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Lee Celebrates Kickoff of New Public Safety Building with Demo

The new complex to be built on this site will hold the Fire, Police and EMS. 

LEE, Mass. — Town officials celebrated the start of a new public safety building on Tuesday by demolishing the Airoldi building and former Department of Public Works building.

"We're starting to take down the Airoldi building, which served as a municipal office building for the last few decades, we've had Tri-Town Health here some of our state representatives had have offices here, the DPW, we've had elections in this building and also was a former ambulance garage," Town Administrator Christopher Brittain said. "So, it served a number of purposes over the years."

The nearby Quonset hut that used to house the DPW is also expected to be taken down, clearing the property for a 37,661-square-foot building that will house the Police and Fire departments, and emergency medical services.

Brittain said this is a historic event for the town.

"This will kind of mark the first real work being done," he said. "We've been in the planning stages for almost two years between town meetings and bonds and things that we had to do and votes and now we are actually starting to see some things happening."

In 2023, voters endorsed nearly $37 million in borrowing, which included the purchase of property and relocating the DPW, during a special town meeting. The facility's cost is estimated to fall below $35 million and back in October the town received $1 million in federal funding toward construction.

Brittain said many factors went into the decision for a public safety building as the fire station building is too small and not up to today's standards.

"We're working right now out of three buildings, we're going to reduce that to two. The two up here on Main Street, the first one we occupied in 1911, it was built for two horse-drawn pieces of apparatus, we currently have four motorized pieces of apparatus in it and we're crammed in there like sardines," Fire Chief Ryan Brown said.

"The efficiency of operation is definitely impacted negatively. Our offices are in the building next door so we're not in the same building as our equipment, but we make it work."

The fire station, built in 1912, was found to be structurally unsound and inadequate to support modern-day equipment and the 1,600 square-foot police station falls significantly short of the 10,960 square feet of space that is required to accommodate the force.

The police building is located at 32 Main St., the same building as Town Hall.

"We're working out of such an antiquated facility that's on multiple floors from a best practice standpoint. It's very difficult to serve our community and it's just not efficient and there's liability issues there's safety issues and that's what we currently have," said Police Chief Craig DeSantis.

"It's hopefully going to accommodate future growth for these departments for 20 or more years into the future which is exciting," said Select Board member Sean Regnier. "This is an area of town that something needed to happen to improve it. It's right on the river, sort of off Main Street … and it's something that's going to be front and center in town to show off our public safety."

Regnier said the board has identified that the facilities were lacking a lot when he was first elected in 2020.

"So this is really kind of a kickoff of the process," he said.

State Rep. Leigh Davis attended the demolition/groundbreaking and spoke about the importance of public safety infrastructure and the bills she has filed in support.

"Investment in emergency medical services is needed more than ever … our fire, our police, really our first responders across the commonwealth and especially in rural communities. EMS providers are under strain, that's why I filed five bills this legislative session focused solely on strengthening emergency medical services statewide. This facility is part of that broader commitment ensuring that every community has access to timely high quality service and care," she said.

The complex is expected to open in March 2027. Officials said Tuesday's demolition is ahead of schedule.

Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Friday, August 21, 2026

 

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director. 

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said.