image description
Joshua Christman was the first to alert authorities of more than a dozen cats abandoned on the eve a snowstorm in January. On Wednesday, he and his family were the first to adopt one of the cats, a ginger named Arlo Guthrie.
image description
Getting Arlo ready for his trip home.
image description
Executive Director of Berkshire Humane Society John Perreault thanks Christman.

First Cat From January Dumping Incident Finds Forever Home

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

Arlo Guthrie is a 10-month-old kitten who went to his forever home on Wednesday. A second cat is set to be adopted on Thursday but nine others still need homes. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The story began with a phone call to the Berkshire Humane Society from Good Samaritan Joshua Christman reporting a "roadblock of cats" and ended with one of the felines becoming a part of his family.

On Wednesday, the first of the 11 cats who were brought to the shelter after being dumped in Richmond and Lanesborough in late January went to a forever home.

Christman, who made the discovery while visiting a Richmond Pond with his daughter, adopted Arlo Guthrie, a 10-month-old domestic shorthair. He was accompanied by his wife, Jessica, and children Alice and Gabriel.

"It feels really good," he said about taking home the cat named after the local folk singer-songwriter.

"My wife saw him on the video and she fell in love with him immediately, I knew we would be coming to get him shortly after."

Soon after stumbling upon a literal roadblock of cats, Christman posted a video to his Facebook showing the scared animals scattered on the road, meowing; one even crawled up onto the wheel of his car.

It was clear that they wanted help.

The video has been viewed nearly 5,000 times.

"This is the man, this is the reason why all those cats are so lucky because he saw something, he reported it, and not only did he report it, Josh stayed behind and helped to support it," Executive Director of Berkshire Humane Society John Perreault said.

"It was because of Josh, the reason these cats had the ending that they did for sure."

The next morning, another group of cats was found in Lanesborough. All of the males are from Richmond and the females are from Lanesborough.


The cats were captured by Animal Dreams volunteers, Lanesborough Animal Control, and multiple rescuers.

Two Pittsfield individuals, Kelly Hathaway and Arthur W. Raney, are both facing 15 counts of animal cruelty for the alleged dumping of the cats. They had non-guilty pleas entered on their behalf in Pittsfield District Court in March and have a pre-trial hearing scheduled for May 9.

Christman said his family came in about a week after the rescue to check on the cats and Arlo climbed right up into his wife's chest.

"He's very friendly, he will fit in great with our cats," He added.

Mr. Guthrie will join six other rescues that are a part of the Christman family.

The remaining cats at the shelter range from long hairs to short hairs and vary in color. Their ages range from about 5 1/5 months to 7 years old. All have been vetted and neutered for adoption.

The females were given names that begin with D: Demi, Dixie, Darla, and Delilah, and the males were named after musicians: Ben King, Chuck Berry, Frank Sinatra, George Michael, and Dan Fogelberg.

One male, Eric Clapton, needs to improve medically before he can be adopted.

Chuck is set to go to his forever home Thursday and Demi has an interested adopter. The shelter reported that there has been interest in all of the available male cats but not yet in Dixie, Darla, and Delilah.

Christman said he has stayed in contact with some of the people who helped him out that night. He reported that there has been a lot of interest from the public in adopting the cats and hopes that they all find homes soon.

Adoption applications can be found on the shelter's website.


Tags: Berkshire Humane Society,   cats,   

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

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.
 
View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories