Berkshire County Urged to Stay Home During Monday Nor'Easter

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Students and non-emergency municipal workers are home on Monday as the region is deals with another Nor'easter. 

Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales estimated that there was about 8 inches of accumulation around 10:45 a.m., and another two or three inches are expected. All of the main routes are covered by contractors and in-house staff, with support from the water division. 

"Wind is critical right now," Morales said. "That's the biggest problem we have ahead of us is wind driven conditions that may be difficult for people to drive on the road." 

The city has 19 contractors. There are still seven vacancies in the highway division, as well as one individual out on sick leave; four additional contractors with larger plows and road treatment capabilities were hired to fill the gap. 

Parking restrictions are in effect from 7 a.m. on Sunday to 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24.  Residents are asked to use off-street parking whenever possible and follow alternate side parking regulations if they need to park in the street: 

• Between 7 a.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday: Park on the even-numbered side of the street.
• Between 7 a.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday: Park on the odd-numbered side of the street.

The McKay Street parking garage is free through Tuesday at 7 a.m.

During the last storm, Pittsfield had to tow about 30 vehicles obstructing the plowing route.  Morales reported that the city has towed a few cars during this storm, and that people should be parking on the odd side of the street on Monday. 

"It's not bad. There's still definitely a few streets with parked vehicles all over the place," he said. 

"What we want with this is getting people to still be able to park on the road, but be organized in a way that we can more effectively plow the street." 

Pittsfield Public Schools declared a snow day, and the Mercer Administration Center was also closed.  Berkshire Community College and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts also closed their campuses and cancelled classes. 

The Pittsfield Police Department warned people of dangerous travel conditions and limited visibility, and said motorists are "strongly urged" to stay off the roads unless travel is "absolutely essential" to let plows and emergency vehicles operate safely. 

Tuesday's ribbon-cutting on the new ice rink at Wahconah Park has been postponed.

The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority has canceled all bus service for Monday. The Massachusetts Trial Court is also closed for the snow day, and all affected court events will be rescheduled. 

On Sunday, Gov. Maura Healey addressed the upcoming storm from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency bunker in Framingham. 

"This is one to take seriously," she said about the storm. "… Please stay off the roads for your safety and for the safety of the folks who are out there trying to clear the roads, keep power on, and keep people safe." 

Healey declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts, activated the emergency operations center, activated around 200 National Guard members, and called a remote work day for all non-emergency state employees. She suggested the rest of the state do the same. 

"Tomorrow is going to be cold. We're going to see wind chill factors really, really low," she said about Monday's conditions. 

"Stay indoors. Check on your neighbors. Check on elderly neighbors and residents, make sure that they have what they need. And we are expecting significant power outages." 

The Berkshires appears to have missed the brunt of the storm. It is still blizzard conditions for eastern and especially southeastern New England. Tens of thousands of customers are without power and the National Weather Service in Boston is reporting up to 2 feet of snow in some areas and wind gusts of 83 mph recorded in Nantucket. 

On Monday afternoon, the governor signed an executive order banning non-essential motor vehicle traffic in Bristol, Plymouth and Barnstable counties because of dangerous road conditions. The speed limit on the Mass Pike was reduced to 40 mph.

Pittsfield's Department of Public Services provided an 8 a.m. update on snow operations over Facebook, explaining that the storm did not ramp up until 3 or 4 a.m. when contractors were called in. At the time, it was hard to measure accumulation because of the wind gusts, but anywhere between 3 and 7 inches was measured, and another 4 inches was expected before noon. 

"All neighborhood sectors are covered between staff and contractors although some have double assignments which will cause our response time to be stretched longer," the department wrote. 

"A special thank you to the community for limiting unnecessary travel today when possible. If you do have to travel today, please use extreme caution and give yourself extra time to get to your destination. We appreciate your cooperation as we continue to plow and treat the roads." 

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