Petricca Industries Plans Expansion, Seeks Funding

Petricca anticipates adding 50 jobs along with the building addition.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Petricca Industries is planning a 15,500-square-foot expansion that will add 50 more employees.

On Tuesday the City Council acted as a decades-defunct financing authority to OK MassDevelopment assistance for the company at 550 Cheshire Road. Approval from the Pittsfield Industrial Development Financing Authority, formed in the 1970s, is needed to move the process forward yet the body is far in the past.

"We don’t even know when it went defunct," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

He explained that Petricca approached the city through MassDevelopment. The project's financing package is about $4 million and the finance agency will vote on it this week.

While these are not city funds, Marchetti reported that he will be requesting assistance for the company at the next council meeting.

"I can share with you that Petricca Industries is doing a 15,500 square-foot addition and planning on adding 50 employees," he said.

"And this isn't the last conversation that we will have regarding Petricca and what we may be able to do to help them."

Expansion to the existing facility will include the installation of overhead cranes to provide additional production and fabrication space to meet increased demand for precast/prestressed concrete structures. 

The company, founded in 1936, is in its third generation of family leadership.

Finance Director Matthew Kerwood explained that these local investment development agencies are a "creature of the 1970s" and that Pittsfield's was established in 1977.

"MassDevelopment, again, does economic development. They do lending. They have access to the bond market," he said.

"And so this is basically allowing MassDevelopment to play that role that would have been or could have been played on the local level in the same area. So essentially gives them access to bond financing."

Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren said it became defunct in the city's charter change.

"As a matter of fact, if you look into the ordinances, you, the community development are the industrial development board so you can do this in the future," he said.

"Obviously, I will not stop this and stuff. I think is a great idea."

Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey pointed out that the company's jobs start around $50,000 annually, adding "Fifty jobs, a little $50,000 a year. I think it's good. We need increases like this with existing and then new businesses."

WWII Veteran Reflects on D-Day at VFW Post Induction

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:25PM / Saturday, June 06, 2026

The members in the picture are Bret Miller, Coast Guard, Desert Storm; Hank Morris, Army, Vietnam; Brad Havill, Navy, Global War on Terror; VFW Post 448 Vice Cmdr. Mark Pompi, Army, Global War on Terrorism, Afghanistan; Post Cmdr. Arnold Perras, Korea; Joe Difillipo, Army, Vietnam; Teri Billington, Navy, Desert Storm; and Carmen Ostrander, Air Force, Afghanistan.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Anthony Salatino Jr. says his memory is getting a little foggy about his time in the Army. 

But he remembers how terrible D-Day was, and feeling lucky he wasn't among those in the initial invasion force 82 years ago. 

 

"One of the most horrible things was in Normandy. We went shortly after D-Day. I got lucky, very lucky on D-Day. We went to a staging area the night before … and at the very end, somebody called, I was in headquarters, they called all the headquarters personnel at the center," the 103-year-old said. "We did not go. There's about 30 of us. The rest of the battalion was gone, and the reason for that was because there was another battalion coming from the States, and they had no headquarters. 

 

"We stayed back, but we did go to Normandy shortly after that, and when we went to Normandy, it was all over."

 

Salatino was attending an induction ceremony on Thursday at the Lt. John N. Truden VFW Post 448. Joseph Texidor, who served in the Army for 17 years with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sworn in as the post's newest member. 

 

Salatino served in the Medical Corps and wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a World War I veteran wounded at Verdun. Salatino was in the Army for about three years.

 

"The whole memory is what I just told you, very, very alive to me," he said. "That is, I can never forget, never forget that."

 

D-Day on June 6, 1944, was the start of Operation Overlord, and the largest invading force to cross the English Channel since 1066. Their goal: to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany.