Pittsfield Mulling Snow Removal Well Before First Storm

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Don't let the balmy weather fool you: Winter is closer than you think. 

On Monday, with temperatures nearing 80, the Public Works and Utilities subcommittee heard about the city's snow removal plans for the 2025-2026 season. 

"Our first thing, why we do this, is to maintain public safety. Then that's followed by equity and efficiency, and then we fall into cost control," Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales explained. 

"All of these things are important to us, but they're not made equal. I hope that everyone understands this. We have to be fiscally responsible, but we also have to provide safe roads and spaces for people to move around, goods to move around, and emergency vehicles to move around."

The Department of Public Works is responsible for keeping roads, sidewalks, and critical public spaces safe, passable, and accessible during winter storms. Pittsfield is divided into 30-32 neighborhood quadrants, which are cleared by contractors, and the highway crew covers the main roads in 12-hour shifts. 

Around 450 lane miles in the city require snow removal. 

Last winter, the city saw 4.77 feet of snow through 35 storm events, said to be "the low side of snow accumulation." 

"Thirteen of those events were dedicated to ice formation and not much snow plowing, which makes it very difficult for us to keep our streets safe even when it's not actually snowing, right? There's water and freezing conditions leading to ice events," Morales explained. 

Contractors worked for more than 2,600 hours, and there were more than 5,400 overtime hours paid out.

In fiscal year 2025, the $700,000 snow maintenance budget has been exceeded by nearly $1 million, totaling $1.6 million spent to date.  Similarly, the winter overtime budget of $200,000 was exceeded by more than $200,000. 

• 2,430 tons of sand 
• 7,030 tons of rock salt 
• 3,220 tons of treated salt 
• 1,750 gallons of liquid mag-chloride 

Every lane mile costs $20.71 is for indirect costs such as fuel and equipment, and $60.24 for direct costs, such as contractors, overtime, and material used during these events. 

"We are having more difficulty obtaining contractors. That number has been going down. I remember four or five years ago, we had 54 signed up one season," Morales reported. 

"Last year, we couldn't even get more than 22." 

While speaking about challenges of the last season, he reported staffing shortages and contractor issues related to pay rates and insurance that made work "a little less coordinated." Hiring more contractors, he added, is one of the city's primary concerns for preparedness.

Pittsfield has 14 highway department employees to work the 12-hour removal shifts, and utilizes employees from other divisions to cover shifts. So far, one contractor with six vehicles has turned in documents for work. 

Still, the city is struggling to find contractors and has made some changes in response. 

"We are working with contractors to set the rates at the right price, obviously, not what they're what they would like, but something that is both market equitable and something that we can afford," Morales reported. 

"And also, we worked together, in coordination with our insurance, to carry forward a requirement that both meets our insurance requirement for their insurance requirements and something that they are able to provide." 

Toys for Tots Bringing Presents to Thousands of Kids This Year

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:21PM / Friday, December 05, 2025

Volunteers organize toys by age and gender in the House of Corrections storage facility. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Plenty of toys are on their way to children this holiday season thanks to Toys for Tots.

Christopher Keegan has coordinated the local toy drive for the Berkshire Chapter of the Marine Corps Reserve since 2015 and said he has seen the need rise every year, last year helping more than 6,000 kids.

"This is 11 years I've been doing it, and the need has gone up every year. It's gone up every year, and I anticipate it going up even more this year," Keegan said.

On Thursday, the Berkshire County House of Corrections storage facility was overflowing with toys making it the county's very own Santa's workshop. 

Keegan said Berkshire County always shows up with toys or donations. 

"This county is outstanding when it comes to charity. They rally around stuff. They're very giving, they're very generous, and they've been tremendous in this effort, the toys for pride effort, since I've been doing it, our goal is to honor every request, and we've always reached that goal," he said.

Keegan's team is about 20 to 25 volunteers who sort out toys based on age and gender. This week, the crew started collecting from the 230 or so boxes set out around the county on Oct. 1.

"The two age groups that are probably more difficult — there's a newborn to 2s, boys and girls, and 11 to 14, boys and girls. Those are the two challenging ages where we need to focus our attention on a little bit more," he said.

Toys For Tots has about 30 participating schools and agencies that sign up families and individuals who need help putting gifts under the tree. Keegan takes requests right up until the last minute on Christmas.

"We can go out shopping for Christmas. I had sent my daughter out Christmas Eve morning. Hey, we need X amount of toys and stuff, but the requests are still rolling in from individuals, and I don't say no, we'll make it work however we can," he said.

Community members help to raise money or bring in unopened and unused toys. Capeless Elementary student Thomas St. John recently raised $1,000 selling hot chocolate and used the money to buy toys for the drive.

"It's amazing how much it's grown and how broad it is, how many people who were involved," Keegan said.

On Saturday, Live 95.9 personalities Bryan Slater and Marjo Catalano of "Slater and Marjo in the Morning" will host a Toys for Tots challenge at The Hot Dog Ranch and Proprietor's Lodge. Keegan said they have been very supportive of the drive and that they were able to collect more than 3,000 toys for the drive last year.

Volunteer Debbie Melle has been volunteering with Toys for Tots in the county for about five years and said people really showed up to give this year.

"I absolutely love it. It's what we always say. It's organized chaos, but it's rewarding. And what I actually this year, I'm so surprised, because the amount that the community has given us, and you can see that when you see these pictures, that you've taken, this is probably the most toys we've ever gotten," she said. "So I don't know if people just feel like this is a time to give and they're just going above and beyond, but I'm blown away. This year we can barely walk down the aisles for how much, how many toys are here. It's wonderful."