Re: Pittsfield politics' iron rule or face retribution
Pittsfield politics = Fall in line with Tyer/Marchetti or face retribution. Outsiders and opposing voices are not allowed in City Hall. Democracy is dead in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It is a prime example of the "Iron Rule of Oligarchy"! The word of the top-down rulers becomes the law. Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski can pound sand.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Our Opinion: “Political realities in Pittsfield”
The Berkshire Eagle, Editorial, January 15, 2020
Pittsfield City Councilor Chris Connell believes that political retaliation cost him his chairmanship of the Public Works Committee. There is another way to look at it — elections have consequences.
City Council President Peter Marchetti is a political ally of Mayor Linda Tyer, who won re-election. Mr. Connell supported former city councilor and mayoral candidate Melissa Mazzeo and feels he is being punished for it. Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi, who was a frequent supporter of Ms. Mazzeo on council issues, also lost his committee chairmanship. Like Mr. Connell, he said he was not asked his committee preferences beforehand as was the case in the past. ("Pittsfield councilors clash over committees," Eagle, Jan. 15)
Six years ago, on the same January day that Mayor Dan Bianchi was sworn in to a second term, his close political ally Councilor Mazzeo was elected City Council president. There was nothing out of order there. Had Ms. Mazzeo been elected mayor last November and had a sufficient number of her supporters been elected to the City Council it is quite possible that Mr. Connell would be Council president today and Mr. Marchetti would be without a committee chairmanship.
After Tuesday's meeting, Mr. Marchetti told The Eagle's Amanda Drane that while seniority plays a role in choosing chairmanships he wanted to provide less tenured councilors with the opportunity to run a committee. Significantly, he added that civility was a factor, explaining that "I think it's vital for the City Council to be respectful and act in a professional manner." It's apparent that the council president did not believe that standard had been met by the last council, including within the committees that shape the Council's agenda by vetting most of the issues that come before the full Council.
Although the council president said the committee appointments did not need the Council's approval, the Council voted to approve them anyway, with Councilors Connell, Morandi and Helen Moon in opposition. Ms. Moon's no vote was surprising as she was appointed chairwoman of the committee on Public Health and Safety. She declined to elaborate on why she voted against the committee lineup.
Mr. Connell said Mr. Marchetti had agreed to reconsider the committee breakdown and there could be space for a compromise. Anthony Maffuccio, a former councilor who was re-elected in Ward 7 in November, has one chairmanship and two vice chairmanships, including the vice chairmanship of Mr. Connell's cherished Public Works Committee. As Mr. Connell is a member of that committee he could perhaps be swapped into that vice chairmanship. Councilor Peter White, who has proven to be strong on public works issues, will chair the Public Works Committee.
Along with Public Works, all of Mr. Marchetti's choices for chairmanships and vice-chairmanships are sound. If generally speaking they are sympathetic to the mayor and the City Council president, so be it. The mayor and Council president are trying to build a team that will work together to advance their agenda for Pittsfield, one backed by voters in November. (Mr. Marchetti was the top Council candidate vote-getter.) It is only logical that they would want city councilors who support that agenda in key positions.
----------
January 19, 2020
Tyer/Marchetti practice retribution! It is the same old Pittsfield politics at its worst! I wish all voices of the hard hit taxpayers and citizens were heard in City Hall. But democracy doesn’t matter to Mayor Linda Tyer and City Council Prez Peter Marchetti.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: “Gratitude for Lee's dedication to Pittsfield”
The Berkshire Eagle, Late-December of 2019
To the editor:
Thank you, Gerry Lee, for your commitment to public service. You first served your country in the military and then — for all those many years — the people and city of Pittsfield.
You clearly earned your stripes as a young police officer. I know you were highly respected by District Attorney Anthony Ruberto as you were one of the first to join the district attorney's drug task force. Ultimately, you earned the long deserved position as chief of police.
Retirement for you did not end your interest in making Pittsfield a better community. Your compassion toward those less fortunate made it easy for you serve as a volunteer to a number of not-for-profit organizations.
Your willingness to serve on the City Council was a welcomed gesture by all that knew you, but then to stay on a Council gone rogue was viewed by many as a supreme sacrifice for the community you loved. Your ultimate role as president of the City Council saw you use your sharp wit, coupled with the calm of your humor, to lead a new group. This council — infused by the positive presence of three women— sought to seek solutions to the city's many challenges through reason and respectful discourse.
God bless you, Gerry Lee, for always working diligently on behalf of our great city at a time in life when many seek to quietly enjoy retirement. The people of Pittsfield, whether they know you personally or not, owe you the ultimate debt of gratitude.
I certainly do.
James M. Ruberto,
Naples, Fla.
The writer is a former mayor of Pittsfield.
----------
January 21, 2020
City Council Prez Peter Marchetti is a top down “leader” who only wants his cronies in positions of political power. He is NOT representing the voices of all Pittsfield taxpayers and citizens. I believe he is wrong.
The two political factions have both failed in Pittsfield politics. Pittsfield has lost thousands of residents to population loss, and many hundreds of living wage jobs to job loss. The tax base is always shrinking, while municipal taxes, fees, and debts are always increasing. PEDA is a +2 decades long failure. The public school system is ran for the teacher’s union instead of the students. Downtown Pittsfield is downright scary after hours, and it is known as “Social Services Alley” during business hours.
Mayor Linda Tyer should be independent of Jimmy Ruberto and Gerry Doyle’s Good Old Boys club that has run Pittsfield’s distressed local economy into the proverbial ditch.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
January 22, 2020
Sarcasm: Breaking NEWS!!!! Politics is a dirty, filthy, corrupt, etc., business full of political hacks and insiders! Money talks in City Hall and the Boston State House. Former North Adams Mayor and current State Rep. John Barrett III has received and is still receiving a lot of taxpayer-funded salaries, including from Pittsfield taxpayers via former Mayor Jimmy Ruberto, and public pensions. (More sarcasm): It never occurred to me it is because he is politically-connected and a wheeler dealer. One word: #$hakedown!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
January 23, 2020
I really do NOT understand Pittsfield politics' 2 fighting factions because they are all Democrats who answer to the same big wheels in Boston. Mayor Linda Tyer should invite her rivals and all taxpayers/residents to be heard in City Hall. She should denounce City Council Prez Peter Marchetti's retribution against Melissa Mazzeo's supporters.
Also, I believe both political factions have failed. Pittsfield has a distressed local economy with economic inequality and poverty. I do not believe Pittsfield politics wants living wage jobs because City Hall makes more money from federal dollars for social services programs. The poor people in Pittsfield have no real chance towards social mobility. The underclass in Pittsfield is being kept "barefoot and pregnant" by City Hall.J
I believe John Krol meant well for Pittsfield. He moved on to Newton. Chris Connell is looking out for Pittsfield's hard hit taxpayers. Kevin Morandi is right that Pittsfield politics' long history of retribution ultimately hurts Pittsfield's hard hit taxpayers.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
January 24, 2020
Hello "SallySays", I agree with you that Jimmy Ruberto is disingenuous to buy a $490,000 condo in Lenox last Fall of 2019 instead of buying a similar condo in Pittsfield. When Jimmy Ruberto was Mayor of Pittsfield for 8 years (2004 - 2011), he repeatedly told Pittsfield taxpayers that they had to make "sacrifices" by paying yearly high tax rates to "revitalize" Pittsfield's distressed economy. During that 8 year period of time, Pittsfield's tax base shrank with large numbers of population and job loss. Jimmy Ruberto called his multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded investments in downtown Pittsfield a "renaissance". He spent over $2 million from GE's settlement fund on the downtown culture and arts venues. He borrowed tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on North Street's makeover. He even blamed the local people when Spice restaurant and bar went bankrupt. Mayor Jim Ruberto said he had a "rolodex" full of business contacts, but I think he lost it in one of +21-year-old empty and polluted PEDA so-called business park. After Jimmy Ruberto retired from elected office as Mayor of Pittsfield, he and Gerry Doyle led the campaign supporting the Berkshire Museum's controversial sales of historic and valuable pieces of art for tens of millions of dollars. In closing, Jimmy Ruberto's sad legacy left Pittsfield with high municipal taxes, huge public debts, a shrinking tax base due to large numbers of losses in population and jobs, a dangerous downtown full of dozens of empty storefronts that is called "Social Services Alley" by day and a place most people avoid after hours, and a Berkshire Museum that is an outcast in the world of art. Sadly, Pittsfield (Mass.) is one of the most economically unequal community in the state and nation because there are no living wage jobs for the average working family. In a way, I don't blame James M. Ruberto for living in Lenox instead of Pittsfield. Even con man James Ruberto didn't believe in his own slick sales pitch to shakedown Pittsfield's taxpayers and voters!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: “Welcome chance to address city's parking mess”
The Berkshire Eagle, January 24, 2020
To the editor:
I was very glad to learn that Pittsfield was interested, after all this time, to get an evaluation of its parking meter system. ("Officials launch survey about parking in Pittsfield," Jan. 21.) It is, in one word, appalling. I'll never forget the first time I had to try to use it. I was in tears until someone came along and, together, we tried to figure out what we were supposed to do.
I have driven in many states in this country and in France and Switzerland as well, and nowhere have I encountered any system as unnecessarily complicated as the one in Pittsfield. And, I might add, the meters in Europe have to function in several different languages and all are far easier to use.
I would urge the city to review carefully the responses to their survey that they get and study the feasibility of something far less complicated to use.
Irene Bernstein-Pechm ze, Stockbridge
----------
Our Opinion: “Big-picture analysis of Pittsfield's school needs”
The Berkshire Eagle, Editorial, January 25, 2020
The economic realities that have affected Pittsfield in recent years have impacted its public schools as well, and the solutions to the latter have, to an extent, come on a piecemeal basis. For that reason, Schools Superintendent Jason McCandless' advocacy of a comprehensive assessment of how the city's 12-school system can be restructured is welcome.
School officials told the School Committee on Wednesday night that the district is now serving 5,261 students under an arrangement designed for 12,000 students. Supt. McCandless added that the population in Pittsfield and Berkshire County is likely to continue to decline, according to projections from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. "(Aging buildings, enrollment declines, central in Pittsfield schools' master planning process," Eagle, Jan. 24.)
While not doubting the validity of the BRPC's projections, The Eagle editorially has cited a number of methods, such as more aggressive marketing of the region's low housing costs and high quality of life, as well as growth of a solid base of small manufacturing, by which the city and county could stem the population decline. Many of these approaches are long term, however, and the Pittsfield school system is never going to come close to hosting 12,000 students again.
Supt. McCandless need not have been hesitant to say out loud Wednesday that "maybe eight elementary schools is too many" because that has been obvious for some time and city residents have not been reluctant to say so. The questions are, how many is the right number and how to determine which schools are closed. This process will be a painful one. Mayor Linda Tyer on Wednesday noted the disparity in facilities from neighborhood to neighborhood and acknowledged the related issue of schools appearing to be segregated by income level. This is not a situation unique to Pittsfield, as school officials around Massachusetts have expressed concern that schools are essentially becoming re-segregated, by income and also by race and ethnicity.
The superintendent said Wednesday that he would seek a consultant to evaluate the city's school buildings in terms of use of facilities, the status of buildings and structural disparities among schools. Consultants often come in for criticism, and not entirely without reason, but an objective baseline must be established for school officials to begin building a master plan. The public will also be heard from, although this is a more subjective process based, to a large degree, on parents and residents making the case for their neighborhood schools.
Whatever the eventual outcome of this process, many Pittsfield residents will be thrilled and many others will be angry. It is a necessary process, however, and one that should be comprehensive in nature. Pittsfield's educational challenges can't be addressed on the spot, as if they are broken pipes at Pittsfield High School. A plan that encompasses the big picture for the foreseeable future is the right way to go.
----------
Look Ahead, Pittsfield: “Big world problems, small city resources”
By Amanda Drane
Hey there, readers. Amanda here.
How to tackle growing problems with fewer resources? That dilemma encircles our city’s government at all times, and this week is no different.
The City Council docket this week includes final review of a contract that outlines new recycling costs, as well as fresh petitions surrounding safety concerns at Reid Middle School, homelessness and panhandling.
The council’s Tuesday meeting follows a Monday forum meant to demystify the inner workings of city government. The soldout event, called “The Big Reveal: How Pittsfield City Government Works,” features city leaders and was organized by Mill Town Capital and The Dulye Leadership Experience.
Perhaps the forum will shed light on what one councilor calls “stale government.” Ward 7 Councilor Tony Maffuccio promised during his campaign to light a fire under the city, and he is certainly stirring up some important conversations.
One of Maffuccio’s petitions pushes the city for a permanent solution to a longstanding struggle to staff the school resource officer position at Reid Middle School. But solving that problem hinges on the ability to solve another: the Pittsfield Police Department’s current patrol shortage.
Even more intractable are issues of homelessness and panhandling, and Maffuccio also has a petition for each of them, both asking for council subcommittees to explore possible solutions.
And while we’re talking about some of society’s most pressing problems, waste management stands among the most persistent for governments across the world. The recycling market took a hit in recent years as China cut back on recycled imports, and now communities in Massachusetts are feeling the effects.
Earlier this month, councilors on the Public Works Committee unanimously recommended approval of a new recycling contract that could cost the city about $178,000 in new fees over the first year alone. Now the full council will take a final look on Tuesday.
The City Council is slated during the meeting to accept another $99,000 from the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs toward an increasingly costly dam removal project on Mill Street. The new funds join the city’s contingency fund for the project, slated to cost $3.8 million.
City schools will receive backpacks filled with trauma kits this week, thanks to a grant from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. The all-hazard first-aid kits will help schools prepare for emergencies.
And there could be some shifting around of alcohol licenses this week, as Mission seeks the all-alcohol license formerly used by Lach’s Lounge, which was ordered by the city to cease alcohol service following a slew of violent incidents.
The city’s Licensing Board will also hold a show-cause hearing for Jae’s, alleged to have permitted a disturbance and made sales to patrons after hours.
Heads up
The Berkshire Community Action Council is looking to shape its work for the next three years with input from the community. The group will hold public coffee hours Friday at South Congregational Church from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., with Mayor Linda Tyer and state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, scheduled to attend.
The group’s coffee hours sessions dovetail with a survey process. You can find their community needs survey on their website.
And if you want to cast your vote in the presidential primary but haven’t been paying much attention, now might be the time to tune in. The City Council is set to approve polling locations Tuesday for the March 3 [2020] vote.
What’s up in Pittsfield? Tell me via email at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, @amandadrane on Twitter, or by phone at 413-496-6296.
----------
January 27, 2020
I will do the "Forensic Accounting Audit" for you [blogger Dan Valenti]!
Matt Kerwood's creative accounting = hundreds of millions of dollars in growing municipal debts and other liabilities on top of a decades long shrinking tax base on top of 70% of Pittsfield residents living in or near poverty, which puts a big strain on the city government's limited public financial resources. It means that Pittsfield politics's municipal finances are so constrained that its public debts and other liabilities will grow exponentially larger as time progresses into Pittsfield politics' dim financial future.
Matt Kerwood isn't doing Pittsfield taxpayers any favors! He is continuing the predictable 5% annual tax hikes, adding well over ten million dollars per fiscal year in municipal debts, and using creative accounting to pull the wool over the eyes of the hard hit Pittsfield taxpayers. It has been, is, and always will be a shakedown of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which means the special and vested interests always win at the proverbial Kapanski family's expense.
Barry Clairmont and Mayor Linda Tyer's poor financial management is mostly deferring Pittsfield's municipal costs into the future. But to be fair, they inherited a decades long mess from the prior city government's administrations. To be honest, they haven't changed things for the better!
- Jonathan Melle
-----
All facts:
Pittsfield Mayor Jimmy Ruberto (2004 –2011) raised municipal taxes by high rates, borrowed tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on North Street’s makeover, focused on tourist and cultural projects, and he spent over $2 million on the downtown arts venues from GE’s settlement fund. During Jimmy Ruberto’s 8 years as Mayor of Pittsfield, thousands of people moved out of Pittsfield due to the loss of many hundreds of living wage jobs. The tax base shrank, while the city government spent tens of millions of dollars on Ruberto’s so-called “renaissance”. During Ruberto’s 8 year tenure, PEDA went from 6 years old to 13 years old, and it always sat vacant and polluted with GE’s industrial waste toxic cancer causing chemicals called PCBs. The public school system saw hundreds of students choice out of the overpriced and underperforming Pittsfield public school system. Downtown Pittsfield’s status of “Social Services Alley” by day, and a place most people avoided for their personal safety at night, only got worse with growing rates of poverty and violent crime. Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal communities in the state and the nation because there are no living wage jobs for the average worker. The 8 year Ruberto tenure saw the special and vested interests do well, while the common family household and small business owner got screwed financially. Also, Jimmy Ruberto was cited for state ethics violations. After Jimmy Ruberto stepped down as Mayor of Pittsfield, he led the terrible propaganda campaign in support of the Berkshire Museum’s controversial selling its historic and most valuable pieces of artwork for tens of millions of dollars. Lastly, last Fall of 2019, Jimmy Ruberto purchased a $490,000 condo in Lenox instead of Pittsfield.
How can any reasonable person defend Jimmy Ruberto by saying, “At least he tried”, when he was a yet another failed so-called “leader” of Pittsfield politics sad legacy?
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: “Taxes are not only driving away seniors”
The Berkshire Eagle, January 29, 2020
To the editor:
In his oped commentary of Saturday, Jan. 25 ("A dose of Realism in Pittsfield taxes") David Pill tries to make us, the senior population of Pittsfield, feel as though we should be overjoyed to pay higher taxes for the privilege of staying in our homes.
He mentions South County towns as having higher taxes than Pittsfield, but that`s not news. He also seems to believe that installing a water meter is a problem solver. Have you priced water meters and installation lately, Mr. Pill ?
Mr. Pill assumes that anyone who leaves their home moves to another community in the Berkshires. That`s just not true, look at the exodus from Massachusetts to other, more tax friendly states, New Hampshire for one example. Not just seniors are leaving, as Mr. Pitt seems to think, many young people of working age who have completed their education, find that there is no employment here and move to states where they can find a tax-friendly environment and good career choices. The Northeast as a whole is hemorrhaging talent and they won`t be back. I have three family members who now live in other states for just that reason.
Seniors are also going to a friendly climate and a more advantageous tax situation, as well as services for seniors not offered here. In some cities in the Carolinas public transportation is readily available and free for anyone over 65. One gentleman I know has moved there and has given up his car because "I just don`t need it anymore." Here without a car you are up the proverbial creek. There are some arrangements for seniors, but public transportation is scarce for anyone of working age.
And property taxes are significantly lower than ours. How do they do it?
I believe that the City Council is trying to do its best, but the can having been kicked down the road for so long is finally coming home to roost. All the needed repairs that should have been done long ago at a much lower cost can no longer be ignored.
The recent property tax increase and re-assessment doesn`t seem to give us any more municipal services for our money, no better roads, no public transportation, really nothing more than we had at a lower tax rate and we are left looking forward to only more of the same.
Edith Mingalone, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “No reason for young to stay in city”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 1, 2020
To the editor:
I agree with Edith Mingalone in her Jan. 30 letter "Taxes are not only driving away seniors." We would all be overjoyed to stay in our own homes if we could afford them, seniors or not!
My mortgage went up $50 extra a month last month. I am a senior and thankfully I am still working full-time to budget in that extra $50 a month and I don't make a lot at my full-time job, unfortunately.
As far as our graduating seniors go, no, they will not be back to work here. There is nothing here for them to make a decent wage and pay off their college loans. I too also have a daughter who graduated back in 2002 and she has never been back.
Nancy Daly, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “Tax credit could benefit seniors”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 2, 2020
To the editor:
Many letters recently have been concerned with the level of real estate taxes in Berkshire County. If you are a low or moderate income senior (single, less than $60,000 income, married, less than $90,000 income), you may qualify for tax relief from the state when filing your income tax return.
Filing form CB may give you a refundable rebate of up to $1,130 if your real estate taxes and water and sewer bills exceed 10 percent of your income. If you do not prepare your own taxes, make sure your return preparer is aware of this state tax credit.
Blake McClenachan, Lenox
----------
Look Ahead, Pittsfield: “Financial upshot with pot, and skaters weigh in”
By Amanda Drane
Hey there, readers. Amanda here.
Sunlight keeps stretching into the evening, bringing the city’s annual budget season into reach.
In preparation, Pittsfield’s financial outlook will be front and center this week during the annual joint meeting between the City Council and School Committee, 7 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers.
Later in the week, people will get their say on skate park designs in progress during a public input meeting, 6 p.m. Thursday at the Ralph J. Froio Senior Center. Assuming the city is able to line up funding, construction could begin later this year.
The skate park initiative follows a push from skaters and BMX riders last year.
From skate park upgrades to new police stations, Pittsfield’s progress rides on cash flow. Tuesday’s meeting will offer a look at what’s coming in and what’s going out as the city prepares budget documents for the next fiscal year.
Money earned from hosting marijuana retailers should be a hot topic during the joint meeting, which includes presentations from Finance Director Matt Kerwood, and the city’s auditor, Thomas Scanlon.
