1Berkshire and BRPC Launch Business Needs Survey

08:05AM / Thursday, April 29, 2021Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — 1Berkshire and Berkshire Regional Planning Commission have launched a survey to ask businesses about the technical assistance they would benefit from in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and building resiliency for the future.

All businesses and non-profits in the Berkshires are encouraged to provide their feedback to this short survey, which will help inform a comprehensive technical assistance program being organized by the two agencies.

Businesses should share their feedback by completing the survey as soon as possible. It can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BERPsurvey2

This program will in turn identify subject matter experts to provide no-cost technical assistance to help businesses improve their capacities around needs identified through the survey. Ben Lamb, Director of Economic Development at 1Berkshire, explained

"This survey will provide us the ability to identify specific help businesses and organizations need to regain the momentum they had prior to the pandemic, and to make themselves more resilient for the future," Ben Lamb, Director of Economic Development at 1Berkshire, said. "We will use this feedback to build a network of experts who will provide key technical assistance to help our region's businesses rebuild stronger than ever."

The technical assistance effort is a component of the Berkshire Economic Recovery Project plan, funded by a grant awarded to Berkshire Regional Planning Commission by the U.S. Economic Development Administration under the CARES Act Recovery Assistance program. This funding will be used to coordinate short- and long-term economic recovery efforts in the region.

"We're pleased to be partnering with 1Berkshire on this project, and I'm confident that the for- and non-profit businesses of our region will benefit greatly from the assistance provided," Laura Brennan, Economic Development Program Manager at Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, said.

Tags: BRPC,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Now's the time...

to harvest value from your home. Click for more details about a HELOC. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pittsfield: Should Park Square Be an Historic District?

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:48PM / Sunday, September 20, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The committee drafting a proposed local historic district around Park Square wants to generate interest and participation in the process.

Members launched the charge during meetings in August and September. A survey and public hearing are planned to gather feedback early on.

City Planner Kevin Rayner explained they are not just doing this out of a love for historic buildings, but for the timeless sense of place you get when you step into Park Square, which was laid out over 200 years ago and hosted the first-ever agricultural fair in 1810.

"I think that the main thing that we need to kind of park on is that this is the heart of our community, and it really sets the stage for the sense of place in Pittsfield, and any change to that should have some review and some consensus from folks who have a passion for protecting the history and that character of Pittsfield," he said to the new Local Historic District Study Committee last week.

"And there's that private property versus historic resource thing, but I’d say that a lot of these buildings on the square belong to the soul of Pittsfield here, and deserve to be protected, and I don't think that the layer of regulation that we're throwing down here is going to be unreasonable or a real boundary."

In March, the City Council voted to amend the City Code, Chapter 2, to establish the study committee.

Pittsfield has more than 20 locations on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Park Square Historical District, but the designation just allows communities to apply for federal tax credits and doesn't impose restrictions on buildings. The central area was laid out a few decades after Pittsfield was given a town charter in 1761.

A district can be one building, several buildings, or an area. Historic restrictions only apply to the exterior of buildings; the committee has authority to say a building in the district cannot be demolished.