image description — The Parks Commission was updated on the status of a number of ongoing projects on Tuesday.

Wetlands Derails Restoration of Pontoosuc Beach

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
01:58PM / Thursday, July 18, 2019Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Wetland issues have derailed planned improvements to Pontsoosuc Lake Park.

The Friends of Pontoosuc Lake received $15,000 from the Community Preservation Act with the intent to restore the beach on the Hancock Road side. The city's Parks, Open Space and Natural Resource Program Manager Jim McGrath, however, said it was found that the former beach has essentially turned into wetlands.

"We can't disturb that area of Pontoosuc Park," McGrath told the Parks Commission on Tuesday.

McGrath said the way the drainage currently is in the park has led to wetland soils and plants covering the former beach so it is now treated as a resource area. McGrath said options now would be to re-orient the stairway and create another beach in another location. But, "it is going to be an involved project."

"If we are looking for an upgrade at Pontoosuc Lake park, it will be a bit more involved and we will have less space than we've had in the past," he said.

That section of the lake was once a highly used beach in the past but over the years the drainage led it to become mostly unusable because of wetness and mosquitoes. The Friends of Pontoosuc Lake hoped there could be a relatively easy fix to at least make that section usable but that won't be the case.

McGrath provided the update as well as an update on a series of park projects that are ongoing this summer.

Greenagers are currently working on improving the trails at Springside Park as well as working at Wild Acres to create a handicapped-accessible trail.

The Taconic track has been repaired, with a new surface in spot repairs. The next step is to fence in the baseball field to make the entire area inaccessible to vehicles. The city has had trouble with vehicles driving on the fields and causing damage.

The Durant Park restroom project was completed a few weeks ago and this past weekend it was vandalized. McGrath said the doors were spray painted and have since been removed. McGrath said all city parks have had a lot of trouble with vandalism this year.

Repairs to the dugouts and fences at the Doyle Softball Complex is being sorted out now and the work is expected to be done in the fall.

The bids for the Westside Riverway Park are due by Thursday and McGrath said he hopes a contract will be signed by the end of the month for construction to start in September.

Clapp Park's renovation is currently underway. McGrath said the underground work of water, sewer, and drainage has been put in, which will support the splash pad. He said substantial completion of the project should be completed by the end of August. However, there is still discussion over where the batting cage will be installed once the project is completed as space near the field has become tight.

The Parks Commission also adopted new rules to govern both parks and conservation areas. Since the last discussion, the only change of much substance was rewording of the section on firearms.

"There was some concern that the prior language would exclude properly licensed gun owners," McGrath said.

The language now is consistent with state law and McGrath said anybody who is legally able to carry would be able to do so without being out of compliance park rules.

Tags: parks commission, Pontoosuc,

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Pittsfield's This and That Sports Celebrating Six Years

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:34PM / Friday, October 23, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — This and That Sports is celebrating its sixth birthday with a party.

Owner Reggie Davis opened the collectables and card store at 128 Fenn St., pursuing a hobby he has had since he was a teenager.

He started with small card shows and later collected a broad range of items, including sports memorabilia, autographs, Beanie Babies, and Matchbox cars.

"It's been a long time, and it's not just cards. I mean, I collect everything. I love sports memorabilia, autographs," he said.

Originally from Great Barrington, he moved to Connecticut and operated a collectibles store there from 2004 to 2014 before moving back to Berkshire County. He worked for FedEx before opening the new store in 2020.

For the first six months, he balanced the store with his career with FedEx, with help from his wife, Crystal, who worked around her own overnight hospital shifts. He left FedEx to focus on the store full time and works with his son, Bret.

He said it is more than a job and he is happy to open his doors to the collecting community.

"It's like something that I looked at as a pleasure business. It wasn't about the money. It was more like bringing the collecting part of the hobby to Berkshire County," he said.

Davis said he misses live baseball in Pittsfield, recalling Pittsfield Mets games. He said collecting brings him closer to that feeling of watching a local team when he was younger.

"I've always remembered growing up as a kid of the Pittsfield Mets and then the Pittsfield Suns and baseball being here and I was a big sports person, I played a lot of sports, and it's kind of sad and I think I want to continue the sports collecting part, the hobby. You can't go to a baseball game here unless it's like a high school game. So it's kind of continuing the collecting part of the hobby without the actual sports being here," he said.

Davis said the store's customers have become friends. He added that he likes to see the younger generation open packs of cards.

"The amazing part about it is not just the kids, but the customers. Like, I have customers that've been coming in for four, five, six [years] even new ones that just started coming in like a month ago," he said. "We've been out to dinner with these people. We travel. Customers have become friends, even close friends, which is nice."

He said one of the most challenging parts of the business has been to keep everything in stock especially with the surge in popularity of Pokemon cards.

"We have people that stop in all the time, and they're like wow you got a great selection of Pokemon, you have a big selection, and I think that's you know we have distribution for sports and Pokemon, but it sells so quick," he said. "I think the hardest thing is to be able to keep product on the shelf."

Not only does he sell collectibles, but he also purchased a card grading company called Revolutionary Card Grading that he opened next door. The company, based in Georgia, produces specialized color-matched designs but card grading and customer submissions are now handled locally since taking full ownership of the company last year.

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