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A severe windstorm on March 8 took out a greenhouse at Windy Ridge Farm. The family farm has been able to raise more than $20,000 to replace it.

Community Rallies to Replace Windy Ridge Farm's Greenhouse

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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Windy Ridge had been a regular vendor at the Pittsfield farmers' market and donates produce to Christian Center and Berkshire dream Center. 

HAWLEY, Mass. — The community has stepped up to help Windy Ridge Farm after an early March windstorm destroyed its greenhouse — more than $20,000 was raised in just a matter of weeks.

"Our community absolutely showed up for us, which was just a really incredible feeling," owner and founder Julia Lemieux said.

"We've been farming in the same area and at the same farmers' markets for about 13 years so I consider a lot of our customers our friends at this point because they've been buying plants from us for over a decade. So it was really touching to see like how quickly everybody just got behind it."

The family farm is a longtime vendor at the Downtown Pittsfield Farmer's market and Lemieux has managed a community garden program in Pittsfield that serves two of the lowest income neighborhoods in the city since 2014.

On March 8, a severe windstorm demolished a secondary greenhouse that is usually a heated home for Lemieux's organic plants. She said this happened during a critical time of the year because it is before the farm's selling season.

Replacing the greenhouse is estimated to cost about $14,000 and labor to rebuild is around $7,000  Hesitating at first, the farm owner created a GoFundMe and raised about $14,000 in just one day. 

"That was really helpful and it's just taking the financial stress off of the whole situation," she said.

"Like most farms, our cash flow is very tight this time of year because we've already purchased all of our seeds and our soil and raw materials, we've already bought everything but we haven't sold anything yet, so this is a time of year when our farm accounts are very, very lean, so it was definitely not something that we could cover on our own financially."

Included in the donations was a $1,000 match from Berkshire Agricultural Ventures. The fundraiser is almost at its goal of $21,000 at just over $20,500.


The new greenhouse will be built by Rimol Greenhouse Co. out of New Hampshire and Lemieux estimates that the structure will be up by the end of the week.  

Friends from Mass Food Delivery/Mycoterra Farm helped her pick up the parts to avoid waiting for them to be delivered by a freight company and many people have offered their labor for cleaning up and rebuilding.

Lemieux said the success of the fundraiser has allowed the farm to get a sturdier greenhouse to protect against future storms.

"The original greenhouse that we had put up 11 years ago that was destroyed, we had purchased it used and this is a new structure and it's stronger, it's going to have extra wind bracing," Lemieux said.

"And so it's really going to be like an improved structure at the end of the day."

Windy Ridge Farm has been in operation since 2009 offering organic plants and produce.  

The farm has donated extra produce to The Christian Center and the Berkshire Dream Center in Pittsfield as well as accepting WIC and senior coupons at the farmers market to increase accessibility for fresh produce.

Lemieux has extended her wholehearted thanks to the community for supporting her family's livelihood in the face of a difficult time.


Tags: donations,   farming,   

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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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