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Berkshire Health Opening New Urgent Care Facility in Lenox

Hospital officials were at the open house on Wednesday to tour the new urgent care facility. 

LENOX, Mass. — Berkshire Health Systems is gearing toward opening its new urgent care facility in The Center at Lenox.

On Wednesday night, BHS held an open house for people to come and tour the new facility before its opening on Monday. 

The health system opened an urgent care at 505 East St. in Pittsfield in 2015. But annual visits doubled from just over 17,000 patients in 2020 compared to more than 35,000 in 2023.

"At the end of the pandemic, we saw an increase in our usage, community usage, of our urgent care. We found it a little difficult about the demand. Wait times are long, we're seeing as many people as we can, upwards of 115 120 per day in Pittsfield, but we realize that that's not it's not enough." said Rob Shearer, administrative director of urgent care services.

This led to BHS to expand to be able to help more patients more efficiently.

"We did a ZIP code analysis to see what the utilization was and where people were coming from," Shearer said. "And there's a large population that comes from South County so this just worked out to be a really perfect location. Hopefully, we'll offload a little bit of our volume in Pittsfield, bring those wait times down, and then we'll be able to manage both a little bit more efficiently than we are," .

The urgent care center at 489 Pittsfield Road will be about the same as the one in Pittsfield but occupational health will be designated there as well as predominantly having a travel clinic at this location.

"There's going to be some 'occ' health that's designated, as this is the site, and one of the things that we talked about, the travel clinic, we'll do that predominantly here just because we will have all the vaccines that you might need in one of the fridges," said Dr. Michael McHugh, chair of the emergency departments at Berkshire Medical Center and North Adams Regional Hospital.

Many residents who came to the open house to take a tour and ask questions of staff were amazed at the new place and excited for the convenience it will bring them.

"This is right between where I live in Lee and where I hang out in Pittsfield so it's very convenient," said Clark Nicholls. "And it's a great facility. The exam rooms are quite sizable; it looks like they have a lot of equipment, more than [the urgent care at] St. Luke's Square, so I look forward to if I need it I'll be coming here."

"We are about three minutes away if we needed to come, otherwise we will have to go to the hospital or Great Barrington or St. Luke's," Joe Sloane of Pittsfield said.

"We're just so thrilled that something's closer for us to get to because we always either go to Pittsfield or Great Barrington or wherever you have to go so now it's right here," said Lenox resident Nancy Thompson. "So you're going to get a lot more people I think in this location especially in the summertime with Tanglewood people, 'cause we don't really have anything that they can get to quickly as this is the place so, yeah, very excited."

Like the current location in Pittsfield, this facility will offer X-rays, sports physicals, vaccinations, and more including telehealth services. Patients can book online or inside. 

Berkshire Health Urgent Care in Lenox will accept a wide variety of health insurance plans, including private commercial coverage, Medicare and MassHealth through the Berkshire Fallon Health Collaborative, all of which are also accepted at the Pittsfield Berkshire Health Urgent Care location.

The facility will open its doors at 8 a.m. Monday, March 17, and closes at 8 p.m. everyday; closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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.