Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships

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LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock. 
 
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
 
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
 
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). 
 
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
 
 MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities. 

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Lanesborough 2025 Year in Review: What's Going On With the Berkshire Mall?

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town's biggest headline in 2025 was the Berkshire Mall. 

There wasn't much news about the shuttered property since owners, JMJ Holdings, announced that they were pivoting from cannabis cultivation to senior living in 2023.  The Select Board ordered them to pay unsettled taxes in late 2024, and lawsuits transpired. 

JMJ and the Baker Hill Road District remain in a standoff over unpaid taxes for the Route 7/8 Connector Road.  JMJ argues that they are being under-represented and over-taxed by the independent municipal district and want it dissolved, while the BHRD wants to take the mall back. 

The Berkshire Mall closed more than five years ago and has sat vacant since.

Its current owners are planning an assisted living, mixed-use build, and secured Integritus Healthcare as a partner.  First, the decrepit mall must be taken down. 

In May, JMJ reported that the project was entering the design process for a nine-figure overhaul of the property into 420 to 450 units of senior housing, and it was confirmed that town taxes were paid, totaling $293,380. 

The holdings company filed a lawsuit against the BHRD, which had filed a December 2024 lawsuit seeking $545,000 for taxes due in May 2024.  JMJ said the property is charged six times more taxes than other Lanesborough businesses. 

In August, JMJ announced that it is partnering with a local health-care company, Integritus Healthcare, to bolster its plans for hundreds of senior housing units.

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