Author Joseph Ellis, to discuss "His Excellency: George Washington"

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Williamstown – Joseph Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, professor of history at Mt. Holyoke College, and author of "His Excellency: George Washington" will speak at Williams on Thursday, March 2. His talk, "The Foundingest Father: George Washington" will be delivered at 8 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 3. Described by the New York Times as "an eloquent champion and brilliant practitioner of the old-fashioned art of biography," Ellis is author of a number of works on America's early republic and its personalities. Ellis sought, in "His Excellency: George Washington," to "get beyond the monument into the man." While "Americans see their first president on dollar bills, quarters, and Mount Rushmore," Thomas Jefferson and James Madison saw him as "their unquestioned superior" and Ellis shows Washington to the reader throughout his life: "as a young soldier… As the commander of an outmatched rebel army," a man who accepted the presidency only for the sake of the union, "driven by his belief that the union's very viability depended on a powerful central government." "His Excellency: George Washington" follows Ellis' previous bestsellers "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson" and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation." In "American Sphinx," Ellis searched for "the living, breathing person" behind the history; in "Founding Brothers," he traced the character and development of both the revolution and the people behind it. In "His Excellency, George Washington," he shows the reader not the idealist but the pragmatist, revealing that the man sculpted as Cincinnatus by Houdon was perhaps most successful because of "a knack for sheer survival." Ellis is the author of seven historical books, largely on the early American republic and its personalities. In addition to "Founding Brothers" Pulitzer Prize, the "American Sphinx" won the National Book Award in 1997 for nonfiction.
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Pittsfield CPA Committee Funds Half of FY24 Requests

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A few projects are not getting funded by the Community Preservation Committee because of a tight budget.

The projects not making the cut were in the historic preservation and open space and recreation categories and though they were seen as interesting and valuable projects, the urgency was not prevalent enough for this cycle.

"It's a tough year," Chair Danielle Steinmann said.

The panel made its recommendations on Monday after several meetings of presentations from applications. They will advance to the City Council for final approval.  

Two cemetery projects were scored low by the committee and not funded: A $9,500 request from the city for fencing at the West Part Cemetery as outlined in a preservation plan created in 2021 and a $39,500 request from the St. Joseph Cemetery Commission for tombstone restorations.

"I feel personally that they could be pushed back a year," Elizabeth Herland said. "And I think they're both good projects but they don't have the urgency."

It was also decided that George B. Crane Memorial Center's $73,465 application for the creation of a recreational space would not be funded. Herland said the main reason she scored the project low was because it didn't appear to benefit the larger community as much as other projects do.

There was conversation about not funding The Christian Center's $34,100 request for heating system repairs but the committee ended up voting to give it $21,341 when monies were left over.

The total funding request was more than $1.6 million for FY24 and with a budget of $808,547, only about half could be funded. The panel allocated all of the available monies, breaking down into $107,206 for open space and recreation, $276,341 for historic preservation, and $425,000 for community housing.

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