1Berkshire Awarded FY25 Regional Economic Development Organization Grant

• Providing 150-200 one-on-one business consultations each year that provide tailored support and guidance to entrepreneurs and businesses at every stage in their development.
• Ongoing implementation and stewardship of the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, the region's 10-year sustained economic development imperative. Including working with all six of the primary economic clusters, addressing housing, workforce, transportation, technology access, and other cross-cutting issues, and further cultivating a strong business and entrepreneurial support ecosystem.
• Organizing high-impact site visits that convene local, state, federal, and private-sector partners to address and catalyze around critical projects and opportunities.
• Collaboration capacity to work with key regional efforts and programs such as EforAll Berkshire County, Berkshire Funding Focus, the Berkshire Tech Impact Collaborative, and the Berkshire Brownfields Committee.
• Specific tactical support to municipalities seeking guidance and resources to support development, businesses, and ecosystem-building efforts.
• Coordination and conducting of technical assistance cohorts to provide strategic and impactful support directly to businesses, organizations, and individuals to help them start, grow, and sustain their businesses.
• Development, launch, and operation of programs and collaborations such as Entrepreneurial Meetups, the Berkshire Immigrant Entrepreneur Support Program, the Business Succession and Transition Program, and the Berkshire Economic Recovery Program.
• Convening and management of the Berkshire Economic Development Practitioners Group to maintain strong collaborations, collective action, and ongoing shared information and awareness with regional and state partners. 
• Maintenance, enhancement, and promotion of the jobs thing as a critical pipeline for workforce retention and recruitment for Berkshire County employers and job seekers.
• Management and leveraging of a regional clearinghouse of available commercial development sites to help potential businesses and industries identify, vet, and start, expand or relocate in the region.

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.