image description — Councilor at Large Alisa Costa and Ward 7 Councilor Rhonda Serre seen at Tuesday's City Council meeting. Both new councilors attended last weekend's MMA conference.

New Pittsfield Councilors Reflect on MMA Conference

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:12PM / Saturday, January 27, 2024Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Elected officials and municipal staff traveled to Boston last weekend for the annual Massachusetts Municipal Association's annual meeting and trade show.

Pittsfield had quite a presence at the event with returning and new attendees. Councilor at Large Alisa Costa and Ward 7 Councilor Rhonda Serre attended for the first time after being elected to office in November.

Both gathered insightful information they say will aid them in serving the city.

Serre loved sharing conversations with other councilors and learning and making connections so that "we don't reinvent the wheel every time."

"It's about learning best practices from others," she said.

Costa said she really appreciates the city's investment in allowing councilors and city employees to attend the conference. For fiscal year 2024, $4,620 was allocated for councilors to attend the event.

"Getting outside of our walls here is so important," she said. "The networking opportunities, the ability to network with the department heads and being able to be in workshops with them and ask questions."

Jan. 19 and 20 were packed with speeches, presentations, meetings, and marketing events at the Hynes Convention Center. Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll were guest speakers and Eddie Glaude Jr. and Gina McCarthy were keynote speakers.

Serre found the presenters on the trade floor interesting, as there were consultants from all sectors. More than 200 exhibitors showcased products and services that are of interest to municipalities.

This included Casella Waste Systems, which services Berkshire County and is redeveloping the former trash incinerator on Hubbard Avenue.

"There was somebody there to answer any question on anything," Serre said. "And it was really helpful to just totally immerse yourself in everything that a city councilor will likely come across in a day."

During a presentation, the state Department of Environmental Protection said pay-as-you-throw is the most efficient trash removal method. A few years ago, the City Council said "no" to a PAYT program where residents pay a per-unit fee for disposal of household trash

In the program contracted with WasteZero, residents would have been provided with 104 15-gallon bags free each year at cost and any additional bags would be purchased for $1.50 per 30-gallon bag and $0.80 per 15-gallon bag.

"I think it's going to take a conversation with the residents and with other elected officials in town to find the compromise sweet spot of while the state says pay as you throw decreases the volume of trash well, that could be but does it increase the volume of litter?" she said. "So there's a balance."

Serre formerly served on the city's Resource Recovery Commission and is looking forward to diving into it as a councilor.

Costa's favorite workshop was on housing converts.

"It was all about turning unused municipal buildings into housing and what it takes to do that," she explained.

The topic is highly relevant to Pittsfield as it grapples with the housing crisis and growing need for units. Various churches and former buildings have been converted to housing including the Morningstar Apartments, the Power House Lofts, and the Eastview Apartments.

On Tuesday, the council OK'd two incentives for the redevelopment of a Wendell Avenue commercial building into mixed-income apartments.

Costa said getting a deep dive on the topic and being there with Director of Community Development Justine Dodds to ask further questions was beneficial.

"Plus hearing the bigger picture from the governor, from Senators [Ed Markey] and [Elizabeth Warren,]" she said. "It's really important for us to see where we are in the bigger picture of the state."

The councilor serves on the subcommittee on community and economic development and took value in being able to place these efforts into the context of local projects when they come forward. It will also be important when coming up with her own housing strategies.

Engaging the public is one of her joys and expertise, she said, and one thing for sure is that everyone needs to be engaged equitably.

"I think we're still learning," Costa said about public engagement. "It's always a learning process."

Tags: MMA, Pittsfield city council ,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

Now's the time...

to harvest value from your home. Click for more details about a HELOC. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

PCTV Turns 40, Anniversary Celebration This Friday

By Breanna SteeleiBekshires Staff
03:30PM / Monday, September 14, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield Community Television is turning 40 this week, and it's celebrating with its viewers and listeners.

This Friday, Sept. 18, PCTV will celebrate at the Berkshire Hills Country Club. Ryan Peterson, WTEN News10 ABC anchor and Pittsfield High School graduate, will give the keynote address.

Executive Director Shawn Serre, who has been with the station for over 32 years, said it's their chance to celebrate all they have been able to bring to the community.

"It's a chance to reflect on everything that the organization has done over those years, all the people that have been involved. From board members to volunteers to producers to crew people to staff members, and all the different programs that we've produced," he said. "Everything from public programming to education, sports, graduations, parades, government meetings and forums, and election night coverage, and all kinds of other things that just year upon year of history that we've been able to create and document here for the Pittsfield community over those years."

Serre took over as executive director about nine years ago. Originally a volunteer fresh out of college.

The original board included former mayor Edward Reilly, Dan Dillon, Diane Morgenstern, Bernard Avalle, and John Fukes of the Berkshire Athenaeum. The operation was all-volunteer until PCTV hired the first executive director in January 1989.

PCTV has operated out of its station on Federico Drive since 1999. But originally they worked out of a basement.

"The first location that we ever had, we had all of our equipment stored in cardboard boxes in the basement of the Berkshire Athenaeum, because the Berkshire Athenaeum at the time was very gracious and allowed us to have some space while we sort of got our feet on the ground and sort of got things organized," he said. "But we had no location. We had no studio. We just had this equipment that was ordered with the money that we had from the original cable franchise grant."

"So that lasted a couple of years, and then we signed and got a lease over in our first studio location, which was over on Fourth Street in Pittsfield," Serre continued. "That was around the time that I first got involved, just before we moved to Fourth Street. So I was there in the basement of the library, opening those boxes up and seeing what we had for equipment. So we stayed there at Fourth Street for about 10 years, and then this building that we're currently in now, over on Federico Drive, was constructed in 1998. It was built kind of custom-made for the cable company and for us and for one other company."

Serre said one of their proudest moments was saving the radio station WTBR-FM back in 2018. PCTV made space for them so they could continue operation.

"We carved out some space here in our facility for that, and we've been operating that radio station ever since. So those are some of the big milestones of growth of the organization over the years, and the things that we've done," he said.

They have also invested in advanced technology to keep their programming accessible to all.

"Technologically, there's another whole series of things that we've gone through," he said. "We've started out with a single cable TV channel. We grew to three cable TV channels. We started out as standard definition on videotape, and we grew to digital, and then to high definition, and then everything went to the internet. So we're able to offer video on demand and live streams and video on social media. And then with the radio station, we also have a live stream there and podcasting. So we've seen a lot of technological change and tried to roll with that over the years."

Serre said that PCTV strives to keep people informed while also allowing space for people to create their own media.

"The whole idea behind PEG [Public Education and Government Access]...the whole idea behind that back in the 70s and 80s was that people could be left behind with the technology that's available to the big corporations," he said. "So, if you had a cable system at the time, ordinary people maybe they had camcorders at home, but they didn't have access to a TV studio; they didn't have access to the kind of technology that we had to allow them to create programs and share it with the community. So we filled that gap, and that was one of the main things that we did. And then also to be able to create programming for viewers and for the city, so that the municipal meetings can be shown, and so school committee meetings can be shown, and it really brings people in and involved."

View Full Story