image description — The Husky 4 of Herberg Middle School was the champion at Saturday's Berkshire Robotics Challenge. Pictured are coach Wendy Stebbins, left, Ezekiel Mason, Ashton Brennan, Aastha Rai, Qing Song and coach Ellen Lantz.

Herberg's Husky 4 Wins Berkshire Robotics Challenge

07:58PM / Saturday, March 19, 2022Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Husky 4 of Herberg Middle School defeated the Raging Riots of St. Mary's School in Lee to be crowned champion of "Cargo Connect," the 21st Berkshire Robotics Challenge, conducted Saturday at the Berkshire Innovation Center.

The tally in the finals was 250 points for Herberg and 200 for St. Mary's.

The competition involved six teams of students ages 8 to 14 from throughout the county who used programmable robots built from Lego kits to complete a variety of missions involving hypothetical scenarios related to safe, efficient transportation. The event was sponsored by Berkshire Applied Technology Council, with major underwriting support from the Feigenbaum Foundation and General Dynamics Mission Systems.

Ellen Lantz and Wendy Stebbins were coaches for Herberg, which featured team members Aastha Rai, Ashton Brennan, Ezekiel Mason and Qing Song.

Cara Maiorano, Christine Barry and Conner Consolati were coaches for St. Mary's School, which featured team members Brendan Bayles, Joey Abderhalden, Sam Korte, Jacob Cooper, Natalie Hall, Sophie Alsmaan, Isabella Hall, Keaghan Kline, Bernadette Starczewski and Matt Abderhalden.

Other award winners were:

Comeback Kids: Lee Robowildcats of Lee Elementary School.
Best Research Project: Lee Robowildcats.
Best Programming: BART-Botics of Berkshire Arts and Technology Public Charter School.
Most Innovative Design: Herberg Middle School.
Team Spirit Award: Conte Mechanics of Conte Community School.
Sportsmanship Award: St. Agnes Angels of St. Agnes' School in Dalton.

Judges, inspectors and referees for the event were Wil Bourdon, John Bracci, and Jim Chalfonte of General Dynamics Mission Systems and Kevin Mooney of GE. Chalfonte and his son, Liam, were scorekeepers.

The planning committee included Denise Johns, Tim Butterworth and Kate Light of the Berkshire Innovation Center, Bourdon and Chalfonte of General Dynamics, Doug Crane of the New Dalton Group, Bernie Klem of Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, Kevin Mooney of GE and John Wood of SABIC.

Tags: robotics,

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Dalton Board Signs Off on Land Sale Over Residents' Objections

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:50AM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Residents demanded the right to speak but the agenda did not include public comment. Amy Musante holds a sign saying the town now as '$20,000 less for a police station.'

DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board signed the sale on the last of what had been known as the Bardin property Monday even as a handful of residents demanded the right to speak against the action.

The quitclaim deed transfers the nine acres to Thomas and Esther Balardini, who purchased the two other parcels in Dalton. They were the third-highest bidders at $31,500. Despite this, the board awarded them the land in an effort to keep the property intact.

"It's going to be an ongoing battle but one I think that has to be fought [because of] the disregard for the taxpayers," said Dicken Crane, the high bidder at $51,510.

"If it was personal I would let it go, but this affects everyone and backing down is not in my nature."

Crane had appealed to the board to accept his bid during two previous meetings. He and others opposed to accepting the lower bid say it cost the town $20,000. After the meeting, Crane said he will be filing a lawsuit and has a citizen's petition for the next town meeting with over 100 signatures.

Three members of the board — Chair Robert Bishop Jr., John Boyle, and Marc Strout — attended the 10-minute meeting. Members Anthony Pagliarulo and Daniel Esko previously expressed their disapproval of the sale to the Balardinis.

Pagliarulo voted against the sale but did sign the purchase-and-sale agreement earlier this month. His reasoning was the explanation by the town attorney during an executive session that, unlike procurement, where the board is required to accept the lowest bid for services, it does have some discretion when it comes to accepting bids in this instance.

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