistant Alyssa Maschino at Ext. 202. The job posting can be found here. 
 
The next Select Board meeting will be on July 11 at 7 p.m.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

DA Provides Updates on 4 Pittsfield Summer Shootings

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— District Attorney Timothy Shugrue delivered updates on a string of gun violence incidents over the summer and said even one is too much.

"This summer was extremely upsetting to people living in Pittsfield and our entire Berkshire community. While we live in a safe community, it is always disheartening to hear these gunshots. In the past four years, there has been a remarkable reduction in gun violence," he said during a press conference at the Berkshire DA's office on Thursday. 

"Since January 2023, there has been a 62 percent reduction of validated shootings in the City of Pittsfield." 

There were four separate incidents involving gunfire in Pittsfield this past summer.   Some suspects were charged, and some are still being sought by police. 

On June 18, a person died after being shot in the area of Tyler Street and Pleasure Avenue, and another person was injured. Following an extensive investigation, the Pittsfield Police Department applied for and was granted an arrest warrant for Terry Martizna, wanted for murder. 

Shugrue reported that his office is working with various authorities, including federal, to secure Martizna's return to the Berkshires. He said he was involved the whole weekend of the incident after being "immediately" contacted by the PPD. 

"My office was on notice, and we continued to work with them throughout the night. I can tell you that they worked all night long; they never stopped working. I was really pleased with the amount of effort that was going into it, and by the next day, we had a pretty good clue of where we were going. But the amount of surveillance that they had to go through was incredible, and it was just commendable," he added. 

"The amount of support we got from the community, from the Pittsfield residents, and from the work that these officers put in all weekend long, they were able to identify certain locations where this individual was, and that continued all the way in through Monday morning. By that Saturday, I was informed that we had a suspect that we were just producing the probable cause reports, and that was all which led to the warrant coming out."

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