image description — Market-rate housing is being planned St. Joseph's School in Pittsfield. The school closed a decade ago because of falling enrollment.

Housing Planned for Former St. Joe's High School

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Tuesday, April 28, 2026Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Nearly a decade after the facility last operated as a high school, the former Saint Joseph's is staged for new life as housing.

Last week, the Community Development Board determined that subdivision approval was not required for a plan of land the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield submitted for 22 Maplewood Ave.

CT Management Group is under contract to purchase the property for conversion into market-rate housing, developer David Carver confirmed on Monday when contacted by iBerkshires. The closing date and related matters are in process.

In 2017, the then 120-year-old St. Joseph Central High School ceased operations. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it sheltered people without homes before The Pearl, a 40-bed downtown shelter, was finished a few years ago.

Brian Koczela of BEK Associates, who submitted the plan on behalf of the diocese, explained to the board that the diocese is conveying out the former St. Joseph's High School. (The bishop is listed as owner on deeds on behalf of the church.)

The high school is comprised of four parcels with different owner in the middle, he said, and they need to be combined for the conveyance. This refers to the transfer and assignment of a property right or interest from one individual or entity to another.

"At the very southerly end, at the back of the high school, there's a 66-foot-wide strip, I believe, and that strip goes all the way from North Street to Maplewood, and it includes a rectory," Koczela explained.

"In essence, what we're really doing is just separating out that small parcel from the rectory."

The board also discussed getting ahead of data centers and agreed to consider a moratorium or regulations to protect Pittsfield from the emerging, controversial facilities. A data center is a large group of networked computer servers typically used for the remote storage, processing, or distribution of large amounts of data.

City Planner Kevin Rayner said this issue has been popping up across the state, and it is important to consider if and/or how data centers should be regulated in Pittsfield.

"How they kind of pop up quickly, and they take up a large portion of the municipal resources, energy, electricity, and water, and they also emit a lot of heat as well that can heat up the local atmosphere," he said.

"There's a large caution going around the state of how to deal with these and how to not have them sap municipal resources, and I think that there's a unique danger for Pittsfield in Berkshire County when it comes to data centers, because there's not a large quantity of infrastructure like there is in eastern Mass.

"The county only has so much power and water infrastructure, and I think that a big data center in Pittsfield could have impacts not only in Pittsfield, but the rest of the county."

At the last City Council meeting, a petition from Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren requesting to explore implementing a moratorium on the establishment and siting of data centers was referred to the Community Development Board.

Warren, in his request, wrote that "This is one of those uses that the public would best be served by careful oversight of the City. A moratorium would allow the city to prevent any businesses from taking
advantage of the lack of any zoning regulations."

Rayner looked at other state planners and created draft regulations to begin with, recognizing that the city doesn't want to be scrambling with no governance for data centers if a proposal came up.

Chair Sheila Irvin said data centers are drawing a "huge" amount of electricity and water from American communities, increasing utility rates and putting pressure on the grid. She is personally leaning toward a moratorium.

"Would the data center be taking power away from the community at the cost of the community?" she asked.

Irvin pointed out that this would buy Pittsfield some time in the sense of saying, "We don't know this at all, but let us take some time to look at, if we did decide to have it, how would we deal with it?"

Rayner will come up with a draft moratorium and sharpened regulations, and the board will consider them next month. He pointed out that the moratorium would be a simple zoning amendment for consideration.

It was suggested that the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority, which oversees the William Stanley Business Park, be consulted in this process to see if they are exposed to the data center industry.

Tags: housing, Planning Board, st joe,

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PCTV Celebrates 40th Anniversary with Community

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
06:00PM / Tuesday, September 22, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Many fans, workers, past workers, and city officials gathered at the Berkshire Hills Country Club Friday night to celebrate Pittsfield Community Television turning 40.

The room was alive with people eating, laughing, taking photos in a photo booth and watching snippets from PCTV's past archived programs throughout the decades curated by Operations Manager Dave Cachet.

President of the Board of Directors Sue Doucette acknowledged everyone in attendance and thanked the volunteers who help or have helped bring PCTV to the screen.

She reflected on how much technology has changed since 1986 and on PCTV's role in covering parades, debates and election-night precinct results

"You heard it and saw it yourself, and you can interpret it your way. Not everybody has this, but we in Berkshire County do, and we need to be forever grateful to the people that have come before us and made this possible. So, for me personally, I love the staff at PCTV and the board members. I never begrudge going to a meeting. I like these people," she said.

Executive Director Shawn Serre said he feels as though this is their "Eras Tour," referencing Taylor Swift's record-breaking concert series. He reminisced about PCTV's eras.

"The first of our eras is the founders' era, that time when this was just an idea tossed around among colleagues with various skills and with an interest in creating a local source of television, but with no funding, no equipment, no facility, no staff, no volunteers other than themselves," he said.

He said the next era starts with PCTV's move to Fourth Street. At this point, they named their first executive director Garrett McCarey and built their first facility at 163 Fourth Street. They made community connections, programs, and learned the ropes, he said, adding that they "pushed the boundaries of what public access could accomplish".

He said the next era is their Federico era, led by former Executive Director Bernard Avalle and changing technology.

"Under his leadership, we moved our entire facility from the old building to a custom-built studio and offices. We expanded from one cable channel to three. We went from analog to digital to high definition," Cachet said. " We went from videotapes to DVDs to video servers and files. We had as many as seven staff members and grew the program. We designed and purchased a mobile production truck. We covered so many meetings, so many meetings. Viewers would look to us with trust on election nights, onn the Fourth of July, at sports events, and at special events. We have become a part of the fabric of life in Pittsfield."

And finally, the multi-platform era.

"Otherwise known as everything, everywhere, all at once. That's what it feels like. It's when we expanded our reach by saving WTBR FM from the wrecking ball and operating it. When we greatly expanded our PCTV sports program of live broadcasts from just about anywhere, we couldn't have imagined being able to do that early on," he said. "It's when, in the depths of the pandemic, we not only continued our regular broadcast and never stopped, but we also launched PCTV Select to provide high-quality video streams, live streams, and video on demand worldwide. When we started Park Square Productions to provide high-quality production services to clients and contribute to our mission."

He said their next era is still being shaped and will need the community to help.

"The next era, well, that one has to be shaped by you, by all of us actually, because after 40 years, we realize the only constant is change, and we know that while cable TV is at the moment still our sugar daddy, it won't be around forever," Cachet said. "But we know how important the kinds of services that we provide are, and the demand to not disappear."

Rep. Tricia Farley Bouvier said local journalism is important and will save democracy. She presented PCTV a citation from the state House of Representatives signed by her and the Speaker of the House.

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