PEDA Gets Site 9 Update, Comes Up With Street Names

PITTSFIELD, Mass – Site 9 is coming along and work is almost complete.

During Thursday's Pittsfield Economic Development Authority meeting Edward Weagel of Rioux Associates gave updates on the project and said work is progressing.

"I've been working on this project for at least 10 years. So, it's really nice to see the long term efforts that everybody has put in here, bearing some fruit. And I'm happy to say we're really close to getting everything wrapped up here with the regiments," he said.

He said the draft closeout report given to the regulators was happily received with two requests: the grid map is transferred to a contour map, and to fix the insufficient built measurements on the embankments. the later has been rectified.

The board then went on to talk about potential street names for Site 9.

Linda Clairmont suggests a street be named Morningside.

"I have a passion for honoring the history of our city, and I'm not trying to relive GE, that's not what I'm talking about. But I feel like honoring the surrounding neighborhood might be one way, one road, to be named in honor of the surrounding neighborhood. So it's known as Morningside. And the reason why it's known as Morningside is because it's the first part of the city that's lit by the sun at sunrise, and so I feel like one of the roads could honor that history without it being a memory of GE and all of the hardship left behind," she said.

Jonathan Denmark suggested to honor Dave Mixer for a street name who didn't want that but suggested MillTown as a name. The board says it's a great way to honor the investment Mill Town has had with the site.

After some more weighing the board came up with the three street names; Mill Town Way, Morningside Way, Innovation Place.

Lastly, Coakley brought up to the board a CDL training site across the street from BIC in the parking.

"MassDOT and Representative Farley Bouvier have been looking around the Berkshires for a place for a CDL license, a commercial driver's license testing site, and they looked at the parking lot across the street here, and have asked if that's possible, and BIC uses about a third of it for overflow parking, so that Eastern half is basically unused, and it's a perfect spot for what they want to do," he said.

He explained they are still in the negotiation process but they would use it maybe a couple times a month. This will also be rented out to them for $2,600 a month, bringing in some money for Pittsfield Economic Development Authority.

Claremont also brought up the point of BCC and their CDL training that could be brought in as well.

"Berkshire Community College is focused on building up our trades programming, and CDL is one of them. There's a clear labor market shortage for CDL drivers. We've already had two training sessions, and we originally talked about using a portion of PEDA for BCC training program, and there were issues that we weren't able to do it. So we've been using the Berkshire mall parking lot. But if there's a way to, if this space is truly undevelopable, and there's a way for BCC and MassDOT to create a training center for CDL drivers in Berkshires, this could really have an impact on our ability to prepare the workforce," she said.

All voted yes to start negotiations with MassDOT to use the parking lot for training.

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.