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Robert Collins, center, celebrates his Select Board win with supporters William Drosehn, chair of the Finance Committee, and Rachel Branch at Dewey's on Monday night.

Collins Wins Select Board Seat in Dalton

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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Robert Collins, left, chats with friends and supporters at a victory party at Dewey's.
DALTON, Mass. — Robert Collins will join the Select Board as it's fifth member after winning a four-way special election for the vacant seat by 13 votes. 
 
"I'm happy. It's sort of over, a little bit overwhelming, now that we've gotten this far through this process. Now the hard work really begins of putting your platform and information that you've put out there in motion," Collins said. 
 
Almost 500 residents cast their votes at Monday's special election to decide on four candidates: Collins, Rich Haley, Levi Renderer, and Patrick Carsell.
 
The unofficial results are Collins with 212, Haley with 199, Renderer 23, and Carsell with 97. 
 
Collins will fill the seat left open when former member Joseph Diver stepped down in October, but only until the annual town election.
 
Considering the seat will only be filled for four months, Town Clerk Heather Hunt said she is very pleased with the turnout. 
 
"It speaks to the fact people want their voices heard, which is why this is an important election. It is important for enough people to turn out to vote," she said 
 
The town sent out 57 mail-in ballots and received back 51.
 
The seat will be up for election again in May for a three-year term, along with the seat currently filled by Marc Strout, who is completing his three-year term. 
 
Collins has already expressed his intention to run again for the May elections to retain his seat on the board. 
 
He said the campaign had been a very cordial one, emphasizing how he hopes to see his opponents participating in town, whether on other committees or as a future members of the Select Board.
 
This sentiment was also expressed by Carsell, who said, "the results are excellent. I support any one of the four candidates that was running, and I'm very happy that [Collins] has won the election." 
 
Carsell said he is still deciding on whether he will run again in the spring. 
 
"I hope that in that I'm able to serve in any capacity going forward," he said. 
 
Haley said he does not know whether he will run again in the spring. 
 
"I think we both ran great campaigns. And I think people just wanted to back who they backed. I think I had some of the younger votes, and Mr. Collins had some of the older votes," he said. 
 
"And I think it was good to see, I know, personally, a lot of my younger friends came out to vote, and that was that was nice to see the younger population to come out and vote." 
 
Renderer said he was happy for Collins.
 
"You never know what is going to happen until you give it a shot," he said. "It was fun but I don't think I will run again in the spring."
 
Collins believes his campaign for change resonated with his supporters. 
 
"I think they're looking for new ideas, new people on the boards. And I in my platform, I think I gave a lot of information that people were able to process and understand where my thoughts of and intentions truly are for the town of Dalton," he said. 

Updated with quotes at 9:16 p.m.


Tags: election 2025,   

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Joann Fabric in Pittsfield Targeted for Closure

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Joann Fabric and Crafts store on Dalton Avenue is among some 500 set to close. 
 
Joann Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year to restructure and filed again last month. On Wednesday, the bankruptcy filings noted that liquidation should start immediately. 
 
Pittsfield was among the 19 Massachusetts stores identified for closure, as well as the store in the Hampshire Mall in Hadley. Two Vermont stores are closing along with several in New York's Capital District.
 
Overall, 53 stores out of 800 are slated to be shuttered. Joann is the only large scale material retailer in the area. Walmart eliminated its bolt fabrics a few years ago and Michaels offers a smaller selection. There are also several quilt shops in the region but they tend not to have the variety of fabrics offered by Joann. 
 
Alvarez & Marsal North America LLC, the restructuring consultant, stated that there was no interest by bidders on a subset of stores and that "it is in the best interest of the Debtors' estates to immediately commence Store Closing Sales at this subset of
stores."
 
The upcoming Presidents Day holiday weekend was identified as "a significant opportunity to meet or beat the Debtors' revenue projections from store closing
sales."
 
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