image description
The Pittsfield City Council last week was talking snow issues as the first snowfall of the season arrived.

Pittsfield Council Talks Snow Removal During First Snowfall

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council took up various agenda items related to snow removal on Tuesday while flurries fell for the first time this season.

Councilors voted to update to the city's snow and ice removal process to increase compliance, designated a private way for plowing, and received a breakdown of fiscal 2022 and 2023 winter expenditures.

Changes to the city's handling of snow include increasing the number of inspectors from one to all inspectors in the Health Department and allowing only one warning per calendar year.

The Ordinances and Rules subcommittee approved the updated process earlier this month after it had been referred to City Solicitor Stephen Pagnotta. The effort was brought forward by at-Large Councilor Earl Persip III.

Ward 2 Councilor Kronick was against ordaining the changes, saying it would cause a lot of unintended consequences in Morningside.  

He said constituents complain about city plows undoing their cleared sidewalks and that a $25 fee on a first offense is a lot of money.

"I think a $25 fine is a minimal fine when you consider what we're talking about. We're talking about keeping our sidewalks clear for children and the elderly to get to where they need to go," Persip said.

"Too much in this city, and I've seen it and I know others have seen it, you've seen kids walking to school in the road and we're all going to regret not holding people accountable when something tragic happens.

He said the city will likely learn from this and have some adjustments but wanted to get the process in motion as soon as possible.

Councilor at Large Karen Kalinowsky said enforcement on both residents and business owners will be the key.

"My thing is as long as the enforcement's out there I think you will see people getting it done," she said. "We tend to not enforce a lot of our rules."

A petition from Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey requesting that Alpine Trail — off Dan Fox Drive near Bousquet Ski Area — be designated for snow removal was also approved.

Last month, the council designated eight private streets for plowing. Following this, Alpine Trail residents asked that they, too, have snow removal done by the city.

To get a sense of where the city is with snow removal costs, Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales presented the upcoming season's snow and ice removal expenditures and operations. This was prompted by a request from Ward 6 Councilor Dina Guiel Lampiasi.

Morales reported that it cost the city about $1.46 million in fiscal 2022 and is anticipated to cost about $1.66 million in fiscal 2023.

"The bottom line is that a few things: making an estimate on the weather is very difficult but we have historical information that we can employ to best guess," he explained.

Over the last three years, Morales has been documenting the expenses in two main categories: direct costs and indirect costs.

Direct costs include contractors, overtime, road surface treatments and materials, and police details.  Indirect costs such as equipment maintenance, fuel, and incidentals are difficult to allocate to a specific snow event.

Materials cost 30 percent of the pot, over $440,000.



The increase for fiscal 2023 reflects inflationary costs for fuel, contractor pay, and the addition of over 8 lane miles of private streets.

When speaking on his petition, Kavey said that the estimated $27,000 in new expenditures for added streets included Alpine Trail's designation.  

Lampiasi thanked Morales for the thorough report.

"I really just wanted to give us all an idea of what to expect," she said.

"It seems like year after year that I've been on the council and even before there is this feeling of mystery around this number and hearing you talk about it this way and lay it out in this document is really helpful I think to those of us up here and those at home."

Persip pointed out that private ways are used to getting contracted plowing services during a snow event and that they should know the city may not be as fast.

"It's not like a private contractor," he said. "We're not going to be out there the minute a storm hits because we do main streets first."

Morales added that some residents have private contracts that include road, sidewalk, and driveway plowing. He emphasized that the city will not plow sidewalks or driveways on the private ways, as it does not for the rest of Pittsfield.

Private contractors have asked where they will put the snow that comes from the driveways and sidewalks, as they are used to putting it in the road and then taking it away.

For this reason, one recently designated street asked not to be plowed by the city because residents said it made sense for them to continue their contract.

"I want to put it out there, as good as it sounds to be plowed by the city, you have to put your expectations into reality," Persip said.

Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey requested that the council is sent information on the city's quadrants —of which there are over 30 — so that councilors can efficiently communicate with the administration when fielding complaints.

Morales reported that every contractor and city employee will now have a radio that allows them to communicate faster and be tracked.

"We are going to have a lot more information this time around and a lot more ability to hold the contractors and ourselves accountable," he said.

In a communication that was referred to the Public Works Committee, Morales recommended that the city adopt standards for designating private ways for snow plowing that are consistent with the statute.  

In 1945, a local law was adopted that allows the city to authorize funding for snow and ice removal in private ways that are accessible to the general public.

He provided a list of considerations for eligibility to determine what that means: road design, the degree that the road handles public traffic, the timing of the request, the number of residents using the road, and the length of road per resident.


Tags: snow & ice,   

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