PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Wahconah Park grandstand project is getting $3 million with the passage of the $1.7 billion omnibus spending bill on Friday.

 

Major issues with the more than 70-year-old, 2,000 seat grandstand include deteriorating support beams, missing bolts, and asbestos materials in the siding and roof. The city of Pittsfield, which has owned the park for more than a century, established a restoration committee to undertake the work. Initial estimates put the work to rehabilitate or build new at about $10 million. 

 

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal secured $20,367,800 in Community Project Funds for 15 regional projects that were included in the final 2023 appropriations government funding package. The congressman said these funding responds directly to some of the most pressing needs in Western and central Massachusetts.

 

"I am proud to have secured $20,367,800 in Community Project Funding in this bill that I know meets long overdue community needs in Massachusetts’s First Congressional District," said the outgoing chair of Ways & Means. "From North Adams to Dudley, I have partnered with community leaders to explore ways in which a robust investment in federal dollars could best be allocated. These investments create jobs with better pay, make us safer, strengthen our communities, and start to tackle climate change."

 

Lenox is also receiving $750,000 in funding for the town hall roof and rotunda restoration project; Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams is getting $620,000 toward the establishment of a nursing program and equipment; and the Worthington Senior Center project is getting $2 million. 

 

Also getting funding is the study being done of the Hoosic River in North Adams. The $3 million feasibility study of the flood control chutes includes $1 million in state funding, $500,000 authorized by the city and the $200,000 secured by Neal. 

 

The congressman had initially asked for $1.5 million as part of his Community Project Funding Request for fiscal 2023. Only $200,000 was earmarked by the Appropriations Committee in the $57 billion Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies funding.

 

Neal said the 12-bill government funding package passed by the House and Senate this week will create good-paying American jobs, grow opportunity for the middle class and small businesses, and provide a lifeline for working families. Taken together, the funding for Massachusetts' First District and the funding increases for critical government programs will continue to reverse decades of disinvestment in our communities, he said. 

 

The bill now goes to the president, who is expected to sign it. A detailed summary of the bill is available here.