Lanesborough Opts Out of Early Voting By Mail

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:41AM / Thursday, April 20, 2023Print Story | Email Story

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Voters will not be able to cast ballots early by mail but can they can still request an absentee ballot for the town election.

Last week, Clerk Ruth Knysh asked the Select Board to opt out of early voting by mail for municipal elections. Her request came after the state expanded access last year.

"An act passed to allow early voting by mail for local elections. It used to be just state and federal," she said. "So my thought on that is it's not in my budget, it's a lot of extra work added on me. I'm only one person in there."

Knysh explained that all of the mail-in ballots would have to be opened and processed by herself before being checked against signatures in the state computer.

"It's a process and the local elections are not well participated in," she said. "I'm just worried that if that is an option to vote by mail, we're going to get hundreds of people that don't typically vote wanting to vote by mail because they can."

The Select Board accepted the request, understanding the nature of Knysh's concern. The board also approved her request to have a police officer at the polling location for every election to "preserve order and protect the election officers." This also is now required by the state.

Nomination papers became available on March 1 and the last day to submit them is May 1. The last day to apply for an absentee ballot is June 12 ahead of the town election on June 20.

So far, incumbent Michael Murphy is being challenged by Barbara Davis-Hassan and Deborah Maynard for a three-year seat on the Select Board.

There is also a race shaping up for a three-year seat on the Finance Committee, with incumbent Jodi-Lee Szczepaniak-Locke challenged by Kristen Tool.

Incumbent Sherri Wilson is the only who has taken out nomination papers for library trustee and no one has yet taken out papers for a five-year seat on the Planning Board.

Tags: election 2023, town elections,

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DA Provides Updates on 4 Pittsfield Summer Shootings

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:11PM / Thursday, November 05, 2026

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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