The city took in $488,066 in new cannabis revenue since the fiscal year began in July, and there are more shops coming online in the months to come. Bloom Brothers, on Merrill Road, has a final license from the state and plans to open soon. Three more city stores with provisional licenses will likely follow.
Health insurance also tends to be a budgetary highlight dissected in events like these. The city spends about $24 million a year on health care.
And speaking of cannabis, residents concerned about the new industry's cultivation operations moving in next door will hold a community meeting this weekend. The Saturday event kicks off at 10:15 a.m. at the Berkshire Athenaeum.
The meeting will focus on a proposed ban on outdoor cannabis cultivation in residential neighborhoods. The measure is currently under consideration by the Community Development Board, which initially signaled a reluctance to recommend the ban's approval, but is now reviewing possible protections for neighbors.
Heads up
Berkshire County sees above-average rates of domestic violence, and the pressing issue gets a pedestal this week during an event organized by the Berkshire Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force, an initiative under the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office.
Rachel Louise Snyder, journalist and author of the book, “No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us,” will speak at the free public event, 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Colonial Theatre.
The annual Cupcake Wars, a fundraiser for the Berkshire County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is also on tap for Thursday evening. The event kicks off at 5:30 p.m. at the Berkshire Hills Country Club, and includes an Italian dinner served by UNICO, cupcake tastings and raffles.
What’s up in Pittsfield? Tell me via email at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, @amandadrane on Twitter, or by phone at 413-496-6296.
----------
February 3, 2020
Pittsfield politics accounting secret is that the municipality has hundreds of millions of public debts and other liabilities, including OPEB debts. Pittsfield's debts and other liabilities will never be paid off in our lifetimes. Matt Kerwood's figurative municipal credit card has a lot of municipal debts on it. An audit would show that Pittsfield politics has increasing taxes, increasing fees, and increasing municipal debts. The future of Pittsfield politics' finances do NOT look good! Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski should put Matt Kerwood on their proverbial dart board.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: “Is no one bothered by carousel closing?”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 3, 2020
To the editor:
It feels like eons ago that I began a journey into the world of carving — carving carousel horses for the Berkshire Carousel, to be precise. I am told that over 300 of us volunteered for the now failed project.
The volunteers remaining when the carousel closed cringed when the carousel board of directors stated one of the reasons for the closure was that the volunteers quit. Not true.
Where is the outrage? Does it not bother each person who dedicated time, talent, and money to the project to then see an abandoned building instead of a building filled with the laughter of children and adults alike? Does it not bother the contractors and business owners who donated time and materials? Does it not bother the city of Pittsfield officials who now have another building fallen silent?
And does it not bother each taxpayer whose dollars went into the $250,000 grant given to the Berkshire Carousel from the Massachusetts Cultural Council? Shouldn't the state be asking for accountability?
Why, why, why did the carousel fail? I do not have the resources to answer all the questions nor get the carousel operating again — but someone out there does.
Is it you?
Stephanie Talanian, Pittsfield
The writer was a volunteer for the Berkshire Carousel until closing day.
----------
“Pittsfield leaders cautiously optimistic about financial improvements”
By Amanda Drane, The Berkshire Eagle, February 4, 2020
Pittsfield — City coffers are filling out nicely, auditor Tom Scanlon said Tuesday during an annual meeting on the city's finances, but its ability to tax remains a point of concern.
Scanlon told members of the City Council and School Committee that increases to their stabilization accounts afford them some wiggle room when it comes to free cash spending.
Finance Director Matt Kerwood also announced the good news that the city plans to receive an additional $2.9 million in state reimbursements for schools, according to the governor's new budget.
Still, an air of caution filled the room as councilors asked about the city's tax capacity and about its ability to weather a fiscal emergency.
The city's stabilization accounts are up $117,000 over last year's review, Scanlon said, which he said was promising. Some $48,000 of that is from new marijuana revenue, he told city leaders.
The city now has $10.1 million in reserves, or about 6.7 percent of the city's annual budget. Scanlon typically recommends that cities have between six and 10 percent of their annual budgets in their reserve accounts.
Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi asked Scanlon how common it is for communities to use free cash to offset tax rates, and Scanlon said it's quite common. "You're not alone," he said.
Still, Scanlon said it's important to show the city can build reserves before dipping into free cash to reduce tax rates. Because the city's reserve accounts are on the rise now, the city is on more solid ground to use free cash toward expenses.
"I just think you're in a better position now," Scanlon told Morandi. "You're starting to build your stabilization. You're in a lot better place to do that than you were four to five years ago."
Kerwood said he falls more on the conservative side, and would like to see more years of reserve growth before spending free cash freely.
Ward 3 Councilor Nick Caccamo asked Scanlon about the city's proximity to its levy ceiling, and how good councilors should feel about improvements.
"Are we too close to the edge? Can we flex a little bit?"
The city's levy limit for fiscal year 2021 is $95,932,159, and the ceiling is $93,959,495, according to figures in the city's presentation.
"You are at the edge," Scanlon said. "I think it has to be more substantial."
Property values continue to rise, Kerwood said, but the city is against the wall when it comes to tax capacity.
"Unfortunately, I just don't see us coming out from underneath the levy ceiling in the near future," he said.
In the annual audits he does around the state, Scanlon said he stresses the importance of planning for future financial liabilities associated with pension and other post-employment benefits, known as "OPEB." The city should keep careful track of the number of retirees on its rolls each year, he said.
"If they're growing, you've got an OPEB issue," he said.
Scanlon also said he'd like to see the city do more to collect back taxes.
"That is free cash sitting there in uncollected tax title," he said.
Scanlon praised the city's review of invoices. The city's accounting in that regard stands "easily top five" among the scores of municipal audits he does each year, he said.
"There are good controls over key accounts," he said.
To that point, Councilor at Large Earl Persip III said there's "chatter out there" in the community about the need for a forensic audit of the city's accounts. Scanlon said that kind of audit is usually only done for cases of suspected embezzlement.
"There's a time and place for forensic audits," Scanlon said. "I don't see that here."
Kerwood said that accounts trending high include those for overtime for police and fire personnel, workers' compensation and retiree benefits. The city is budgeting for a five percent increase in health insurance costs, he said.
And as far as operational considerations, Kerwood said it's all about "infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure" in the budgetary forecasting. Among those infrastructure obligations, he noted school buildings and road work.
"Along with that comes the debt associated with maintaining that infrastructure," he said.
Departmental budgets must be submitted to Mayor Linda Tyer by Feb. 15, he said. The mayor hands the budget over to the City Council each year in May for review.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, @amandadrane on Twitter, and 413-496-6296.
related link: https://www.iberkshires.com/story/61621/Pittsfield-Officials-See-Budget-Overview-.html
----------
Letter: “Road treatment unacceptable after small snowfall”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 10, 2020
To the editor:
I cannot believe that during the Feb. 6 storm, being of small nature, plows and or salt/sand city trucks were unable to get to side streets, which were many, until 14 hours after the snow stopped.
Streets were solid ice, with no attempt to clear them. This is unacceptable. It looked like whoever is in charge had no clue on how to handle movement of city vehicles or contractors.
With a mild winter, I don't want to hear about the budget being depleted. Maybe the mayor could get off her duff and check things out during storms to see what is actually happening or not, instead of relying on others to give bad information. The only good thing was that potholes were filled with ice.
It's not rocket science to have a logistical plan. I have lived in snowbelts for many years with no problems. Even with multiple feet, snowfall was taken care rather timely manner.
Politicians should stop worrying about raising taxes and solve problems at hand.
Maggie Smith, Pittsfield
----------
BREAKING NEWS ALERT: Wayfair lays off 550 employees, including 350 in Boston
The Boston Globe, February 13, 2020
Wayfair, the city’s fastest growing tech company, announced on Thursday that it was laying off 550 employees worldwide, saying it “recognized a critical need to more efficiently align our teams with the business priorities that most directly and significantly impact our customers.”
The e-mail to employees, obtained by the Globe, speaks of Wayfair’s need to “tighten our focus and increase efficiencies.” The company said it was laying off 350 people in its Boston headquarters, and a total of three percent of its global workforce.
-----
The fast-growing online retailer Wayfair Inc. landed $31 million in tax incentives from the state Thursday [Dec 13, 2018] to help the company add thousands of jobs in Boston and hundreds in Pittsfield. The Economic Assistance Coordinating Council approved a plan to dole out the incentives to the home-goods seller over 10 years.
The Economic Assistance Coordinating Council approved a plan to dole out the incentives to the home-goods seller over 10 years. In return, Wayfair pledged to add a total of 3,300 jobs.
A spokeswoman for the council said this is the state’s second-biggest tax-credit award since 2010.
The average annual salary for the Pittsfield jobs would be $37,000, according to documents filed with the state, compared with $120,000 for the Boston jobs tied to the incentive package.
Of the $31.4 million in tax credits that Wayfair is on track to get over 10 years, $10.3 million is deemed “refundable” and will be essentially reimbursed as cash. The rest can be counted against the company’s corporate tax liability with the state. If Wayfair fails to meet its hiring goals, it would risk being decertified by the state, which would cut off future tax benefits. These credits generally ramp up over time, though, starting with just $250,000 in 2019 and growing to $5.1 million in 2029.
Source: “State gives Wayfair $31 million in tax breaks for 3,300 jobs in Boston and Pittsfield”
By Jon Chesto, Boston Globe Staff, December 13, 2018
----------
“Wayfair announces hundreds of layoffs, but none in Pittsfield”
By Tony Dobrowolski, The Berkshire Eagle, February 14, 2020
Boston — Wayfair announced Thursday that it is laying off 550 employees, but none of those workers is based at the company's sales and service center in Pittsfield that opened in October.
"The changes do not impact our customer service team or plans in Pittsfield," Wayfair spokeswoman Molly Delaney said in a statement.
Of those 550 employees, 350 are based in Boston, where Wayfair is headquartered. The online seller of home furnishings employs 6,000 workers at its Boston office in Copley Square and 17,000 worldwide.
The organizational changes announced Thursday affect about 3 percent of Wayfair's global workforce, Delaney said.
"To position the organization to take advantage of the opportunity ahead, we continually evaluate the needs of the business and work to increase efficiencies while aligning our teams with the initiatives that drive the greatest impact for our customers," Delaney said.
"We are continuing to hire for the many roles needed to drive our long-term success and the continued growth of the business. We remain as confident as ever in Wayfair's future and our steadfast focus on delighting our customers with the best experience for home."
An email to employees that was obtained by The Boston Globe cited Wayfair's need to "tighten our focus and increase efficiencies."
Wayfair's co-founder, CEO Niraj Shah, was born in Pittsfield, grew up in the city and graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1991. He co-founded the company in 2002.
