King Kone Has Soft Re-Opening as Worker Co-Op

Mayor Peter Marchetti gets a cone from Patrick Doyle on Friday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Ice cream is again being swirled into cones and cups at a long-beloved city spot.

King Kone had a soft opening at the end of the week, offering the frozen treats on a "pay what you will" basis while employees perfected the craft.

"It's gone pretty good," employee Patrick Doyle said.

"It gets really fast-paced even with a few customers and the learning curve is steeper than I thought but other than that it's been fun so far and I really am doing this because I believe in you know the cooperative ownership, working class struggle."

He has a full-time job but made time in his schedule to be a part of this.

Nonprofit Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds purchased the property and the shop will run as a workers' co-op. Everyone is paid a flat wage, sharing revenues, and will have the opportunity to buy into the business.

"It's about transparent decision making, cooperative negotiation for decisions, conflicts," co-founder Michael Hitchcock said.

"Skills about how to think like an owner instead of an employee, like taking responsibility for the whole operation and understanding that any action you do commits everyone else's time and resources so you have to be cognizant of the others. Those are the kinds of skills we'll be working on in our monthly meetings. That's our next big hurdle."

In 2023, the nonprofit was allocated $179,000 to purchase the soft-serve ice cream shop at 133 Fenn St. and convert it into a worker cooperative. It owns a series of storefronts ranging from 117 to 129 Fenn St.

The Barbarotta family closed the shop's order and pickup windows for the last time at the end of the 2023 season as they prepared to sell.  

Hitchcock said a formal grand opening may happen next week.

"We own the other half of this building where we run our food pantry, totally free food and clothes for anybody, bilingual service, no means testing. Anyone can come," he said.

"While we were filling out a grant with the state to improve a space over there, I kept seeing the word 'building acquisition,' and this person had been joking about selling it to me for a long time but then he put it actually on the market. So that was the biggest hurdle."

A fundraiser with merchandise was launched to support costs associated with the reopening, including T-shirts and sweat shirts with a gorilla holding an ice cream cone and "King Cone" in blue letters. The design was created by an artist co-op member.

About $2,500 was spent on supplies so far and the shop isn't fully stocked.

"This place will be totally independent of our nonprofit and this place will pay the nonprofit rent," Hitchcock explained. "Our nonprofit does not own this business. We are buying this business from the nonprofit."

The group is discussing what to do with excess revenue beyond wages and direct costs of business.  He feels good about the training so far, as employees have already been pitching in ideas for improvements, and "they're already thinking about long term."

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.