Election 2009: Malumphy Offers Apples for Teachers

07:12PM / Tuesday, September 01, 2009Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mayoral candidate Pam Malumphy is giving apples to teachers and administrators at Pittsfield High School and Taconic High School on the first official day of school Wednesday, Sept. 2.

Malumphy has been a consistent advocate of renovating the two high schools rather than what she says is a the costly and questionable move to build a single new high school.

"When I was on the City Council, I petitioned to have the School Building Needs Commission re-activated in order to facilitate a discussion as to why we were seeing such high dropout rates," she said. "Over the years, the conversation turned toward the construction of a new high school and abandoning our two existing schools. I have consistently opposed this position preferring instead to advocate for the renovation of our two great existing high schools."

Submitted by the Campaign to Elect Pam Malumphy

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Pittsfield Wants People to Know Where Free Public Wifi Is

By Brittany PolitoiBerkhshires Staff
04:46AM / Friday, September 18, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city wants it to be clear where people can connect to free public wifi— which expands beyond downtown.

On Tuesday, the Parks Commission approved "Free Wifi" signage at The Common, Riverway Park, and Durant Park. Community members can access the internet without charge in these locations, as well as in downtown areas.

Two years ago, Pittsfield received a $99,972 Digital Equity Implementation Grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. This allowed the city to take a comprehensive look at digital equity and determine where to focus attention.

"That was a lengthy process that we worked on, and there was a lot of public input. We did some surveying. We met with a lot of focus groups; [Berkshire Regional Planning Commission] was the group that spearheaded that for us, and one of the things that came up was the lack of accessible wifi," Director of Community Development Justine Dodds reported. "Particularly in the westside."

Throughout this process, residents also wanted to see connectivity at the nearby Westside Riverway Park.

In 2023, Pittsfield was selected to participate in the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program launched by the state and MBI, focused on ensuring residents can use the internet to conduct day-to-day activities. A digital equity plan also qualifies Pittsfield for additional grant funding.

Around 16,000 city households qualified for the Federal Communications Commission's affordable internet program that ended in 2024.

Dodds said adding Wi-FI and signage to Durant and Riverway Parks is a small piece of the larger digital equity project. Signage is already downtown, and the city plans to hire the same designer for the expanded wayfinding so it is cohesive.

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