In December 2018, Wayfair announced that it planned to open a sales and service center in Pittsfield that would bring 300 jobs to the Berkshires within three years. The establishment of the local sales and service center is part of a larger company initiative that was expected to bring 3,000 additional jobs to Boston. Wayfair received a $31.4 million tax break from the Massachusetts Economic Coordinating Council, one of the largest tax breaks ever awarded by the council, to execute the entire initiative.
----------
February 13, 2020
I have a Master of Public Administration degree from U Mass Amherst, I learned that the most valuable resource in a community is the people who live there. That is because the local residents pay taxes, shop at local businesses, and invest their hard earned money into their property. Without the local people, the municipal tax base shrinks, the small businesses close and move elsewhere, and the personal property becomes blighted.
Pittsfield politics does everything but invest in the people who live in Pittsfield, Massachusetts! Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski always get the shaft with high taxes and fees, and huge public debts/liabilities, and their voices are systematically shut out of City Hall by a one party political machine that rivals Communist China's authoritarian regime. If you speak out about how out of town millionaires get millions of dollars in tax breaks, you will lose your job in Pittsfield in "a New York minute". If you complain about being blacklisted, they will spread nasty and vicious rumors against you and your family. That is what happened to me and my family for the past nearly 24 years of my +44.5 year old life.
In closing, Pittsfield politics always and systematically screws over their most valuable resource, which is the local people, through retribution and fear. Only the ruling elite, who are called the "Good Old Boys", and their vested and special interests win in Pittsfield, while the people, who are called the Kapanski family, always lose!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
2/16/2020
On 2/16/2020, The Berkshire Eagle's city reporter Amanda Drane wrote: "Mayor Linda Tyer will also announce the launch of a new economic development initiative this week. Her office plans to provide more information at 11 a.m. Tuesday [2/18] in council chambers."
I wonder if the lovely Linda Tyer's new economic development initiative will include lowering municipal taxes, fees, and debts/liabilities? Mark Tully recently wrote on Dan Valenti's awesome blog that Pittsfield (Massachusetts) has the 2nd highest commercial or business tax rate in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Pittsfield also has hundred of millions of dollars in municipal public debts/liabilities. Pittsfield also has a shrinking population/tax base where hundreds of living wage jobs have been lost over the past 2 decades. Somehow, the vested (Big 3 public workers' unions) and special (out-of-town millionaires) interests always win, while Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski's family always loses in Pittsfield politics. It is Robin Hood in reverse for the hard-hit working class Pittsfield taxpayers.
Matt Kerwood has $10.1 million in his slush fund account in City Hall. Yet, he still uses "creative accounting" and his long-time friend Scanlon as his recurring municipal auditor. I could do the same thing as Matt Kerwood! I could overtax the Kapanski family, and put their excess tax dollars into a slush fund, too.
Then you have Pittsfield Economic Development Authority (PEDA) business park, which sits polluted and empty for over 2 decades now. How much longer will PEDA stay fiscally solvent? Then what happens to PEDA as the 2020's decade progresses forward in time?
Then you have the EPA and GE settlement last Monday, 2/10/2020. It was based on a false promise because there is no financial commitments from GE to pay for the expensive cleanup projects that will take years to complete and hundreds of millions of dollars in payments. Worst of all, Lee (Massachusetts) will get an industrial toxic waste dump.
Would you trust GE after it has committed tens of billions of U.S. Dollars in accounting fraud since 1995, which is being investigated by the SEC, to agree to an empty promise to cleanup the Housatonic River of PCBs chemicals without making a financial commitment as to how much money they will pay for the project? Moreover, GE has tens of billions of dollars in toxic debts it cannot sell off or possibly pay for. What if GE files for bankruptcy in the middle of the cleanup project? Who will pay for the remaining cleanup then?
In closing, Pittsfield/Berkshire County has gotten screwed over by both Pittsfield politics and the General Electric company!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: “Tough but not impossible to make carousel sustainable”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 16, 2020
To the editor,
Regarding recent and past letters concerning the Berkshire Carousel, I, too, am dismayed at the demise of the carousel. As a former volunteer/carver, I am especially upset for those artists who donated time and work (horses, painted panels, painted benches and inscribed walkway bricks) to commemorate loved ones that are now inaccessible to share with family and friends.
As to the carousel on The Common or other locations — that ship has sailed, that train has left the station, that horse is long gone from the barn. The present location, a few blocks form The Berkshire Museum, The Colonial and the Berkshire Athenaeum is fine.
The property can be improved with a paved parking lot, spruced up landscaping and a small playground as an added attraction.
It is time to focus on the future of the carousel and stop worrying about the past. The assets of the carousel are the property, the building and the carousel, as well as other sundries. Much money has been spent by the state, donors and local businesses to get to this point.
Since the present board of directors has indicated it is no longer interested in operating the carousel, when a viable group comes forward to take up the challenge, the board can help with the transition by welcoming an all new board of directors.
The all new board would need an updated business plan with ongoing fundraising and grant-writing. They would need to find a new director of operations. It would need to cultivate a new group of volunteers as dedicated and enthusiastic as the group that "built" the carousel. To facilitate the transition, the present board of directors would need to clear up any outstanding debt and waive the $1.22 million mortgage granted to the Shulmans in 2018. A clean slate is needed.
From checking out other operating carousels, it is obvious that it cannot survive on the money from riders alone. New programming, co-programing with other venues and continual fundraising and grant-writing are essential.
As a gesture of long-term commitment to the community, the cost to ride needs to be $1 or less.
None of this is necessarily easy, but it happened before and it can happen again!
Frank Ringwood, Pittsfield
----------
19-February-2020
I wonder how someone may "fit the culture of our organization" in Pittsfield politics? Do they call Pittsfield a "vibrant and dynamic" community that is still full of PCBs, a +2 decade old polluted and empty PEDA business park, no living wage jobs, political hacks, and high taxes, fees, and municipal debts (with $10.1 million in Matt Kerwood's City Hall slush fund)?
"Is Pittsfield safe?" The answer is "NO!" * Based on FBI crime data, Pittsfield is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Massachusetts, Pittsfield has a crime rate that is higher than 98% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes. Pittsfield has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes *
Do they live in a upper class home in a gated community? After reading that dangerous downtown Pittsfield has a very high crime rate, I would live in a gated community, too, if I could afford it!
- Jonathan Melle
A mass shooting in 2015, many other shootings, murders, and violent crimes, 2 dozen empty storefronts, “Social Services Alley”, drugs, gangs, prostitution, innocent people getting assaulted and mugged,…North Street is a scary place!
- Jonathan Melle
Two violent incidents — including a mass shooting — occurred in the span of a month in Pittsfield last summer [2015]. On the night of July 4, [2015], a mass shooting occurred on Linden Street in Pittsfield, injuring four and killing Ronald Pinel, 25, of Pittsfield. No arrests have been made in the case, and what sparked the dispute remains a mystery. The Pittsfield case is classified as one of the country's 353 mass shooting incidents to date in 2015.
Source: “Here are Berkshire County's top stories of 2015”, By Tony Dobrowolski, The Berkshire Eagle, December 26, 2015.
PUBLIC SAFETY ALERT!
Stay off of:
North Street
Tyler Street
Lincoln Street
First Street
Second Street
Linden Street
Dewey Avenue
Cherry Street
Burbank Street
Kent Avenue
Madison Avenue
And Seymour Street
And you might survive.
----------
new web-site: https://businesspittsfield.com/
“New website markets Pittsfield's business strengths”
By Amanda Drane, The Berkshire Eagle, February 18, 2020
Pittsfield — The city and its economic development partners launched a new website Tuesday as a way to market Pittsfield's business assets.
"Pittsfield wants your business," the site's homepage says.
The website, businesspittsfield.com, was unveiled by Mayor Linda Tyer, Business Development Manager Michael Coakley and leaders of the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority and the Pittsfield Economic Revitalization Corporation during a news conference in council chambers.
"Pittsfield is really knocking it out of the park, and right now we're just rounding second base," Tyer told the room, packed with public officials and business leaders.
The website provides a platform for the city to show the world what it has to offer its businesses.
The city is at a turning point, Tyer said. She said the moment came because the city and its partners decided not to wait around any longer for businesses to come to them.
"We decided, our partners and I, that we were going to take control of our own destiny," she said.
The city and its partners contracted Roger Matus, owner of the marketing firm Business Growth Catalyst, to design the site. The work started about six months ago; the city kicked in $5,000, Coakley said, and PEDA and PERC covered the rest.
"Our story — the Pittsfield story — it's a powerful story," Tyer said. "We have highly successful businesses that thrive right here in our city."
Christina Wynn, vice chair of PEDA, said while standing at a podium beneath the new website's projection that this is a milestone for those looking to promote Pittsfield.
"What you're seeing now above my head is another step forward as you think about business in the city," she said.
The site offers step-by-step guidance for those looking to start, grow, locate and explore new business opportunities in Pittsfield. Matus said "it's more than a website."
"It's an online mentoring tool; it's a mirror and it's a guide."
Jay Anderson, president of the PERC, which offers grants and mentorship to city businesses, said the city is reaching a critical mass of economic development energy.
"I think that we're at a point where we can actually tip the scales in our favor," he said.
The new site informs existing and potential businesses about grants available to help city business get off the ground. The site also showcases businesses that have been given a leg up from either the city, PEDA or the PERC.
Alfred Enchill, of Elegant Stitches, said he used one such grant to launch a design-your-own-garment function on his website. He said he saw 25 percent growth within one year. Kacey Boos, of Shire Acupuncture, said she realized that in order to have a job in acupuncture and live in Berkshire County, she'd have to start a firm. So she did, with help from PERC.
Steve Oakes, a downtown developer, said he's seeing an influx of new tenants from out of town. The site will only help that along, he said, and it's all "a very positive calling card for the city."
Chris Kapiloff, of LTI Smart Glass, said the city's government does what every local government should do: "take a step to the left and be out of the way so we can do what entrepreneurs do."
He recalled needing a transformer at one point, and fearing that getting all the paperwork done would take a long time.
"We accomplished literally in 90 minutes what I expected was going to be done in six months," he said.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, @amandadrane on Twitter, and 413-496-6296.
