Work Underway at Pittsfield's Site 9

The 16-acre parcel at the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and Tyler Street Extension previously housed a General Electric factory and is the largest and most prominent section of the William Stanley Business Park.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — An army of construction vehicles can be seen cracking and crushing the surface of Site 9.

"It's pretty amazing the amount of work that is going on over there," Business Development Manager Michael Coakley said to the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority on Thursday.

"There is a lot of equipment they have and it's pretty great, 12 or 13 of those big huge construction pieces of equipment."

Crews are working to excavate the area and bring fill over from another site by working in thirds, starting on the southern portion of the property and working towards the middle.

The long-anticipated project took off earlier this year after a $9.8 million bid was awarded to William J Keller & Sons Construction.  The Castleton-On-Hudson, N.Y., company plans to have the rough surface ready for development in October.

Coakley reported that everything is going well and on time.

"They found a little bit more concrete than they had originally planned but they're working through that," he added.

In about a week, it will be known if the additional concrete will affect the cost.

As far as air monitoring and ground testing for pollutants, there have been no occurrences yet.

Dalton Board Signs Off on Land Sale Over Residents' Objections

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:50AM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Residents demanded the right to speak but the agenda did not include public comment. Amy Musante holds a sign saying the town now as '$20,000 less for a police station.'

DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board signed the sale on the last of what had been known as the Bardin property Monday even as a handful of residents demanded the right to speak against the action. 

 

The quitclaim deed transfers the nine acres to Thomas and Esther Balardini, who purchased the two other parcels in Dalton. They were the third-highest bidders at $31,500. Despite this, the board awarded them the land in an effort to keep the property intact.

 

"It's going to be an ongoing battle but one I think that has to be fought [because of] the disregard for the taxpayers," said Dicken Crane, the high bidder at $51,510.

 

"If it was personal I would let it go, but this affects everyone and backing down is not in my nature." 

 

Crane had appealed to the board to accept his bid during two previous meetings. He and others opposed to accepting the lower bid say it cost the town $20,000. After the meeting, Crane said he will be filing a lawsuit and has a citizen's petition for the next town meeting with over 100 signatures. 

 

Three members of the board — Chair Robert Bishop Jr., John Boyle, and Marc Strout — attended the 10-minute meeting. Members Anthony Pagliarulo and Daniel Esko previously expressed their disapproval of the sale to the Balardinis. 

 

Pagliarulo voted against the sale but did sign the purchase-and-sale agreement earlier this month. His reasoning was the explanation by the town attorney during an executive session that, unlike procurement, where the board is required to accept the lowest bid for services, it does have some discretion when it comes to accepting bids in this instance.