Lanesborough Settles With Mall Owners to Dissolve Baker Hill Road District

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Select Board has decided it is time to say goodbye to the Baker Hill Road Road District. 

On Monday, the Select Board unanimously approved a settlement with the Berkshire Mall's owners that pays the town $1.1 million for the dissolution of the district through a home-rule petition. This will require approval at town meeting and a special act of the Legislature. 

Owners JMJ Holdings will have to provide a signed development and purchase agreement 30 days before the town meeting. 

"I think it's time. There's been a lot of controversy around this, and I think that we're at a point in time where the town needs this to be resolved, and we need the mall property to be developed, and this is the first step to do this, to develop this property," Select Board member Jason Breault said. 

"If we keep going on and on with this whole thing, we're never going to see this being developed. We're never going to see this progress. So I think if we do this, we dissolve this, we get this moving, I think it will be positive for the community, it will be positive for taxpayers, it will be positive overall." 

The Berkshire Mall closed more than five years ago and has sat vacant since. The road district filed a suit against JMJ for unpaid taxes for the Route 7/8 Connector Road; dissolving the district will forgive that debt. 

The intent is to get the state to take over the Connector Road.

Chair Deborah Maynard feels this is a "giant" win for the town and stands wholeheartedly behind the agreement developed by herself, Town Administrator Gina Dario, town counsel, and representatives from JMJ. She said the decision is not taken lightly by Select Board members. 

"I'm really hoping that people at the town meeting will see that this is good," she said. 

"In the long run, this is really good for the town, and we'll get things moving over there and get us back on track." 

Maynard read the full agreement into the record. It states that Lanesborough and JMJ intend to dissolve the Baker Hill Road District and revitalize and develop the Berkshire Mall. A month before the decision goes to town voters, JMJ is required to provide the development and purchase agreement, which is subject to Select Board approval, and put $1,116,168 in escrow. 

The board will submit a home-rule petition to the annual town meeting or a special town meeting that requests dissolution of the independent, special-purpose municipal district. If approved, a special act will be submitted to the state Legislature within 45 business days. 

Under the agreement, funds are released when the road district is dissolved. 

JMJ announced its partnership with Integritus Healthcare last year to bolster its plans for hundreds of senior housing units. 

"We are continuing conversations with Target, and they would like to see this process be far further along before they make any representations whatsoever about the ability to do housing," Grogan said, adding that the store would have to support an amendment to the site use. 

"… It's completely up to Target's discretion. We're trying to play as nice as possible, and generally just make more progress with developing the property so that we can show the same amount of intention to Target as we're showing to you to get this underway." 

During public comment, resident Rebecca Belmont urged the Select Board to accept the agreement.  She said the district was created for a specific purpose that has now been fulfilled, and keeping it in place only creates unnecessary conflict, duplication, and expense.

The road district was created by a home-rule petition in 1989 to manage the connector road and oversee its debt. Murphy said the district raised $10 million for the road that did not come out of the town's pocket. 

"Dissolving the district restores accountability to the town's regular, duly elected bodies, and moves us toward transparency, fairness, and a clean path forward," Belmont said. 

NAMI Raises Sugar With 10th Annual Cupcake Wars

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
06:09PM / Saturday, April 25, 2026

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. To contact the Crisis Text Line, text HELLO to 741741. More information on crisis hotlines in Massachusetts can be found here. 

Whitney's Farm baker Jenn Carchedi holds her awards for People's Choice and Best Tasting.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Berkshire County held its 10th annual cupcake wars fundraiser Thursday night at the Country Club of Pittsfield.

The event brought local bakeries and others together to raise money for the organization while enjoying a friendly competition of cupcake tasting.

Local bakeries Odd Bird Farm, Canyon Ranch, Whitney's Farm and Garden, and Monarch butterfly bakery each created a certain flavor of cupcake and presented their goods to the theme of "Backyard Barbecue." When Sweet Confections bakery had to drop out because to health reasons, NAMI introduced a mystery baker which turned out to be Big Y supermarket.

The funds raised Thursday night through auctions of donated items, the cupcakes, raffles, and more will go toward the youth mental health wellness fair, peer and family support groups, and more. 

During the event, the board members mentioned the many ways the funds have been used, stating that they were able to host their first wellness fair that brought in more than 250 people because of the funds raised from last year and plan to again this year on July 11. 

"We're really trying to gear towards the teen community, because there's such a stigma with mental illness, and they sometimes are hesitant to come forward and admit they have a problem, so they try to self medicate and then get themselves into a worse situation," said NAMI President Ruth Healy.

"We're really trying to focus on that group, and that's going to be the focus of our youth mental health wellness fair is more the teen community. So every penny that we raise helps us to do more programming, and the more we can do, the more people recognize that we're there to help and that there is hope."

They mentioned they are now able to host twice monthly peer and family support groups at no cost for individuals and families with local training facilitators. They also are now able to partner with Berkshire Medical Center to perform citizenship monitoring where they have volunteers go to different behavioral mental health units to listen to patients and staff to provide service suggestions to help make the unit more effective. Lastly, they also spoke of how they now have a physical office space, and that they were able to attend the Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention as part of the panel discussion to help offer resources and have also been able to have gift bags for patients at BMC Jones 2 and 3.

Healy said they are also hoping to expand into the schools in the county and bring programming and resources to them.

She said the programs they raise money for are important in reaching someone with mental issues sooner.

"To share the importance of recognizing, maybe an emerging diagnosis of a mental health condition in their family member or themselves, that maybe they could get help before the situation becomes so dire that they're thinking about suicide as a solution, the sooner we can reach somebody, the better the outcome," she said.

The cupcakes were judged by Downtown Pittsfield Inc. Managing Director Rebecca Brien, Pittsfield High culinary teacher Todd Eddy, and Lindsay Cornwell, executive director Second Street Second Chances.

The 100 guests got miniature versions of the cupcakes to decide the Peoples' Choice award.

The winners were:

• Best Tasting: Whitney's Farm (Honey buttermilk cornbread cupcakes)
• Best Presentation: Odd Bird Farm Bakery (Blueberry lemon cupcakes)
• Best Presentation of Theme: Canyon Ranch (Strawberry shortcake)
• People's Choice: Whitney's Farm

Jenn Carchedi has been the baker at Whitney's for six years and this was her third time participating in an event she cares deeply about.

"It meant a lot. Because personally, for me, mental health awareness is really important. I feel like coming together as a community, and Whitney's Farm is more like a community kind of place," she said