AccessPlus Awarded Grant to Bring Fiber to Affordable Housing Units

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
03:15PM / Friday, April 18, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Internet provider AccessPlus was recently awarded the Massachusetts Broadband Institute Retrofit program grant.

"We are committed to delivering high-quality, high-speed internet to the Pittsfield community," said Kevin Alward, CEO of AccessPlus in a recent press release. "This grant allows us to further our mission of ensuring that everyone has access to the fast and reliable internet they need."

The grant was a part of the Healey-Driscoll administration's $10.4 million initiative to modernize the public housing internet in Massachusetts.

This grant will be used to bring high speed fiber internet to 13 multi-unit dwelling properties. This serves 587 housing units in Pittsfield, helping those who work from home.

"Some of the major benefits are the work from home we’ve seen so much of that through the years with covid but really became the standard is that work from and before COVID, if you had one person at home, it was not a big deal to work off the connection that was there," Chief Operating Officer Jason Cummins said. "With fiber broadband you got the symmetrical, that's the big key to that it’s symmetrical internet so you can have the entire household work from home."

AccessPlus has been with the community for more than 20 years and is the only second round award winner to provide a minimum starting speed of 500 Mbps (megabits per second0 internet connectivity to all its housing units, with options for residents to upgrade to multi-gig fiber internet for even greater speeds.

Just about a year ago AcessPlus' Fiber Broadband Network went online with the first business customers in Pittsfield.

"We’ve been focused on business users up to about a year and a half ago when we really identified that the market here in Western Mass really could use fiber you know a fiber to the play," Cummins said.

AccessPlus has also applied for a third round of funding with MBI to help expand their fiber internet access to more affordable housing units.

Their goal is to expand access to the rest of the Berkshires as well. For those interested in applying, visit www.getaccessplus.com.

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Lanesborough Seeks State Support for Berkshire Mall Redevelopment

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires.com
05:58PM / Monday, October 12, 2026

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town plans to petition the state to take ownership of the Route 7/Route 8 Connector Road, which officials believe is a "critical component" of the Berkshire Mall’s redevelopment strategy.

On Tuesday, the Select Board approved a letter to state Sen. Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III to request their support for the vacant mall's redevelopment by helping advance transfer of the Route 7/Route 8 connector and considering funding for essential infrastructure.

"We have held discussions with the Baker Hill Road District … which will take the necessary steps to formally petition the commonwealth to take over ownership of the Route 7, Route 8 connector…Your continued support in facilitating this transfer is greatly appreciated," the letter says.

Berkshire Mall owner JMJ RE Holdings has said the potential sale and redevelopment of the mall hinges on dissolving the Baker Hill Road District, a condition of the agreement that, if unmet, would render the contract null and void.

As a result, the mall will continue to deteriorate and the litigation will proceed forward, said Tim Grogan, of JMJ.

Vera Farrell, the liaison to the Baker Hill Road District, said the district board had discussed at one of its most recent meetings that the connector road could be transferred directly to the state, rather than returned to the town; Barrett and Mark were also a part of the discussion.

"The representatives recommended that as an option, that it could transfer the connector road directly to the state, as opposed to deeding it back to the town to dispense it. If we get to that point, that would be a better option to do it that way," Farrell said.

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