Pittsfield Parks OKs Annual Events, Hears Wahconah Park Idea
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Parks Commission signed off on some annual city events on Tuesday.
Commissioners approved the 80th annual Eggstravaganza Egg Scramble, the Westside Legends' 6th annual Easter egg hunt, and another lineup of Eagles Band concerts in the park. The Eagles Community Band is in its 90th year.
Pittsfield's 80th egg hunt will be held at The Common on Saturday, April 4 (rain date April 11) from 10 to noon. The free event is open to children ages 2-11 and will feature a balloon artist, a face painter, the Easter bunny, and, of course, plastic eggs filled with small prizes.
The Westside Easter Egg Hunt, organized by the Westside Legends, is on the same day, April 4, from 1 to 3 p.m at Durant Park. It was scheduled to not conflict with the city's event, and will include tabling from community organizations, and some raffles.
City officials are also planning an opportunity to appreciate the Wahconah Park grandstand's century of history in Pittsfield. Demolition is currently out to bid, and prices are expected the first week of March.
"We want to have some conversation around opening up the grandstand one last time for the community to come in and look around and share memories," Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath reported.
"I think it would we'd be remiss if we just brought in the wrecking ball and people were like, 'Wait a minute, I didn't have a chance to have one last look out from my favorite spot in the grandstand,' So we're going to figure out how to do that, how to get that done safely, and just how to celebrate this with some folks."
He has been in touch with Larry Moore of Berkshire Baseball to share facts about the park, "and just remind people how much of a storied past Wahconah Park has had, and just keep hope alive for the next iteration of Wahconah Park, whatever that looks like."
Now on the table for the grandstand's replacement is a $15 million plan; half the cost of the original proposal. The project team is unsure if construction will begin right after the former grandstand's demolition.
Eagles Band manager Deanna Fraher said the band has been performing concerts in the park for over 30 years, "and we'd like to continue to do that." All of the ensembles within the Eagles Band perform between 30 and 35 concerts a year, and 20 percent of those are in Pittsfield.
The concerts at The Common and Springside Park will be on June 16, July 14, and Aug. 11.
"We do it to preserve the history of community bands and to encourage and show that we can have people of all ages and all different walks of life enjoying and getting some pleasure out of the fact that they spent hundreds of hours practicing when they were in elementary school and junior high and so on," Fraher said.
"… People get real busy with their lives once they're out of college, a lot of people just put their instruments away. This gives them an outlet, and it's pretty amazing."
It also provides an alternate band source for students as young as 12. Audiences have increased over the last decade; the holiday concert recently attracted almost 400 people.
"Since this is our 90th year, we're excited about that part of it, but we're also excited that we're going to be celebrating the 250th year [of the United States] with a lot of patriotic music and music that shows the progression of American music through 250 years," Fraher said.
The commission also approved the 11th annual Berkshire County Out of the Darkness Walk to Fight Suicide, which is held by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Massachusetts Chapter. It will be held on September 19 and begin at The Common.
"It will be our seventh year here at First Street Common. We were in a couple other places for a few years till we found our home," said Heather White, executive director of the AFSP Massachusetts.
"It's an empowering day of hope and healing for those who have lost someone to suicide, who personally struggle, and their friends and family. But it's also our one and only flagship fundraising event every year as well."
Commissioners also approved No Kings 3 rally at The Common on March 28, the Elizabeth Freeman Center's annual teal flag placement in park Square to honor Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and preliminarily approved the Berkshire Reign 1791 Classic at Deming and Clapp Parks from August 14-16.
Tags: parks commission, Wahconah Park,
