Anheuser-Busch and Girardi Distributors deliver 2,500 cans of water to the Clarksburg fire station.
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Anheuser-Busch and Girardi Distributors delivered canned emergency drinking water to the Clarksburg Volunteer Fire Department.
To a passerby Monday morning, it would appear as though Girardi Distributors was delivering cases of beer to the Cross Road fire station. The unknowing passerby would certainly become a concerned passerby.
But a closer look at the cans would tell a different story.
"This is great," Lt. Matthew Boillat said. "This water will be used and is much appreciated."
Girardi was not delivering 2,500 cans of Budweiser to the volunteer firefighters but 2,500 cans of emergency water.
Anheuser-Busch has a long-standing partnership with the American Red Cross, dating back to 1906. The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Merrimack, N.H., will periodically halt beer production to can drinking water, specifically to donate to communities for when natural disasters and other crises arise.
Since 1988, Anheuser-Busch and its wholesaler partners have provided nearly 83 million cans of water to the communities throughout the country in need.
More recently, they developed a partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council. To date, they have donated 2.6 million cans of water to fire departments.
"I think giving back is something we have always done at Anheuser-Busch and at the distributor level," Girardi Distributors General Manager Tom Leveque said. "Giving back to the community and trying to be a community partner. The Girardi family has been in business for over 75 years and we are the only beer distributor in Berkshire County."
Leveque said they have delivered water in Dalton, Williamstown, and North Adams.
Boillat said he has seen the emergency water cans out in their field before, to his surprise at a structure fire.
"I had to do a double-take," he laughed. "Are we cracking a beer at 4 in the morning? It was water; it was kind of funny."
He said he saw the initiative on Facebook and filled out an application for the Clarksburg Volunteer Fire Department.
"We applied and here it is," he said.
Boillat said the water will be used in trainings as well as on calls. He said they can hand it out on their own calls as well as mutual aid calls.
"That is what is great about our community, we stick together," he said. "It is great that Anheuser-Busch and Girardi and can help us, especially in a time like this."
Leveque thanked the volunteers for doing what they do.
"They are going to do something really nice too, and they are going to share it with other people," he said.
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North Adams Council to Review Hydrant Ordinance Next Week
By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council on Tuesday referred an ordinance change regarding fire hydrants to the General Government Committee over the originator's protests.
City Councilor Jason LaForest had initially submitted the proposal for the creation of a "Fire Hydrant Division" with a request to refer to his Public Safety Committee but on Tuesday night instead asked it be fast-tracked to publication and a second reading.
The rest of the council balked at taking a shortcut in the process, rejecting the motion and voting 8-1 to send the language to the General Government with only LaForest voting no.
The ordinance relates to issues regarding non-functioning fire hydrants and how information is shared between the Water Department and police dispatch. Two recent fires highlighted problems with the hydrants; officials say about 130 of the 631 hydrants in the city are nonfunctioning in some way. The city has been working for a decade to address faulty hydrants of which nearly half had been dysfunctional back in 2011.
Jason Morin, the authority's information technology consultant, told the board on Monday that he is looking at a few different options to install internet at all properties.
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City Councilor Jason LaForest had initially submitted the proposal for the creation of a "Fire Hydrant Division" with a request to refer to his Public Safety Committee but on Tuesday night instead asked it be fast-tracked to publication and a second reading.
The rest of the council balked at... click for more
Several city councilors responded with their regrets that the mayor would not run for a third term, and saying they respected what must have been a difficult decision.
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Gov. Charlie Baker and Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Jeffrey Riley on Tuesday outlined a phased-in process that will begin with elementary students.
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Mayor Thomas Bernard on Tuesday announced he would not be running for a third term.
Instead, he will focus his efforts on the agenda he'd been re-elected on in 2019 that had been disrupted by the novel coronavirus. click for more
The status of the city's hydrant system and the deteriorating public safety building came to the fore early in the new year. Firefighters were stymied at two fires by nonfunctioning hydrants and the police union raised health and safety concerns about the 60-year-old police and fire station.
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