PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mayor Linda Tyer said Friday that with the beginning of Phase 2 likely to start Monday, the city is focused on reopening.
"The public health data continues to trend in the right direction and that is the result of everybody doing their part to keep themselves and others safe," the mayor said during her weekly COVID-19 update on Pittsfield Community Television.
The city has seen 160 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and five deaths; the number of active cases is now 31. Berkshire Medical Center currently has five patients.
Tyer said the city is doing its part to prepare businesses that will be allowed to open in this next phase with limitations and specifications. She said hotels, retail stores, various schools, some personnel services, funeral homes, child care, and restaurants among others will be able to open to different degrees.
Restaurants would specifically be able to open with outdoor seating and Tyer said the city's Health Department has been working with restaurants to accommodate this.
"There is tremendous interest in utilizing outdoor spaces such as sidewalks and private parking lots for outdoor dining," she said.
The mayor signed a local order on Friday that would streamline the process of setting up outdoor dining spaces.
She said city parks will also reopen and sports programming will be allowed to continue but only practice.
She said there are plans to open up city buildings July 20 and the Berkshire Athenaeum has resumed offering curbside pickups.
While the library building remains closed to the public, patrons now have the opportunity to request and safely pick up library items. Books, audio books, movies, and music are available for curbside pickup service. Materials can be reserved online through website or calling or emailing and patrons will be notified when they are ready for pickup. No more than five articles per one pickup a day, and no more than three pickups a week.
Tyer said applications for the city's COVID-19 relief and recovery program also are now available.
"This program will provide financial assistance to residents, small businesses, and community organizations who are experiencing hardship due to COVID-19," she said.
The city received $900,000 in Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act money to help cover some costs associated with the effects of the novel coronavirus.
"This will help preserve local tax dollars and our ability to manage cash flow," Tyer said.
She said some of this money went toward the purchase of Chromebooks for remote learning and that the city will make more requests in the future.
Under normal circumstances, she said, this would have been graduation week and that hasn't changed, although the graduations will be virtual ceremonies that will air Sunday on PCTV at 1 and 2 p.m.
"Congratulations graduates you have reached one of life's milestones and you are making your way into the world," Tyer said. "Go be awesome."
Before closing, she called back to the past week's protests over police violence and the death of George Floyd and asked residents to reflect on what the new normal should look like.
"The days and weeks ahead continue to move us toward our new normal, and while we work to adjust to this new way of living there are many things in our community that we should never become comfortable with," she said. "This is a time to define a better community for all of us. Let's stand together and seize the moment."
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State Fire Marshal: New Tracking Tool Identifies 50 Lithium-Ion Battery Fires
STOW, Mass. — The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services' new tool for tracking lithium-ion battery fires has helped to identify 50 such incidents in the past six months, more than double the annual average detected by a national fire data reporting system, said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine.
The Department of Fire Services launched its Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Investigative Checklist on Oct. 13, 2023. It immediately went into use by the State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit assigned to the State Fire Marshal's office, and local fire departments were urged to adopt it as well.
Developed by the DFS Fire Safety Division, the checklist can be used by fire investigators to gather basic information about fires in which lithium-ion batteries played a part. That information is then entered into a database to identify patterns and trends.
"We knew anecdotally that lithium-ion batteries were involved in more fires than the existing data suggested," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "In just the past six months, investigators using this simple checklist have revealed many more incidents than we've seen in prior years."
Prior to the checklist, the state's fire service relied on battery fire data reported to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System (MFIRS), a state-level tool that mirrors and feeds into the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). NFIRS tracks battery fires but does not specifically gather data on the types of batteries involved. Some fields do not require the detailed information that Massachusetts officials were seeking, and some fires may be coded according to the type of device involved rather than the type of battery. Moreover, MFIRS reports sometimes take weeks or months to be completed and uploaded.
"Investigators using the Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Checklist are getting us better data faster," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "The tool is helpful, but the people using it are the key to its success."
From 2019 to 2023, an average of 19.4 lithium-ion battery fires per year were reported to MFIRS – less than half the number identified by investigators using the checklist over the past six months. The increase since last fall could be due to the growing number of consumer devices powered by these batteries, increased attention by local fire investigators, or other factors, State Fire Marshal Davine said. For example, fires that started with another item but impinged upon a battery-powered device, causing it to go into thermal runaway, might not be categorized as a battery fire in MFIRS or NFIRS.
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