Auric Enchill and his father, Alfred Enchill, of Elegant Stitches speak at a launch event Tuesday [18-Feb-2020] for the rollout of the City of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
City of Pittsfield Business Development Manager Michael Coakley speaks at a launch event for the rollout of the City of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
Mayor Linda Tyer speaks at a launch event Tuesday for the rollout of the city of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
Community Development Specialist Laura Mick is thanked at a launch event Tuesday for the rollout of the City of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
Shire Acupuncture owner Kacey Boos speaks at a launch event Tuesday for the rollout of the city of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
Chris Kapiloff of LTI Smart Glass speaks at a launch event Tuesday for the rollout of the City of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
Roger Matus of Business Growth Catalyst, who designed the City of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" website, speaks at a launch event Tuesday for the online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
Nick Martinelli, owner of Marty's Local, speaks at a launch event Tuesday for the rollout of the City of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
Downtown property owner Steve Oakes speaks at a launch event Tuesday for the rollout of the City of Pittsfield's "Business Pittsfield" online resource for businesses looking to relocate to the city. credit: Stephanie Zollshan - The Berkshire Eagle
----------
February 21, 2020
It doesn't matter who is the Mayor of Pittsfield politics. It is sad that the lovely Linda Tyer isn't changing things in City Hall. It is more of the same! High municipal taxes (that go up by 5% per fiscal year), fee hikes, and hundreds of millions of U.S. Dollars in public debts/liabilities, a +2 decades old empty and polluted PEDA business park, decades of population and job loss, a shrinking tax base, Hill 78 full of PCBs chemicals abutting Allendale Elementary School, Level 5 under-performing public schools that are way overpriced because of the corrupt school union bosses, around 600 students per academic year who choice out of Pittsfield's failing public school system to neighboring communities, generous tax breaks for out-of-town millionaires, a dangerous downtown Pittsfield called "Social Services Alley" that is full of 2 dozen empty storefronts, severe economic inequality, high per capita welfare caseloads, a recurring yearly teen pregnancy rate that doubles the statewide average, an over-reliance on social services tax revenues that I call "perverse incentives", ineffective and out-of-touch, do-nothing Democratic Party political hacks who make things worse for Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, and generations of Good Old Boys whose grown kids are always in positions of political power to the detriment of grassroots democracy. The lovely Linda Tyer is just another Pittsfield politician who is running Pittsfield further into the proverbial ditch!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
February 21, 2020
I just hope Donald Trump is voted out of the Oval Office in 2020. I don’t care if it is Michael Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, or Tulsi Gabbard.
As for the lovely Linda Tyer, I believe “the culture of the organization” is the same old corrupt Pittsfield politics use of retribution, intimidation, fear, insiders and political hacks, fiscal shell games and creative accounting, and Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski always getting the proverbial shaft. As I have long said, Pittsfield politics is always totally predictable no matter who is the Mayor. Pittsfield politics will never change for the better!
Trump has +$1 trillion annual federal budget deficits. Trump declared business bankruptcy multiple times, and now he bankrupting the federal government. GDP growth is around 2%. If the economy tanks in the future, we are all screwed by Trump’s financial policies that gave most of the money to wealthy corporations. Things only look good on the surface, but the rest of the proverbial iceberg is not going well. However, I don’t know if a future Democratic Party U.S. Prez will be successful. We all maybe screwed either way. I hope not.
Sarcasm:
Thank you for the dressing down! I guess I deserve it because disabled Veterans like me should be second class citizens along with all of the other "welfare rats". Trump's cruel policies should feed people like me to the wolves. If Trump takes away my federal disability benefits, I could live on a sidewalk on the corner of First and Fenn Street in my native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. I could shit on the pavement, too. I deserve to be humiliated for opposing the ultimate moral hypocrite that ever lived named Donald Trump.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Look Ahead, Pittsfield: “BIC grand opening, downtown brewery plans highlight city’s economic development push”
By Amanda Drane, The Berkshire Eagle, February 23, 2020
Hey there, readers. It’s a big week.
The much-anticipated Berkshire Innovation Center opens this week to much fanfare.
The grand opening ceremony for the public-private partnership on Friday will cap a week colored by Pittsfield’s economic development push.
Earlier in the week, Mayor Linda Tyer will request that the City Council approve $150,000 from the City Economic Development Fund to support a new brewery and taproom planned for the former J. Allen’s space at 41 North St. Restaurateurs behind the new venture own 51 Park St. in Lee, and now plan to invest $1.7 million into the downtown Pittsfield space, creating 30 full-time jobs. The city’s investment would subsidize the purchase of brewery equipment.
The mayor’s request for economic development funds comes as the city looks forward to an $8 million boost to the fund as part of a new Housatonic River cleanup agreement with General Electric Co. The deal between town leaders and the manufacturing giant continues to make waves among residents opposed to plans to install a PCB landfill in Lee.
The BIC also finds a home in GE’s shadow. The $13.8 million business development and equipment center opens Friday at the William Stanley Business Park, where GE’s former headquarters once stood.
An aerospace testing chamber is slated to be the center’s first tenant.
The innovation hub’s mission is to help post-industrial Pittsfield gain a firmer foothold in the advanced manufacturing industry. Mill Town Capital will serve as an onsite venture capital partner.
Top state officials will be in town Friday to mark the BIC’s grand opening, as well as announce other initiatives aimed at helping Pittsfield, like one about funding for housing rehabilitation through the state’s Gateway Cities program.
School safety, public auction and ‘last drink’ report
In addition to the economic development funds, the City Council will also consider a petition this week to replace the school resource officer at Reid Middle School, which has gone without a permanent school resource officer for the better part of two years. The position fell vacant through a series of staffing issues at the Pittsfield Police Department.
Despite a city policy to staff the position — an officer each is assigned permanently to the city’s other middle school, Herberg Middle School, as well as its two high schools — the push for a permanent replacement at Reid sparked some debate over whether the city should have school resource officers at all.
Tyer also has two items on the agenda that clear the way for a public auction of some of the city’s surplus properties.
The School Committee will take an initial walk through its proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Wednesday, and on Monday the Licensing Board will review the place of last drink report from last spring and summer. These reports keep tabs on where people are getting their last drinks before police officers arrest them on drunken driving charges.
Heads up
Regarding plans for Community Development Block Grant spending for the next five years, there will be a public input session 5:30 p.m. Monday at Conte Community School.
Methuselah Bar and Lounge will host an entrepreneurial meetup from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
What’s up in Pittsfield? Tell me via email at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, @amandadrane on Twitter, or by phone at 413-496-6296.
----------
Letter: “Many questions about pot farm recommendation”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 24, 2020
To the editor:
After reading both the article on the Community Development Board's decision allowing marijuana to be grown in residential neighborhoods ("Pittsfield board: City Council shouldn't ban outdoor pot in neighborhoods, Feb. 19) and your paper's editorial endorsing that decision ("Pittsfield board makes right call on pot farming," Feb. 21), I have several questions.
Where exactly was Elizabeth Herland's research conducted? Was it at an outdoor growing site? If yes, then was it during the plant's flowering season? Was this location close to a residential area? How was the crop protected? Was any odor detected? What were her facts on how far that odor can travel? How does one mitigate an odor emanating from over two open acres of plants? These important details were not noted in The Eagle's coverage of the board's meeting. Were they in the letter Ms. Herland presented at that time?
As for the editorial comment that these plants are odorous only for the eight weeks they are in flower, which eight weeks do you believe those would be here in Pittsfield? When else? In summer, when residents enjoy outdoor living the most.
I am not a scientist, nor do I live near the proposed site. I am not anti-marijuana, and I absolutely do not want small farms to fail. But I am also a lifelong resident of Pittsfield and have witnessed many shortsighted decisions made by well-intentioned people, from the demolition of Union Station to the installation of user-unfriendly parking meters downtown and the disastrous placement of the beautiful carousel.
Cannabis isn't corn. This is a crop with a unique set of issues. I hope the City Council will allow time for thorough research into these issues before any final vote takes place.
Chris Adams, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “PHS can was kicked too far down road”
The Berkshire Eagle, February 27, 2020
To the editor:
The problems at Pittsfield High School did not occur overnight. According to the article in Tuesday's Berkshire Eagle ("Pervasive heating issues disrupt learning at Pittsfield High School") and Wednesday's editorial ("PHS infrastrcutre at crisis stage,"), there have been ongoing issues over at least three mayoral administrations. The people who were opposed to the solution proposed by the Ruberto administration (closing PHS in favor of one new high school) are equally culpable. Some of them could have suggested alternative solutions and maybe some did but were ignored.
Pittsfield has a habit of kicking the can down the road. It is great for people in office at the moment, but eventually those holding the reins of government have to deal with the issues. It never becomes easier or less expensive, as we see today.
The PHS problem, according to the story, would require the school to be shut down for a year and that is impossible. Really? When the first Taconic was being built PHS went to double classes: one set of students, freshmen and sophomores, in the morning, and juniors and seniors in the afternoon. Why couldn't that be done using the new Taconic for a year and possibly two?
My husband started his teaching career at Pittsfield High during the double session years. Is this not a possible solution to the problem?
Barbara Roberts, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “BIC is an eyesore”
The Berkshire Eagle, March 2, 2020
To the editor:
If that monstrosity of a so-called Berkshire Innovation Center is the best that local architects and engineers can come up with, then we are in serious trouble.
The building is truly one of the ugliest I have ever seen. I can't quite decide what it resembles: one long cracker box on top of another or a slithering monster with a wide open mouth.
No matter, it is ugly urban blight. I would be embarrassed to bring in a visiting business person and point out that "innovative" building to him.
Gary Crippa, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “No corporate welfare for planned brewery”
The Berkshire Eagle, March 3, 2020
To the editor:
I am writing in opposition to the city giving any new business money to open. Our roads are atrocious, we have a high school that had to suspend classes due to overheating (in the winter), our taxes keep rising. When is the city going to stop subsidizing these businesses?
The owner of the downtown property to host a new downtown brewery and taproom says he will spend $1.7 million in the space ("Pittsfield brewery plans pass first hurdle," Eagle, March 3), and I say if he has that kind of money to spend it makes no sense for the city of Pittsfield, with all of its woes, to be giving the new owner $150,000. This is just more corporate welfare. It's bad enough our state gave tax breaks to Wayfair which has never shown a profit (how this was not a red flag is beyond me), and is now cutting jobs.
There are businesses that open every year in Pittsfield and they aren't given money or tax breaks. Let the businesses rise or fall on their own merits with their own money.
Patty Eksuzian, Pittsfield
----------
March 9, 2020
The stock market is tanking, the federal government is running trillion dollar deficits with the false promise of GDP growth, Bernie is promising a revolution, like Bernie, Joe Biden would be the 1st Prez in his 80's (with dementia), and billionaire Trump wants to cut the social safety net. Where is all of this bad and weird news taking us as a country?
The lovely Linda will begin her FY2021 municipal budget this Thursday. Be ready to "assume the position" so City Hall can re-open your wallets to legally steal your hard-earned money. Pittsfield politics will add to Matt Kerwood's $10.1 million slush fund, while Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski will sign their financial souls over to Kufflink's creative accounting spreadsheets.
Lastly, if someone offered me $1 million to walk up and own North Street during after hours, I would ask for armed body guards to accompany me. Otherwise, I wouldn't make it in one piece. They don't call it "dangerous downtown Pittsfield" for nothing!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
March 15, 2020
While blogger Dan Valenti did a good deed and public service for Pittsfield/Berkshire County concerning alerting Governor Charlie Baker to the Corona Virus (Covid 19) crisis, I disagree with his sentiments against the Lovely Linda Tyer that she is a failed Mayor of Pittsfield. She is no worse than the Gerry Doyle debacle, the Sara Hathaway hack, the Jimmy Ruberto regime, and the Dan Bianchi bust! Pittsfield is an economically distressed and hard hit post industrial northeast municipality. What do you expect from Mayor Linda Tyer? Is she supposed to be a miracle worker who will change Pittsfield politics from a group of vindictive, provincial, insider, incestuous (interrelated) one (Democratic) party political hacks into a model grassroots and honest system of state and local government? This is Pittsfield! It will always be Pittsfield no matter who is the city government's Mayor! I was born and raised in Pittsfield (Mass.). Do you not think I don't get frustrated by all of the bad news and the ongoing corruption in Pittsfield politics? It is heartbreaking, but totally predictable. Pittsfield has a self-defeating attitude that is ingrained in its residents, including me. Instead of believing in and investing it its people, Pittsfield wrings its hands in schadenfreude when you lose. I believe Pittsfield uses "perverse incentives" to profit off of the misery of the poor, near poor, and working poor, who are collectively a majority of Pittsfield's declining population. I understand that many people with good intentions tried to help Pittsfield over the past decades, only to be shot down over and over again. I learned in graduate school at U Mass Amherst that gateway communities like Pittsfield don't want to change or reform for the better of society. Rather, the state and local ruling elites, along with the vested and special interests want Pittsfield to have severe socioeconomic struggles so they can maintain the iron grip on political power over the disadvantaged citizenry. I lived with my grandparents in North Adams from July 1, 1997 - August 31, 1998, and I heard the people say that the high school students were told not to go to college. I was surprised, but then again, North Adams is the poorest and most violent community in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. My native hometown of Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal communities in the state and nation because there are no living wage jobs available to the average worker. Most of Berkshire County's youth have to leave the region out of economic necessity if the want to earn a middle class living. For decades now, Berkshire County has led the entire state in population and job loss. In closing, blogger Dan Valenti, it is clear that Pittsfield's economic demise is not the sole fault of Mayor Linda Tyer.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
March 16, 2020
Re: Scary Pittsfield has burned me too many times for me to go back there
I enjoyed growing up in Pittsfield until I was 20-years-old in the Spring of 1996 when my dad began his political campaign for Berkshire County Commissioner. Ever since then, scary Pittsfield has burned me over and over again. Yet, posters on Dan Valenti’s awesome blog sarcastically write that I should go back there.
After my dad entered Pittsfield politics, I have been a target of conspiratorial bullying (by the conspiratorial Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. political network without Nuciforo leaving behind his own fingerprints/DNA), threats (by Nuciforo’s network of bullying henchmen), an attempt to have me jailed (by Nuciforo), blacklisted from employment (by Nuciforo), vicious rumors (from the Nuciforo network), and watching my dad get mistreated and have multiple state “ethics” complaints filed against him as a vindictive act of political retribution (by Nuciforo). I have real enemies in Pittsfield who want to ruin my life beyond the trauma and damage they already inflicted on me and my dad.
Since I left Pittsfield in the late-winter/early-spring of 2004 to live with my family in southern New Hampshire, I have read online news articles showing Pittsfield going from really bad to even worse than ever! Thousands of people and many hundreds of living wage jobs have been lost in Pittsfield, while municipal taxes, fees, and debts have shot up to unsustainable levels. I read that Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal communities in the state and nation because so many local residents are unable to find work in living wage jobs because there are no living wage jobs left in Pittsfield. Mark Tully wrote an essay explaining that Pittsfield’s long shrinking tax base has the second highest commercial or business municipal tax rates in the entire state (of Massachusetts).
Downtown Pittsfield is called “Social Services Alley” by day, and “dangerous downtown Pittsfield” by night. There are two dozen empty storefronts on North Street. The tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that paid for Pittsfield’s so-called “Ruberto renaissance” spent on downtown Pittsfield’s cultural and arts venues did not produce favorable economic results for the city. Pittsfield is still on Mayor Jimmy Ruberto’s high spending binge today, which is 16 years later. Matt Kerwood’s creative accounting and $10.1 million slush fund is questioned by Pittsfield’s hard hit taxpayers. Mayor Linda Tyer has not changed Pittsfield politics, or its troubled municipal finances with hundreds of millions of dollars in public debts and other liabilities.
Pittsfield once again signed onto the horrible settlement between GE and the EPA like it did 20 years ago. Mayor Gerry Doyle was wrong then, and Mayor Linda Tyer is wrong again now. Most of GE’s industrial cancer causing chemicals (PCBs) were capped in leaky landfills. It is common knowledge that caps are not effective after a period of time ranging from 20 to 30 years. Caps must be monitored from day 1. Once caps become defective, the PCBs continue to spread in the land, water and air. Lee (Mass.) doesn’t want to have a toxic waste dump that will only be effective for a finite period of time. It is unconscionable that Hill 78 abuts Allendale Elementary School.
In closing, Pittsfield is like a dystopian novel where the nightmare gets worse and worse by the minute. Pittsfield politics will never change for the better, and I believe they either don’t want reforms, or they simply don’t care. As long as the ruling elite who serves vested and special interests instead of the people and hard hit municipal taxpayers, a person like me will get burned over and over again whether it means I am jobless, homeless, conspiratorially bullied, threatened, jailed, a target of vicious rumors, being exposed to Pittsfield’s toxic politics and PCBs chemicals, and/or watching one of my family members get mistreated for participating in Pittsfield politics, then Pittsfield will always go on with its inequitable shakedown operation.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: “Needless expenses hitting Pittsfield”
The Berkshire Eagle, March 17, 2020
To the editor:
The city elections are over and it is time to start looking ahead at catastrophic water and sewer rates which will price some residents right out of their houses.
My fellow tax and ratepayers, you must cover $64 million at the sewer plant and soon you will see yourself hit by another $90 million for upgrades to the city's water plants. Although the project's cost has been reduced by $10 million your rates will still be high. I tried to get the mayor and City Council to listen to a $20 million solution but my effort fell on deaf ears. I was the former worldwide director of technical marketing for Krafts Engineering, Krofta Waters Inc. and adjunct professor of chemical, biological and environmental engineering, Lenox Institute of Research and co-inventor designer and builder of the city's two Krofta drinking water plants at the Cleveland and Ashley reservoirs in the 1980s.
I can only hope that the mayor and city councilors seek out technically educated individuals so they do not make the same decisions as the city's consultants.
The city has been warned that the mayor and City Council majority will drain your pocketbooks. God save Pittsfield and I will see you on PCTV in the "Gaetani-Pittsfield News Hour."
Craig Gaetani, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “City urges citizens to join necessary effort”
The Berkshire Eagle, March 17, 2020
To the editor:
As representatives of the public health and medical communities we are writing to the residents of Pittsfield and the general Berkshire County community to pledge our commitment to ensuring optimum management of all health-related aspects of the current coronavirus pandemic. The various organizations in the county including Berkshire Medical Center and the local departments and boards of health are working round-the-clock to assess and test those at greatest risk of contracting the infection, quarantining and isolating persons when appropriate, and supporting those persons on a daily basis. For general information and questions about screening, people can call the toll free BMC COVID-19 Nurse Line, 7 a.m.- 7 p.m,, at 855-BMC-LINK (855-262-5465).
Gov. Baker has taken bold and necessary steps to keep the citizens of Massachusetts safe and we are dedicated to carrying out those mandates. It cannot be overstated that it is every citizen's responsibility to follow the rules of personal hygiene including covering sneezes and coughs, no handshaking, disposing of tissues, cleaning common surfaces as well as observing the rules of social distancing including maintaining separation in public of at least 6 feet and minimizing clustering of people. Every one of these measures contributes to and is necessary in reducing the spread of infection.
It is understandable that people can experience stress from the scope and seriousness of current events but taking care of yourself, your friends, and your family can help you cope with stress. Helping others cope with their stress can also make our community stronger. It is every person's responsibility to reduce the risk to our most vulnerable citizens and every gesture of reaching out to help our neighbors in need makes a big difference. Now is the time for all of our citizens to be compassionate, be strong, share our common generosity, and do what needs to be done to get through the challenges we will face. It can be done and will be done.
Gina Armstrong,
Alan G. Kulberg, M.D.
Gina Armstrong is director of the Pittsfield Health Department. Alan G. Kulberg, M.D., is chairman of the Pittsfield Board of Health.
----------
March 17, 2020
Hello Pat[rick Fennell],
I agree with your sentiments about retail stores that take advantage of shoppers during this tragic COVID-19 crisis. I would add to your list all of the self-serving and greedy politicians who shakedown us taxpayers while our elected officials take home their lucrative pay and Cadillac benefits.
Pittsfield's State Rep. Tricia Farley Bouvier blocked me from sending her my political emails, again. Pittsfield's State Senator Adam Hinds did the same as TFB. (sarcasm): Maybe I should have sent them campaign donations and kissed their dirty behinds first. (more sarcasm): I should have told TFB and Adam Hinds how they do such a good job raising our taxes and fees, voting for legislative pay raises, and being career politicians, too.
Pittsfield politics only works for people like us when you agree with their one (Democrat) political party agenda. If you dare speak out about how distressed and unfair the system is to the people/taxpayers, then you are blocked from their constituency. If you live in or near Pittsfield and want to tell them off, you will lose your job in a New York minute, and you will be blacklisted from employment. If you go on giving a damn, they will spread vicious rumors about you.
Whatever happened to the public good and grassroots democracy? Why are those in power always Exhibit A for the Iron Rule of Oligarchy? Why do politicians always retaliate and use retribution to suppress citizen participation in state and local government? Who the Hell do these top-down politician think they are? They are supposed to serve We the People! But, they are only in it for themselves and the political careers.
- Jonathan [Melle]
----------
March 18, 2020
In a democracy, are we not supposed to ruffle the feathers of those in power? When Beacon Hill has billions of dollars in annual budget surpluses and its slush fund, are we not supposed to ask our State Representatives why they voted on March 4th (2020) to raise $600 million in new taxes and fees in the name of fixing our roads and bridges? When Capitol Hill voted to cut federal taxes for Corporate America, are we not supposed ask our Members of U.S. Congress why we have a budget deficit that will top $2 trillion this fiscal year? What about the growing economic inequality between the Haves and Have Nots? In Pittsfield (Mass.), are taxpayers there not supposed to ask why Matt Kerwood is building a $10.1 million slush fund, while their municipal taxes, fees and debts are always increasing to unsustainable levels? In Lee and Lenoxdale (Mass.), are the property owners there not supposed ask about the proposed toxic waste dump that will plummet the value of their residential properties? I think it is horrible that politicians block people like us who want answers to their issues! I think Pittsfield's State Senator Adam Hinds and State Representative Tricia Farley Bouvier are terrible for not answering to the people! Instead, they answer to their big wheel Democratic Party bosses who only care about their wealthy campaign donors. That was the mistake Hillary Clinton made in 2016 when she lost to Donald Trump. She called Trump's supporters a "Basket of deplorables" and did not campaign in the rust belt states. Instead, she played the same Democratic Party playbook as Adam Hinds and TFB by answering to her Democratic Party bosses that are more interested in money and power than grassroots democracy. I wonder who the Hell these elitists politicians think they are? What do people like us look like to the politicians who block us from communicating with them? No wonder we are left behind on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill! The politicians are only in it for their careers, pay, benefits, and campaign donations. If we don't kiss their dirty behinds or stay silent and accept all of the corruption, then we are targeted by them with retaliation and retribution. People who care or give a damn about their government and society are sent hidden message to fear those in power who often make things worse. In closing, I wish things were different for the proverbial little guy and/or gal, and everyone of us had a real voice in government and society.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
March 19, 2020
I believe Lovely Linda Tyer's supporters side of the story. She cares about all of the people who live in the community she leads. She may not have changed Pittsfield politics for the better, but the good thing about her that is always true: She cares! I admire Mayor Linda Tyer's compassionate leadership! If I were a politician, I would want to be like Linda Tyer! I would want the people I lead to know that I am compassionate and caring. I would be the opposite of most politicians and bureaucrats in government because I would bring humanity back to public service like the great leadership of the best Mayor of Pittsfield, EVER, named Linda Tyer!
- Jonathan Melle
-----
March 20, 2020
Pittsfield politics has failed the people for generations. But, some people only "Blame Linda". I support the Lovely Linda Tyer as the best Mayor of Pittsfield, EVER! I admire her for her strength in leadership and compassion for all of the people. That is how I feel about her. To be clear, I do not have a romantic interest in Linda Tyer. In fact, I will her and Barry Clairmont a happy life together. I also want to make clear that I do not agree with some of her decisions in Pittsfield politics, but I do, indeed, agree with her progressive political views. If I were a politician, I would want to be similar in leadership to Linda Tyer!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Linda Tyer: “Even admit virus, city residents must fill out census”
By Linda M. Tyer, op-ed, The Berkshire Eagle, March 31, 2020
Pittsfield — As mayor of the city of Pittsfield, I want to first acknowledge the glaring and difficult truths before discussing the census's significance in our city and why it's important for our future.
The last week has been an especially tough one for our city as the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise. We are all adjusting to a new normal that seems to evolve every day. For Americans, and those around the world, COVID-19 has completely shifted our way of life. Our priorities and attention have taken on a new focus, and rightly so. Collectively, we are all committed to doing our part to preserving the safety and well-being of our loved ones and those around us. This is an essential action and it's the right thing to do.
With so much happening right now in the face of this ever-changing public health crisis, I understand that other tasks might seem mundane. Many of you may have already received the 2020 Census. For some, it may still be unopened. I get it. Adding one more thing to an ever-increasing to-do list during a time of great uncertainty can feel burdensome.
But here's why you shouldn't ignore it. The census is more than just a questionnaire. Once completed, it allows each of us to be counted, effectively establishing our presence. Collectively, that count is an essential gateway to Pittsfield securing vital resources and funding to keep our community moving forward. One particular source of funding which includes census data as one factor in its distribution formula is Community Development Block Grant funding, otherwise known as CDBG, from the Department of Housing and Development (HUD).
For 45 years, Pittsfield's CDBG grants have worked in concert with private and public sector funds to strengthen our city, while also serving as a critical revenue source for under-resourced and vulnerable members in our community. Over the course of the last five years these dollars provided 4,844 community members with assistance through human service agencies; rehabilitated 235 housing units; created 25 jobs; supported blight prevention through the demolition of 18 buildings; and provided 18 businesses with assistance to advance their operations.
Each of us — just by being counted — have played a role in these funds doing a lot of good in our community. Now, as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, Pittsfield is among the many communities across the Commonwealth currently appealing to the federal government right now for additional flexibility to use CDBG funds in this fight. Resources that could be used toward critical purposes such as health services, food pantries, senior meals programs, and more.
While we all continue to do our part and stay at home, completing the census is an action we can take now to help our community rebound. We all look forward to the day when we will be able to resume life as we once knew it, but we know that this is a marathon. We are committed to not leaving anyone behind, so be counted. Together, our rebound will be stronger. Stay safe and be well.
Linda Tyer is the mayor of Pittsfield.
----------
Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer in her office at City Hall.
“Tyer rallies Pittsfield to ‘crush the curve’ – Uses website, weekly address to keep residents informed"
By Bruce Mohl, Editor, CommonWealth Magazine, April 5, 2020
Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer said the first coronavirus death in her community on March 22 [2020] hit her hard.
“That really felt like a moment when this COVID-19 disease had a very real and heartbreaking impact on our city,” she said. “I felt deeply, deeply sad for what our families are going through.”
There have been two more deaths in Pittsfield since then and a total of 10 in all of Berkshire County, three of them on Sunday. The number is high for a county of roughly 127,000 people, so high that the New York Times in a recent article [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/upshot/coronavirus-new-york-comparison.html] ranked the county ninth in the country in terms of deaths per 1,000 people. The Times article conflated Pittsfield and Berkshire County, causing some confusion.
“I did get a lot of panicked people responding to it, but I had to explain to them that they took the county numbers and not just Pittsfield,” Tyer said. “That doesn’t diminish the fact that the county is experiencing COVID-19 at a higher rate than other counties in the Commonwealth.” (Only Franklin County has had more deaths per 1,000 people.)
Berkshire County is the first place in the state where COVID-19 began spreading with no known origin point — “community transmission” in public health lingo. Tyer asked for help, and Gov. Charlie Baker personally came to visit and his administration dispatched two epidemiologists to work with the local board of health on tracking the disease. Yet the deaths have slowly continued to mount as the city and the state head into what is expected to be a surge week.
“We are watching this very, very closely,” she said. “If there is a point when we feel that more rigorous interventions are needed, we will act swiftly to implement them.”
The 55-year-old Tyer has spent most of her adult life in public service, first working for the Lenox Public Schools and then taking the job of city clerk in Pittsfield before winning a post on the city council in 2009 and the mayor’s job in 2016. She was reelected last year in a close race and began her second term in January [2020].
Pittsfield is a former mill town and once a company town under General Electric. Tyer says the community was just starting to redefine itself and bounce back from the 2008 recession when COVID-19 came along and shut everything down. Tyer is worried about the city’s future, but she is more worried now about the immediate safety of its residents.
“I would say that a majority of the people in our city are taking the stay-at-home and social-distancing recommendations very seriously,” she said. “However, there are people who are skeptics who continue to think that this is not serious and that worries me a great deal. My job has been to be in regular communication and to share facts and to be on as many platforms as possible, to reassure people that, yes, this is serious and your city officials are doing everything they can to protect you.”
Getting the facts out isn’t easy in Pittsfield. The city is part of the Albany television market, so residents hear more about what’s going on in New York than they do about Massachusetts. Baker’s near-daily press conferences can only be live-streamed, so Tyer has tried to fill in the gaps The city has a COVID-19 dashboard [https://pittsfield.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/24032353402548bd82559fc577e35ba3] on its website, detailing the spread of the virus as well as information on school grab-and-go meals, daycare facilities, and what’s open and closed.
Tyer tapes a weekly address [https://cityofpittsfield.org/covid-19_(coronavirus)/index.php] at the local community access television station, which is posted on Facebook and the city’s website on Fridays. The address is heavy on local news – six members of the police department testing positive for COVID-19, how the city is helping the homeless, and the closure of the skate park and removal of basketball hoops at playgrounds to enforce social distancing. Tyer also tries to rally the city’s residents.
“The predictions from public health officials are unnerving,” she said on Friday. “We are living through a frightening time and we do not have to accept these predictions as our fate. If we all stay home, keep our distance, and wash our hands, we can crush the curve. So let’s do this.”
Tyer works from her office at City Hall most mornings and then works from home in the afternoon. At the time of our interview, she said she wasn’t wearing a mask or gloves. Every day at 10 a.m. she has a conference call with 10 key city and community officials, including a representative of Berkshire Medical Center. She periodically has conference calls with members of the business and nonprofit communities to hear their concerns, and participates in a weekly call organized by the Massachusetts Municipal Association with Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.
While her public focus is on stopping the spread of COVID-19, she is already thinking about ways to restart the local economy and finance a municipal government seeing its tax revenues steadily decline. She has not shut down local construction projects; even so, the city’s revenue from building permits is down 50 percent.
Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer at a press conference with Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, and other elected officials.
She or a member of her inner circle watch every Baker press conference and she gives him high marks for his handling of the pandemic so far. “He is doing the best he can to make decisions around the public health element of this as well as the impact to the Massachusetts economy. I think he’s been decisive. He has provided municipal governments with a number of relief valves,” she said. “I know that there’s a lot of people who want him to declare a shelter in place and I understand the difficulty in making that decision. We could make that decision locally. Where we are today, we don’t feel like we have to impose those restrictions. We are well aware that that day may come, but that’s a pretty big leap for people. So we’ve been saying, pleading, and begging people to stay home and to keep social distancing and wash their hands.”
Tyer said she thought Baker’s list of essential businesses that can remain open was quite broad. She said Pittsfield’s Board of Health has fielded a lot of calls from employees who felt their work was not essential yet they were being ordered by their employers to report to work. She also was surprised to see package stores allowed to remain open while recreational marijuana stores were ordered to close. “I don’t quite see the distinction,” she said. “I don’t know for sure what the rationale was.” (Baker has expressed concern about people traveling from other states to buy pot in Massachusetts.)
In her Friday address, Tyer repeated the governor’s prediction that the surge in cases will start this week and continue through at least April 17 [2020]. In an interview, Tyer said she thinks the COVID-19 crisis is going to go on longer than we would prefer.
“There are certain people in the United States who feel that Americans are invincible, but this is showing that we are going to suffer the same experience that we’ve seen other countries go through and there’s a lot to learn from those that went before us,” she said. “I think we are still not at our peak in the United States or even here in the city of Pittsfield or Massachusetts. We’re probably going to be looking at probably May before we hit our peak. I’m not a scientist or an epidemiologist or a statistician, but that’s where my gut instinct is based on all the information that I get every single day.”
