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Morty is one of 10 dogs whose adoption fees will be waived next week. The Berkshire Humane Society is participating in the statewide event to help 'long-termers' find forever homes.
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Clockwise from left, Harvey, Luna and Cookie are tired of hanging out at the Humane Society and would love a real home.

Berkshire Humane Society Holding Fee Waived Event Next Week

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Humane Society is having a fee-waived adoption event for dogs one year and older.

This event is called "Big Dog Energy" and is happening in many shelters across Massachusetts. It runs from April 22 through April 27.

"There is still just an influx of adult dogs who are sitting in shelters," said Berkshire Humane Society's Executive Director John Perreault.

Last year, the Berkshire Humane Society participated in a week of fee-waived adoptions for the Mass-Saves promotion, also because of an influx of adult dogs staying in the shelter.

Perrault said it's still the case, unfortunately.

"They're not moving all across the state so we're right now really trying to promote all the great dogs that all the shelters have around the state," he said.

Perrault said there could be many reasons some dogs are not getting adopted right away.

"Some people have blamed it on people getting rid of their dogs coming out of COVID, some people believe it's the economy, you know, that it costs so much to take care of a dog and the cost of everything is going up," he said. "By hopefully fee waiving the adoption fee that may trigger some people to realize that you know, if that's a barrier or a hurdle and we can eliminate that to put a good dog in a good home, then it's certainly worth it." 

Perrault said he is hoping this event is successful as some past ones haven't been.

"The fee-waived adoptions around the state have been very very successful. The first one we did I think we placed five dogs who were over 600 days of care when they were here, I cant remember the exact amount, and it was awesome because they were long-termers," he said. "Since then we've done about five or six of these along with everybody else and many other shelters around the state are finding huge success and we're not, I think we've gone through one or two where we may not have placed any during that fee waived week.

"So, we're hoping this one's going to be a successful one."

The shelter currently has 10 dogs available whose fees will be waived next week


Tags: adoption,   Berkshire Humane Society,   dogs,   

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Lanesborough Hopes for Continued Talks on Mall Sale

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Select Board is optimistic that talks for the Berkshire Mall sale will continue. 
 
Chair Deborah Maynard and Vice Chair Juli Baker were to meet with mall owner JMJ Holdings, the Baker Hill Road District, and proposed buyer Cypress Equities on Tuesday to discuss next steps. As of Wednesday, iBerkshires had received a "we are optimistic" from Maynard on the talks. The Berkshire Eagle reported a response from a Cypress representative saying talks will continue.  
 
Baker had updated the Select Board on Monday about the status of the sale and the efforts being undertaken by the renamed Baker Hill Business District.
 
Cypress Equities pulled out of a purchase-and sale-agreement with mall owner JMJ last week for the following reasons. 
  • Not enough water service/pressure to the property to support redevelopment without constructing costly water tanks.
  • The current septic system and former treatment facility is not acceptable for a project of the scale and magnitude proposed.
  • There is existing asbestos and bad soil from the treatment system that needs to be remediated off site.
  • And the current structure and tax assessment of the Baker Hill Road District.
Baker has been working with what is now being called the Baker Hill Business District and said she and the district members are happy that Cypress has decided to leave the door open to more discussions and that they have been working hard to try and address the company's needs.
 
Last month, the town had asked state Sen. Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III to support the state Department of Transportation taking over the Connector Road, funding for a mall connection to Pittsfield's wastewater treatment plant and a connection to the town's water main.
 
Baker said an amendment has been drafted to cap the district's taxes to not grow more than 2.5 percent a year. She noted that, historically, taxes have not grown by more than one percent per year, so it won't be difficult to meet that cap.
 
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