NBCC Hosts A Twelve Week Financial Literacy Program

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Northern Berkshire Community Coalition (NBCC) is partnering with the nonprofit, Women's Money Matters, to present a twelve week, in depth series focused on empowering women through financial wellness. 
 
Women's Money Matters helps women regain control of their finances, reduce financial anxiety, increase economic self-sufficiency and transform their lives by teaching core money management skills. They serve women over the age of 14 who are living on low-incomes, many in transitional housing. Their programs are for cis and trans women, as well as non-binary people who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women.
 
This twelve week series is targeted specifically to women with a series of weekly workshops starting April 26, 2023. These workshops will take place every Wednesday evening from 6:00pm to approximately 7:30pm at the UNO Community Center, located at 157 River Street.
 
One unique aspect of the Women's Money Matter program is that each participant is matched with their own personal volunteer coach. Coaches and participants attend workshops together, and coaches and participants also meet in between workshops to work on the participants personal financial goals. The workshops are interactive and include guest presenters.
 
This program uses community based learning where all participants are encouraged to share ideas and experiences. There will be interactive exercises with both small group and paired breakouts, plus guest presenters from financial institutions to answer tough questions from the group. No two workshops are alike. 
 
Registration for the series is available online at: https://www.tfaforms.com/4849798?tfa_2869=a0O8Y000019hmMV&tfa_2881=tfa_2882
 
Those interested in volunteering as a coach or presenter in this series, please reach out to Berny Lugo at blugo@womensmoneymatters.org.  Training is provided.
 
For more information or to register for this program, please reach out to our office by calling 413-663-7588 or by emailing Nancy Kennedy at nkennedy@nbccoalition.org

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Geothermal Switch Lowers System Cost for North Adams School Project

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The cost estimates for the Greylock School project are coming in slightly under budget — including the planned geothermal system. 
 
Initial estimates for the alternative heating system came in at $5 million — $3 million over budget. 
 
"We realized this is never going to work at this cost and we needed to think about the system a little differently," said Jesse Saylor of TSKP Studio, the school's designer, told the School Building Committee on Tuesday. "So we reached out to the well designers and came up with an alternative design, which we feel is much more appropriate for your site."
 
A redesign from using vertical wells to horizontal wells, reduced the costs to $1.5 million.
 
Saylor explained that the drillers had gone down more than 440 feet, through soil and more than 200 feet of bedrock and hit the aquifer, which had to be capped off because of the pressure. 
 
"So our design heading into the cost estimate was to shorten the depth of the wells. Let's not penetrate into that aquifer. Let's just go down 400 feet," he said. "They wanted to carry steel casing all the way down the 400 feet of depth, because the concern is that aquifer depth may vary across across your site, and so that was driving up the initial cost."
 
That vertical system would have required 66 wells and cost about $5 million. Instead, the system will now run horizontally at a depth of about 20 to 30 feet. 
 
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