image description — Ollie's sign will be on the bright yellow painted below the roof's apex. The building had formerly housed Big Lots and, before that, a Price Rite. It had first opened in the 1950s as an Adams Super Market.

Pittsfield ZBA OKs Sign For Ollie's Discount Store

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
01:14PM / Friday, August 29, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city is closer to having another bargain store to shop at.

On Wednesday, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted a sign exemption for 457 Dalton Ave., the former Big Lots. The store will now be an Ollie's Bargain Basement, a company based in Harrisburg, Pa.

The store requested an exemption from sign ordinance requirements for a 114.2 square foot wall sign on a painted yellow wall in the front of the store. It is located on the top level of the Dalton Avenue Plaza.

Up to 100 square feet of signage is allowed in the business commercial zoning district and the ZBA can grant up to 150 square feet.

"We appreciate that," Jeff Rives, owner of East West Sign Group, said on behalf of the company after the approval.

"It will help the store be successful, and I think you'll find that your constituents will really enjoy it. It's a wonderful business model."

Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2024, and Ollie's has been acquiring its former stores. Ollie's will now operate 63 former Big Lots, including the one in Pittsfield and another in Rutland, Vt. It operates about 568 stores in 31 states.

In terms of signage, Rives explained, "My client is not requesting anything more than what was there."

He described the "unique" entrance where the sign will be placed, which has a triangle overhang that blocks sunlight. The store will use yellow paint and an illuminated sign that says "Ollie’s, Good Stuff Cheap," for visibility, similar to Big Lots.

Rives said his Maryland-based company has done work for more than 250 Ollie’s stores over the last nine years.

The store is set back more than 400 feet from Dalton Avenue. ZBA members agreed that this was an appropriate request.

Tags: ZBA, discount store, signage,

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Advocates Request Pittsfield Office of Neighborhood Safety

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:23AM / Monday, August 31, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Advocates want an office of neighborhood safety within the City of Pittsfield following a string of gun violence incidents this summer.

Last week, during a virtual meeting, the Pittsfield Freedom Project called for public health interventions, such as violence interrupters, hospital violence intervention, and a neighborhood trauma response team.

"I'm sure everyone is aware; there have been at least four shootings. I've heard from people in the community that there have been more than that, but these are the ones that have resulted in injuries," said filmmaker Jenny Herzog.

"Resulting in one homicide and at least seven injured over the last couple of months."

Recent shooting incidents in Pittsfield ranged from June 18, when a person died after being shot in the area of Tyler Street and Pleasure Avenue, and another person was injured, to August 18, when one person was injured after shots were fired on Circular Avenue.

Herzog produced the documentary "Hear Me," which explores the impact of poverty and gun violence on young people in Berkshire County. Attendees also heard from local advocate and fourth-generation Pittsfield resident Kamaar Taliaferro, CEO of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence Ruth Zakarin, and Ben Snyder, a sociology professor at Williams College.

"Here we are again in another cycle of gun violence, without the tools we need, seemingly without the will to demand the tools, and even if we did, without leadership that would even understand what we're asking for," Taliaferro said.

"And it's not like we don't have the resources to build what we need. At least $1.3 million has come into Pittsfield every year for the past six years, targeted to interrupt the cycle of gun and gang violence that we are in this moment. And dating back even further, Pittsfield has received gun violence prevention money and has received gang violence intervention money since like 2014. Since the last time there was this like emergent cycle of gun violence in our community."