Pittsfield Panel Backs School Bus Stop-Arm Cameras

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City councilors are in favor of a theoretical system that flags vehicles that don't stop for school buses. 

On Monday, the Ordinances and Rules subcommittee supported Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren's request to accept a new statute that gives the option to install a detection system for school bus traffic violations.

Warren explained that this doesn't mean it will get implemented, but it accepts state law (MGL Chapter 40, Section 71) so that the city can look into it. Earlier this year, Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill that allows municipalities to use school bus violation detection monitoring systems.  

"We're talking about kids. We're talking about the only way you can catch this is probably this way," he said. 

"Even if you're in a car that's behind a car that does this, first of all, by the time they do it, you haven't had a chance to take down their license, you haven't had a chance to video it, and they're gone. And if a lot of people are doing this, children are in danger. If they know that there is a system in place, then I think we will see a lot better." 

"That doesn't mean that we have adopted it or that we're making any financial investment," she said. 

WWII Veteran Reflects on D-Day at VFW Post Induction

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:25PM / Saturday, June 06, 2026

The members in the picture are Bret Miller, Coast Guard, Desert Storm; Hank Morris, Army, Vietnam; Brad Havill, Navy, Global War on Terror; VFW Post 448 Vice Cmdr. Mark Pompi, Army, Global War on Terrorism, Afghanistan; Post Cmdr. Arnold Perras, Korea; Joe Difillipo, Army, Vietnam; Teri Billington, Navy, Desert Storm; and Carmen Ostrander, Air Force, Afghanistan.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Anthony Salatino Jr. says his memory is getting a little foggy about his time in the Army. 

But he remembers how terrible D-Day was, and feeling lucky he wasn't among those in the initial invasion force 82 years ago. 

 

"One of the most horrible things was in Normandy. We went shortly after D-Day. I got lucky, very lucky on D-Day. We went to a staging area the night before … and at the very end, somebody called, I was in headquarters, they called all the headquarters personnel at the center," the 103-year-old said. "We did not go. There's about 30 of us. The rest of the battalion was gone, and the reason for that was because there was another battalion coming from the States, and they had no headquarters. 

 

"We stayed back, but we did go to Normandy shortly after that, and when we went to Normandy, it was all over."

 

Salatino was attending an induction ceremony on Thursday at the Lt. John N. Truden VFW Post 448. Joseph Texidor, who served in the Army for 17 years with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sworn in as the post's newest member. 

 

Salatino served in the Medical Corps and wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a World War I veteran wounded at Verdun. Salatino was in the Army for about three years.

 

"The whole memory is what I just told you, very, very alive to me," he said. "That is, I can never forget, never forget that."

 

D-Day on June 6, 1944, was the start of Operation Overlord, and the largest invading force to cross the English Channel since 1066. Their goal: to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany.