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Treasurer Steven Grossman asked the students about their ideal schools.
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Grossman asked Esha to explain why she chose certain elements for her ideal school.

Treasurer, MSBA Director Present Award to First-Grader At Crosby

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Esha Zahid and her family were honored Friday by many elected officials for being the regional winner of a statewide 'my ideal school' competition.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — First-grader Esha Zahid won a statewide competition for designing her ideal school but she and her family were unable to attend a ceremony at the State House. So on Friday, state officials brought the ceremony to her.

Treasurer Steven Grossman and Jack McCarthy, executive director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, visited Esha's class at Crosby Elementary School on Friday to deliver her winnings. The competition asked  first-graders from all over the state to draw and write an essay describing their ideal school.

Esha was picked as one of 12 regional winners in the seventh annual competition. Drawing a castle and explaining that her school has "good friends, the playground is fun to play in and the lunch that the lunch lady give us is very yummy," earned Esha a $100 savings bond from Sovereign Bank.

"Because she wasn't able to be in Boston for our special presentation, we decided to bring all of us here to say thank you to her," Grossman told the first-graders.

McCarthy and Grossman are in charge with the state funds to build new schools. The city has been making a pitch to renovate or build a new Taconic High School. The city still needs feasibility studies to be completed before the MSBA invites the city into the program, which provide most of the funding needed to complete a project.



But, McCarthy and Grossman have both voiced support for the project.

"The biggest thing I am doing right now is working on that Taconic School," McCarthy said.

McCarthy and Grossman were joined by Mayor Daniel Bianchi, state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier and state Sen. Benjamin Downing.

A new Taconic may not look like a castle, but Esha will likely have the opportunity to attend an upgraded high school when she is older.


Tags: awards,   Crosby School,   MSBA,   state officials,   

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Pittsfield Resident Victim of Alleged Murder in Greenfield

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A man found dismembered in a barrel in Greenfield on Monday has been identified as Pittsfield resident.
 
The Northwestern District Attorney's Office identified victim as Christopher Hairston, 35, and subsequently arrested a suspect, Taaniel Herberger-Brown, 42, at Albany (N.Y.) International Airport on Tuesday.
 
The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported that Herberger-Brown told investigators he planned on visiting his mother outside the country. 
 
Herberger-Brown was detained overnight, and the State Police obtained an arrest warrant on a single count of murder on Tuesday morning, the Greenfield Police Department said in a press release.
 
According to a report written by State Police Trooper Blakeley Pottinger, the body was discovered after Greenfield police received reports of a foul odor emitting from the apartment along with a black hatchet to the left of the barrel, the Greenfield Recorder reported. 
 
Investigators discovered Hairston's hand and part of a human torso at Herberger-Brown’s former apartment, located at 92 Chapman St, the news outlet said. 
 
According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Herberger-Brown originally told investigators that he had not been to the apartment in months because he had been in and out of hospitals. 
 
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