image description — Photos of recreational area mats that the city of Newton submitted to the Architectural Access Board.

Dalton ADA Committee Considers Playground Mats for Parks

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
12:18PM / Tuesday, January 09, 2024Print Story | Email Story

The mats are attached to the ground through pins and nubs.

DALTON, Mass. — The Americans with Disabilities Act Committee is exploring adding playground mats to town parks.

These mats would be laid out to provide accessible routes to playground equipment and swings.

ADA coordinator Alyssa Maschino heard about these mats while attending an Advanced Community Access Monitor Training.

"[The state Division of Professional Licensure Office of Public Safety and Inspections Architectural Access Board] brought this up which I thought was very clever," Maschino said.

"It's like a rubber matting system, which is very inexpensive compared to paving a pathway in the parks."

The mats are fixed to the ground using pins and nubs. They are also secured to play equipment and swing sets using plastic stakes and stainless steel pins. The mats are connected to each other using zip ties. The mats are "relatively" quick to install and easy to maintain and repair.

Newton paid approximately $3,000 to cover the costs of the mats at one of its parks but it looks like they did quite a bit, Maschino said.

"Anything we can do to accentuate the beautiful parks we have and to make Dalton a more enjoyable, livable, accessible place," committee member Lyn Clements said.

"It not only makes it easier for those children and adults who already live here. It makes us more attractive to diversify our community more and I think that's a great thing."

These mats could also help in case the town considers investing in an ADA swing so disabled children can also enjoy the town parks, similar to Springside Park, Maschino said.

The Green Committee is going to need something like this because it is putting electric vehicle chargers at Pine Grove Park, committee member David Wasielewski said. Wasielewski also serves as the town's Green Committee chair.

"We're gonna need something to stabilize that area as well and make it accessible," he said.

Maschino is currently in communication with Highway Superintendent Edward "Bud" Hall to gauge his interest.

Tags: ADA, playgrounds,

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Social Service Organizations Highlight Challenges, Successes at Poverty Talk

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:04AM / Sunday, April 05, 2026

Dr. Jennifer Michaels of the Brien Center demonstrates how to use Narcan. Easy access to the drug has cut overdose deaths in the county by nearly half.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Recent actions at the federal level are making it harder for people to climb out of poverty.

Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said he felt like he was doing a disservice by not recognizing national challenges and how they draw a direct line from choices being made by the Trump administration and the challenges the United States is facing.

"They more generally impact people's ability to work their way out of poverty, and that's really, that's really the overarching dynamic," he said.

"Poverty is incredibly corrosive, and it impacts all the topics that we'll talk about today."

His comments came during a conversation on poverty hosted by Berkshire Community Action Council. Eight local service agency leaders detailed how they are supporting people during the current housing and affordability crisis, and the Berkshire state delegation spoke to their own efforts.

The event held on March 27 at the Berkshire Athenaeum included a working lunch and encouraged public feedback.

"All of this information that we're going to gather today from both you and the panelists is going to drive our next three-year strategic plan," explained Deborah Leonczyk, BCAC's executive director.

The conversation ranged from health care and housing production to financial literacy and child care. Participating agencies included Upside 413, The Brien Center, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, MassHire Berkshire Career Center, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Child Care of the Berkshires.

The federal choices Gordon spoke about included allocating $140 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investing $38 billion to convert warehouses into detention centers, cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, a proposed 50 percent increase in the defense budget, and cutting federal funding for supportive housing programs.

Gordon pointed to past comments about how the region can't build its way out of the housing crisis because of money. He withdrew that statement, explaining, "You know what? That's bullshit, actually."

"I'm going to be honest with you, that is absolute bullshit. I have just observed over the last year or so how we're spending our money and the amount of money that we're spending on the federal side, and I'm no longer saying in good conscience that we can't build our way out of this," he said.

Upside 413 provided a "Housing Demand in Western Massachusetts" report that was done in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Donahue Institute of Economic and Public Policy Research. It states that around 23,400 units are needed to meet current housing demand in Western Mass; 1,900 in Berkshire County in 2025.

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