Senate Candidate Lynch Getting to Know Berkshires

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Stephen F. Lynch is hoping to bring what he says is a different perspective to the U.S. Senate.

"You really have to have somebody who has their sympathies with regular families," said the representative for the 8th Mass District on Monday morning during a swing through the region.

Lynch spoke of his "humble beginnings" and his working-class experience in the Quincy shipyards and mills and construction sites around the country, sometimes working from paycheck to paycheck.

"I think I bring a perspective to the United States Senate that is not there right now," he said, noting he'd been "strapping on work boots" for longer than he'd been a lawmaker. "I think we have multimillionaires and career politicians that never ever worked in the private sector."

The ironworker-turned-congressman from South Boston is running for the Democratic nomination to fill the seat left by John F. Kerry, who is now secretary of state.

Lynch had dropped in for breakfast in Dalton before appearing on WBEC's "Up Front" on 1420-AM and then heading east for lunch with the mayor of Springfield.

He spoke of his strong support for unions (he was the youngest president of Iron Workers Local 7) and the social support system, including unemployment insurance and the Social Security and Medicare programs on which his elderly parents rely.

"I grew up in public housing, that's not a program that's my home," said Lynch. "I know what public education offers people, I wouldn't be sitting here as a United States congressman if it wasn't for a good solid public school education."

But he voted against the Affordable Care Act because he said it did not address the issue of cost.

"I'm hearing from a lot of unions who originally supported the Affordable Care Act but are now asking me to implement changes, and asking the administration to implement changes, because they will no no longer be able to provide health care," he said. "That's not the way this thing was supposed to work."

More small and medium-sized businesses are dropping their workers into the health exchanges created for the uninsured, and cutting off a prime benefit of union organization, he said, and that's hurting both business and labor.
 

He followed his father into iron working, only to see the shipyards and automobile plants close as employers pushed jobs overseas. In between, he graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology and later from Boston College Law School. He served in the state Legislature before being elected in what was then the 9th Mass. District in 2001.

"I think because of my experience, I'll look at trade agreements a heck of a lot differently, they're not just policy, they're somebody's jobs, they're my job," he said. Rather than incentivizing corporations to ship jobs out, the tax code needs to be reformed to grow the job base here, he said. "We need to re-engineer our economy."

Lynch says the Berkshire expansion in hospitality and culture is a winning way to play to the region's strengths while also providing "fertile ground" for the life sciences field. especially as companies begin looking outside the high-cost urban areas.

Commuter rail (which is also being expanded in Western Mass.) is both propelling companies into smaller towns and providing more moderately-priced real estate for workers.

"There's fatigue out there," he acknowledged. "I met with unions who put their heart, souls and treasure into the Warren-Brown race ... They're like, 'your kidding ... .'"

The Democratic establishment did try to sidestep the issue by quickly backing Markey, the state's senior congressman, when he announced last month. (Markey's making an appearance Tuesday night at a reception hosted by the local Democratic organization).

"Unfortunately, I gummed that up a little," grinned Lynch. The short time span for the special election may help the fatigue factor but it will be hard to get out the vote. "A very small number of people are going to decide this race."

He vowed to be the region's champion in the same way he's represented his congressional district.

"I know there are folks who get elected and go to Congress and are never seen again in Massachusetts," said Lynch, which might have been a jab at Markey, who's had to fend off questions of residency. "When the gavel drops I'm back here. I am very much engaged in the areas I represent ... .

"My most important relationship is not with Nancy Pelosi. It's with the folks I represent."

Becket Looks to Wind Power for Energy Savings

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Tuesday, October 20, 2026

The single turbine is a low maintenance and has a 50-year life. The town went with wind power after finding a solar installation would be too difficult. 

BECKET, Mass. — The town unveiled a wind turbine Monday that will reduce electricity costs and show the benefits of renewable energy produced by wind.

Residents, town and state officials gathered outside the Town Hall for the ribbon cutting on a project first conceived nearly a dozen years ago.

The wind turbine stands 100-feet tall next to Town Hall and is from Oklahoma manufacturer Bergey Wind Power. It has a 50-year life and is a direct-drive permanent-magnet design, meaning it has no gearbox, making it low maintenance.

According to Garth Klimchuk, chair of the Becket Energy Committee, the town started discussions about a wind turbine in 2014. The turbine is expected to generate about 36,000 kilowatt-hours. Klimchuk said Town Hall uses about 24,000 kilowatt-hours, with excess power expected to go to the Highway Department. This is expected to save $9,000 annually from the electricity cost.

"This turbine is just going to be such a good thing for the town. It is really incredible. Zero-cost electricity. Zero cost to the town. Carbon free. Just a huge, huge milestone for us," he said.

The town received a grant from the state Department of Energy Resources totaling $139,500. The remaining funding for the project will come from a direct-pay investment tax credit under the federal Inflation Reduction Act. If the town does not receive the funding, voters at the annual town allocated $100,000 just in case, but Klimchuk said the town will only need about $60,000 to $70,000 if necessary.

"It's going to help the community. Hopefully, it'll lower our tax bills. And as we look at everything going around around the world right now, energy volatility has been with us for a long time. It's going to stay with us for a long time," said state Sen. Paul Mark. "So any move we can make as a community, whether as Becket specifically, as Berkshire County as a whole, but anything we can do to bring some of the reliability into our own hands, to produce a bit on our own, and just guarantee that in a renewable, safe way moving into the future, I think is going to pay off dividends."

The town has spent more than a decade reducing municipal energy consumption in a variety of ways including HVAC upgrades and LED street light conversions, bringing it to a Level 2 Green Community status.

While solar had been considered, interconnection constraints and limited grant opportunities made it harder to achieve. But the high elevation of Town Hall and a Small Wind Site evaluation done in 2023 and 2024 found the site was perfect for a turbine with favorably high winds.

State Rep. Leigh Davis praised the project as an example of a small town addressing a larger energy challenge through persistence and collaboration. She stressed that the single turbine represents a practical step toward reducing reliance on fossil fuels and said Becket's effort could serve as a model for communities across the commonwealth. 

"You hear about all these kind of big wind farms and solar farms and all these ways that we're gonna you know create green energy, but at the same time what we're not being sensitive to the landscape, and what I appreciate about this is that this is it's a single turbine, but it represents so much more," she said. "You're right. It's really adding to the ability for this town to contribute to green energy and to bringing our reliance on gasoline fuels back down to solving big problems."

Mark Rabinsky, deputy director of DOER's Green Communities Division, said the state supports municipalities with technical assistance and grants, and that reducing municipal energy costs can leave more resources for other local priorities. He presented the turbine as an example of state support working alongside local knowledge and decision-making. 

"I think that this is a really a great example of what green communities can do," he said. "I'm obviously a really big fan of the green communities program, but I think that connection between the state, what we're doing at the state, and that local level, and relying on the local knowledge here with Becket is a true testament to what we're doing."

Select Board Chair William Elovirta thanked everyone for being here and shared his memories of first coming tp Becket in 1946 before utility electricity arrived. His family and neighbors used small 32-volt generating plants and batteries. He recalled utility workers installing poles and wires by hand around 1947.