Letter: Elect Buerger for School Committee

Letter to the Editor12:31PM / Wednesday, October 22, 2025Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

It is with great joy that I write this letter surrounding the upcoming election, particularly the School Committee election.

I sit here as an 18-year-old recent graduate of Pittsfield Public Schools, preparing to vote and I look at this candidate pool and say wow! There are so many great and amazing options, but one comes to mind that definitely has my vote, Dr. Geoffrey Buerger.

For those of you who don’t know Dr. Buerger, he will introduce himself to you as a fossil who is older than the state of Alaska, exactly how he introduced himself to me when he became my long-term substitute in chemistry my sophomore year of high school. From this point, he never stopped checking in even after I didn't have him for class.

He would reach out at lunch, or even just a nice chat in the hallway on my way to and from the bathroom. He truly cares, and he works very hard to understand everyone's circumstances and helps to keep so many kids in check with both schoolwork and emotionally. And I must add, these conversations were so insightful. He always had advice, words of wisdom, or even the occasional joke.

I will be voting for Geoffrey Buerger for School Committee on Nov. 4, and I encourage everyone to do the same!

Tanner M White
Pittsfield, Mass.

Tags: election 2025, municipal election,

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Wahconah Park Skating Rink Under Construction

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
01:44PM / Sunday, February 01, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The outdoor ice skating rink in front of Wahconah Park is taking shape, and the city plans to open it early next week.

If you pass by the historic park this weekend, you will notice a pop-up ice skating rink under construction on the property between Hudpucker's Pub and Grill and Thrive Diner. City officials hope for a soft launch early next week and have secured state funds for programmatic expenses and skate rentals.

Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath on Friday said it will take several days to build the ice. The community will be notified through a social media post and a press release.

Community members are asked to stay off the ice until given the OK from the city.

Earlier this week, the City Council accepted $10,000 from the Massachusetts Office of Outdoor Recreation for programming opportunities at the 50-by-100-foot refrigerated rink. This will be used for staffing, youth assistants, adaptive skate aids, equipment rentals, bus vouchers, and other associated costs for public events.

McGrath pointed out that Pittsfield owns the system and will know how to assemble, operate, and then disassemble it for the next year.

"We're sort of at an interesting time here because it's kind of late in the winter, admittedly, but we're going to get some ice time out of the rink, and then we're going to pack it up, put it away, and we're going to bring it back out in subsequent years," he said.

"And we own this system, so looking at the horizon, we'll be able to have this portable system in place at that site on Wahconah Street for many, many years to come, and certainly, the whole idea is that this rink is intimately coordinated with the site planning for the new Wahconah Park and all the civil work that we're doing down there."

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