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Richard Latura promises to clean up the neighborhoods one way or the other.

Latura Brings 'No Filter' Into Race For City Council

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Richard Latura wants his hometown back the way he remembers it and he doesn't care how that happens -- legal or not.
 
Latura is running for an at-large seat on the City Council. He doesn't like what is happening in Pittsfield and he wants to make it safe, cut out political nonsense, and reel in the taxes. 
 
"I'm too old. I don't care. I'm just so tired of having so many politicians on that dais that are useless," Latura said.
 
The Police Department would be a top priority: making sure officers have everything they need and looking the other way if officers become physical with some offenders.
 
"I don't care if I have to stop Third Thursdays. What do you need to stay safe? Make our neighborhoods safe," Latura said. "Make the neighborhoods safe and the city will follow because it is nothing but a bunch of neighborhoods stuck together. Once you have it safe, everybody can say hi to each other every day, they can walk their dogs, their kids can play in the parks, everybody can be a community again."
 
Latura said he'd want some offenders to have "accidents" while in custody and he thinks jails are too soft -- he'd like to see more inmates being put to work doing various jobs in the city. He said he wants to "weed out the scum" in the city.
 
"If you were a real offender, you fell down the stairs a couple of times. It was an accident. But you fell down the stairs a couple of times. It needs to be done again," he said.
 
In one neighborhood, Latura said there was drug dealing and other nefarious activity going on right in the middle of the streets and neighbors didn't want to leave their houses. The police couldn't legally do anything about it given the circumstances. He said he went out day after day and made sure the miscreants knew that they were not welcome. Eventually, he said he confronted those causing a nuisance and they moved their activities inside.
 
"The cops didn't do that. They need warrants. I don't need warrants. They aren't doing that anymore. You won't hear that address on your scanner," Latura said. 
 
"They couldn't take care of it because they have to follow the rules. I don't have to follow the rules. I have to follow what my constituents say."
 
That attitude stems from about a decade in the military, but even then, it had ultimately led him to be "asked" to leave. He served in the Army and said he suffered a bullet wound during his time in Grenada. That is when he first got in trouble when he overstepped his bounds in making a call. He said he would later "knock out" a superior and he was asked to leave -- still keeping his service record intact.
 
He returned to the city where he grew up and became a locksmith. Now he is retired, though he does some work on the side, and has had enough of politics. He ran for council in 2013 for Ward 3 because he really thought that he'd make a difference but lost. He had no interest in running again and hadn't been paying attention to politics until his tax bill arrived.
 
"I opened up my tax bill and almost puked on the dining room table. For what? What am I paying this kind of money for? I look out my window and I have a pothole in front of my house that I can't get fixed for six years," Latura said. 
 
He has no plans to fund raise. He doesn't plan to campaign. But he will be talking to people and bringing up issues he doesn't believe anybody is actually talking about. And if elected, he plans to let everybody know if he gets wind of any backroom dealing or closed-door meetings among politicians.
 
"They are going to stop with the nonsense. It is going to end. I get on that dais and it is going to be the worst day of their lives," Latura said.
 
He'll want to start with improving the Police Department and then move to improve the Fire Department. And his third priority will be to rebuild the Department of Public Works so it can handle all of the jobs needed so contracts aren't being given to out-of-town contractors. If there is work the city needs done, he wants that money to go to local companies where the employees are all local and will spend their money here.
 
He isn't going to ask people to email him -- nor will he answer any -- or ask them to text. He wants people to call and talk to him. Too often, he feels, councilors don't respond or respond via email telling the residents that their problem will eventually be fixed. Latura said he'll answer for the phone at any time on any day to solve problems.
 
"The city deserves the government they elected. I don't know when it started or why it happened but for some reason this government decided that they are a monarchy. They deserve it. They are royalty. No. You are there to serve at the pleasure of the people and that is all I want. I want to serve you because you put me there. If you have a problem, trust me, I'll answer your telephone call," Latura said.
 
No matter what it is, Latura said within a week he'll be able to figure out a solution. 
 
He doesn't support using public funds on the arts and tourism. He thinks the city can be revitalized from within by making neighborhoods safe so people will walk downtown. Companies will see community and move here. He discredits the mayor's involvement in Wayfair's expansion, saying it is only happening because the owner had lived here.
 
He questions where the money was spent on the new playground for Durant Park, saying it doesn't look like it should have cost as much as it did. He questions the implementation of parking meters, saying nobody in the city wants them. 
 
He believes city officials are grossly overpaid and he'd be pushing to cut salaries. Latura feels much of what is happening with various projects stems from backroom deals among politicians and he plans to bring that out into the open.
 
"The city needs to know that you have a handful of councilmen running behind closed doors and making deals," Latura said.
 
He had a troubled childhood. As the oldest of nine children, he had to become the man of the house at age 13 when his father left. 
 
"I had to come of age real quick. I went out and got jobs doing nothing for dimes and nickels just so my mother could eat, just so my siblings could have heat, just for that. From the age of 13, I should have been out playing cowboys and Indians and not going to work for a living," Latura said. 
 
"I learned a lot of things I shouldn't have done when I was young, but I had to."
 
But he had a tight-knit neighborhood there that supported him. He remembers nobody ever locking their doors and everybody in the neighborhood looked out for each other. That isn't the case anymore, he said, believing that stems from the government.
 
"If you think you are voting for a politician, vote for somebody else because you will not like me. I do not have a filter. I am not politically correct. And I'm not afraid to use words. If I think you are an idiot, I'm going to tell you, you are an idiot," Latura said.

Tags: city election,   election 2019,   Pittsfield city council ,   


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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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