Select Board Conditionally OKs May Carnival at Berkshire Mall

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The springtime carnival will return to the Berkshire Mall property in a couple of weeks, if the hosts reach an agreement with emergency medical services.

On Monday, the Select Board approved a community event application for Gillette Shows' carnival from May 1 to May 11, pending a reasonable donation to the Ambulance Gift Account for EMS services.

"This isn't a new concept. We discussed this after last year's carnival," EMS Director Jen Weber said. 

The department saw an "exponential" increase in the need for services at the event as its attendance continues to rise. In 2024, there were 20 transports to the hospital over the two weeks, not counting refusals or minor injuries.

"We ended up, last year, mobile posting up there just to make sure that we were there in case something happened," Weber said.

"So we had discussed it last year, and it also came up in a department head meeting that really it's come down to either they need to hire an ambulance to sit there like County Ambulance or Northern Berkshire, or we would be willing to mobile post for a donation into our gift account so that we are able to kind of compensate not being able to be where we usually are, not having bathrooms that aren't mobile."

The two entities have not yet agreed on the donation amount, and a monetary value for services hasn't been set. Mobile posting means that the EMS is still on duty, and mutual aid would be called if a situation arose while Lanesborough wasn't on site.

"We went from like two transports the year before last year to 20, and it just seemed like it was necessary more for us to be up there, because of all the people," Weber said.

"They had a lot more people last year."

She sees this as doing Gillette a favor by saving them a significant amount of money. Hiring an ambulance reportedly costs about $5,000 per night, but she recommends medical presence because of the event's popularity.  

"I guess my dilemma is, I wouldn't have an issue if you worked out a deal with them, but currently, what you're talking about is the town's ambulance, you people getting paid by the town being there, and plus, now you're asking for a donation. Are we on shaky ground of double dipping or something going on here?" he asked.

Weber explained that the EMS does not have a license to do details, so personnel can't volunteer their time for a donation.

"We have to be under the guise of the ambulance so for us to be able to provide that service to Gillette, we would have to have the ambulance with us," she explained, later adding "It is an inconvenience for our crew to be up there for that amount of time, even though they are getting paid."

She doesn't feel like the agreement is settled in any way.  The board mulled holding a special meeting to approve the permit after a deal had been made, but feared it would be too last-minute.

To hold the carnival at the shuttered mall property, Gillette had to fill potholes and ensure that the access roads were in decent shape.

"I'll put air quotes around that," Chairman Michael Murphy joked.

Social Service Organizations Highlight Challenges, Successes at Poverty Talk

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:04AM / Sunday, April 05, 2026

Dr. Jennifer Michaels of the Brien Center demonstrates how to use Narcan. Easy access to the drug has cut overdose deaths in the county by nearly half. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Recent actions at the federal level are making it harder for people to climb out of poverty.

Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said he felt like he was doing a disservice by not recognizing national challenges and how they draw a direct line from choices being made by the Trump administration and the challenges the United States is facing. 

"They more generally impact people's ability to work their way out of poverty, and that's really, that's really the overarching dynamic," he said. 

"Poverty is incredibly corrosive, and it impacts all the topics that we'll talk about today." 

His comments came during a conversation on poverty hosted by Berkshire Community Action Council. Eight local service agency leaders detailed how they are supporting people during the current housing and affordability crisis, and the Berkshire state delegation spoke to their own efforts.

The event held on March 27 at the Berkshire Athenaeum included a working lunch and encouraged public feedback. 

"All of this information that we're going to gather today from both you and the panelists is going to drive our next three-year strategic plan," explained Deborah Leonczyk, BCAC's executive director. 

The conversation ranged from health care and housing production to financial literacy and child care.  Participating agencies included Upside 413, The Brien Center, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, MassHire Berkshire Career Center, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Child Care of the Berkshires. 

The federal choices Gordon spoke about included allocating $140 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investing $38 billion to convert warehouses into detention centers, cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, a proposed 50 percent increase in the defense budget, and cutting federal funding for supportive housing programs. 

Gordon pointed to past comments about how the region can't build its way out of the housing crisis because of money. He withdrew that statement, explaining, "You know what? That's bullshit, actually."

"I'm going to be honest with you, that is absolute bullshit. I have just observed over the last year or so how we're spending our money and the amount of money that we're spending on the federal side, and I'm no longer saying in good conscience that we can't build our way out of this," he said. 

Upside 413 provided a "Housing Demand in Western Massachusetts" report that was done in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Donahue Institute of Economic and Public Policy Research. It states that around 23,400 units are needed to meet current housing demand in Western Mass; 1,900 in Berkshire County in 2025.