FEMA Awards Over $72.5 M to State for COVID-19 Testing

08:04AM / Saturday, July 08, 2023Print Story | Email Story

BOSTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending more than $72.5 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse the state for the cost of providing testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $72,521,391 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services for contracting with Color Health, Inc. to provide self-collected testing services, as well as shipping and self-ordering of over-the-counter (OTC) rapid COVID-19 tests.

Between December 2020 and June 2022, provider and state-operated congregate care settings and the Department of Corrections conducted weekly surveillance testing. A total of 2,563,326 tests were conducted.

"FEMA is pleased to be able to assist the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with these costs," said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. "Reimbursing state, county, and municipal governments – as well as eligible non-profits and tribal entities – for the costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important part of our nation's ongoing recovery."

FEMA's Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.

So far, FEMA has provided more than $1.9 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.

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Pittsfield Boards OK Permanent Mural Honoring 54th Regiment

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:35PM / Sunday, January 25, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City boards and commissions have approved a permanent mural in Durant Park honoring the Black residents who fought in the Civil War.

During its Jan. 20 meeting, the Community Development Board approved a floodplain site review for "Pride of the Westside," an approximately 25 x 12-foot mural of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. The project was brought forward by the Westside Legends and unveiled during the 2025 Juneteenth celebrations.

Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath has been working closely with the neighborhood revitalization nonprofit to permanently mount the mural in Durant Park, located at 30 Columbus Ave.

"It's a very handsome mural, and I think it really tells an important story about Pittsfield's role in the Civil War and particularly around the African American experience," he said, adding that the regiment’s story needs to be told.

The 54th Mass was the second Black regiment raised during the Civil War (the 1st Kansas was formed two months earlier) and a priority of Gov. John Andrew and abolitionist supporters. These soldiers would prove their bravery not only in battle but against the discrimination and bigotry they faced, and harsh treatment or execution if captured.

By the end of the Civil War, nearly 180,000 Black soldiers had seen service in the Union army.

The regiment's establishment in 1863 and its heroic actions at Fort Wagner in South Carolina were dramatized in the film "Glory" starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick as Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw and his troops are memorialized across from the State House in a bronze relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Frederick Douglass' two sons were among its recruits, and Pittsfield's the Rev. Samuel Harrison of Second Congregational Church was its chaplain.