----------
“Pittsfield Readies Beds For First Responders, Homeless”
By Josh Landes, WAMC Northeast Report
Berkshire County’s largest community is responding to the ever-changing demands of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer says that the city of around 43,000 is securing housing for two populations in the coming week. The first are first responders.
“Over this weekend we were able to secure 35 hotel rooms in two different local hotels for first responders who may need quarantine or isolation, and that will allow for city of Pittsfield first responders as well as any community that has a mutual aid agreement with Pittsfield," said the mayor. "So for example, if a North Adams firefighter needs isolation or quarantine, they can take advantage of these arrangements that we have made here in Pittsfield.”
She says the city negotiated a $70 nightly rate with Best Western on West Housatonic Street and the Holiday Inn on West Street. Tyer says the costs, which will be paid out of Pittsfield’s contingency funds, will be reimbursed by the state or federal government.
“We have established very careful accounting practices where we are keeping a thorough record of all expenses associated with any work related to COVID-19 so that when the reimbursement programs are open we will be ready to submit our reimbursement requests,” she told WAMC.
The second housing effort will see the shuttered former St. Joseph High School – a private Catholic school on Maplewood Avenue that closed in 2017 – become a temporary homeless shelter for up to 70.
ServiceNet is coordinating the transformation of the school, which Tyer says could be open as soon as Monday. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield made the building available for the project, but made it clear to Tyer that it was a provisional donation.
“Their generosity is for the period of time during which we are confronted by this COVID-19 public health crisis, so when we all are back to our normal routines we will have to unwind the shelter and St. Joe’s will be back on the market as part of the diocese’s real estate.”
These efforts precede a coming surge in COVID-19 cases, which state officials say could mean a peak of hospitalizations in mid-April. On April 2nd, Governor Charlie Baker said confirmed cases of coronavirus could be between 47,000 to 172,000, and pegged the state’s fatality rate at 1.5% — as many as 2,580 deaths.
Tyer still has her concerns about her city’s preparedness. Namely, the number of businesses that are continuing to operate in Pittsfield during the statewide closure of nonessential businesses that began March 23rd, “even though I think that their own definition of essential could be challenged,” said Tyer. “We have started to receive some inquiries from employees who work at these businesses. We have established an assessment protocol and we’re working with those businesses and to encourage them to close up shop.”
Tyer declined to name which businesses Pittsfield is attempting to convince to close.
“If the business chooses not to close on their own, then the Board of Health will issue an order requiring them to close," the mayor told WAMC. "These are not easy decisions for us to make, but we are on a mission to protect public health especially as we approach the surge.”
----------
Bill Cameron
“Interim Lenox schools chief agrees to stay up to another year”
By Clarence Fanto, Eagle correspondent, April 7, 2020
Lenox — Interim Superintendent William Cameron has agreed to stay on for another year or until a new top administrator is hired.
In response to a query from The Eagle, Cameron said he'd be willing to stay through the end of the 2020-21 school year — or sooner if a new superintendent is hired before then.
The School Committee asked Cameron to extend his tenure given the COVID-19 health emergency and the recent suspension of the School Committee's search for a new superintendent.
"When I took the interim position in Lenox in late October, it was my intention to re-retire effective July 1, 2020," he said via e-mail. "But in the meantime two unforeseen events have occurred almost simultaneously: The unsatisfying end of the School Committee's search for a new, full-time superintendent, and the enormous educational disruption resulting from COVID-19."
Cameron is a former assistant superintendent of the Pittsfield Public Schools and has served as superintendent of the Central Berkshire Regional School District based in Dalton and as superintendent in the city of Salem. He came out of retirement last October after Lenox Superintendent Kimberly Merrick resigned for personal reasons. He has been working three days a week in Lenox.
The veteran educator, who's also on the Pittsfield School Committee and chairs the Berkshire County Education Task Force, has received high marks from the committee and from members of the school community for his stewardship of the district during challenging times.
Like other school districts statewide, the town's schools have been closed since March 13, and the shutdown remains in place until at least May 4, a decision announced by Gov. Charlie Baker on March 25.
Baker's office has declined comment for the time being on whether the state's school buildings will reopen at all before the end of the academic year in mid-June. Some mayors have recommended that schools not resume physical sessions until next September, as ordered in 15 states so far, including Vermont.
Last month, the Lenox School Committee interviewed three finalists for full-time superintendent. The local candidate, Judy Rush, Pittsfield Public Schools director of curriculum, instruction, assessments and grants, withdrew. Then, the committee declined to offer the position to either of the other two finalists, Gina Flanagan, principal of East Longmeadow High School, and Tara Brandt, director of mathematics at the Holyoke Public Schools.
Instead, the committee recommended keeping Cameron as interim leader, if he was willing, and undertaking a new search starting next fall.
Cameron cited the combination of the committee's appeal and the impact of the coronavirus for his second thoughts about leaving on July 1.
"This led me to recognize, after the School Committee approached me about staying on, that, at least for a while, continuity of leadership would best serve this excellent school district and the community that supports it." Cameron stated on Tuesday. "I'm grateful to the School Committee and the community for its strong support in these difficult times. And so I will stay until either a new superintendent is hired and ready to start or June 30, 2021, whichever comes first."
This week, Lenox Memorial Middle and High School and Morris Elementary School rolled out their remote learning opportunities for homebound students. At their Monday night remote meeting, Cameron and School Committee Chairman Robert Vaughan praised the Lenox Education Association and the union president Mary Cherry for their full cooperation in launching the effort amid some technological challenges and startup issues. All but three voting members of the union had endorsed the remote learning plan.
"Students were by and large eager to get some diversion from whatever it is they've been doing for the last three weeks by returning to some kind of academic activity," Cameron reported to the committee. "I know that the teachers were pretty enthusiastic about getting going, they've spent a lot of time preparing, and that will continue. This is an awfully good faculty at the two schools."
"I think everyone's very excited," Vaughan said. "It's different, and we'll make the best of it."
The committee also endorsed Cameron's recommendation for the rest of the spring school calendar, whether or not the buildings reopen next month. Remote classes will be suspended for Good Friday this week, as scheduled. The Patriots Day legal state holiday will be observed on April 20, but instead of the planned school vacation Tuesday through Friday of that week, remote education will continue.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will allow districts doing that to credit those four days toward the 180-day legal requirement for schooling. That means the last day of school in Lenox will be on June 17.
Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com, on Twitter @BE_cfanto or at 413-637-2551.
----------
Berkshire Health Systems has backed away from a policy that would have forced employees who contracted COVID-19 to use their own earned time while out of work. The union representing nurses at Berkshire Medical Center applauded the reversal. credit: Eagle file photo
“Berkshire Health Systems retracts sick leave policy that roiled union”
By Heather Bellow, The Berkshire Eagle, April 9, 2020
Pittsfield — In a reversal, Berkshire Health Systems has announced that staffers who become sickened by the coronavirus will not have to use earned time off while they recover.
In a memo sent to all employees Wednesday evening, the company said while very few staff have tested positive for the virus, those who do will not need to deplete their earned time — regardless of where they were infected.
"We recognize that working on the very front line of the response presents risk, even with proper use of [personal protective equipment]," said Patrick Borek, the company's vice president of human resources, in the email. "Given the exceptional efforts put forth every day, we prefer that our employees need not worry about the impact of COVID on their available paid time off banks."
The email rescinds a policy initially outlined in an April 1 memo announcing that employees who contracted COVID-19 would need to use their own earned time while they were out of work. The union responded with a letter of its own blasting the new policy and demanding the company provide protective masks for staffers on all units of the hospital.
BHS, which owns Berkshire Medical Center, then chided the union for trying to start a labor dispute amid a pandemic and universal mask shortages. Both outlined their positions in full page ads in The Eagle.Mark Brodeur, a Berkshire Medical Center nurse and union member with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, praised the new policy, which he said was likely the result of union pressure and widespread community outrage about what he said was a punitive notice from management.
He also said the new policy acts as an incentive for workers to stay home to stop the spread of disease.
"If you didn't have enough earned time, you would have to choose between not getting paid and supporting your family or going to work sick," he said. "It in general makes the community a lot safer."
In his April 1 memo, Borek also said that the pandemic had reached a "new stage," and that workers would no longer be furloughed for quarantine if exposed to the virus. Early on, more than 160 staff were furloughed after exposure to patients who later tested positive.
On Wednesday, Borek also explained that only 11 employees out of 4,183 have tested positive. The rate of positive tests among symptomatic staff is about 6.3 percent, while in the larger community, that rate is 20 percent.
Brodeur took some issue with these statistics, saying that criteria for testing staff and the public is still narrow enough that even symptomatic workers have not been able to get tested.
Heather Bellow can be reached at hbellow@berkshireeagle.com or on Twitter @BE_hbellow and 413-329-6871.
----------
Letter: “BMC treats nurses poorly”
The Berkshire Eagle, April 9, 2020
To the editor:
I retired as per diem RN nearly 20 years ago. I still have a number of, much younger, friends who are working at BMC or their affiliates, risking their lives every time they show up for work.
They show up for those of us who are now elderly and anyone who needs hospitalization. They are forced to wear the same PPE for days. One RN stated that she had worn her PPE for nine days. This is unacceptable and unsafe for these dedicated women and men. Most days they are working with an insufficient number of coworkers, and again, this is unacceptable.
Now, I read The Eagle that nurses who needed to be furloughed for 14 days do so without pay from BHS or BMC. They are made to use their own earned time if they have come in contact with patients who either had COVID 19, or was symptomatic and awaiting results of their tests and thus, furloughed. It is a disgrace to treat such brave RNs and other employees, who have face to face contact with patients, so despicably!
Those in the BHS and BMC administration should be ashamed to show their faces at BMC, or frankly, in our entire county. I understand that this is common practice in some areas, but I had hoped that BHS and their affiliates would have been better than this.
Carla Skidmore, Pittsfield
----------
Look Ahead, Pittsfield: “City leaders roll out remote meetings, resume budget discussions”
By Amanda Drane, The Berkshire Eagle
Hey there, readers. It's still weird out there.
The City Council and School Committee will try their hands at remote meetings this week after the coronavirus sent them on a monthlong hiatus.
The spring season is normally a busy time for City Hall as leaders prepare their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1 [2020]. But a global pandemic put a wrench in those works.
How will city budgeting look during this unprecedented time? How will the city parse pandemic spending from regular spending? And how will delayed tax bills impact the city’s already-tight financial situation?
With remote meetings on the docket, we’ll get a first look at answers to these questions.
The City Council is scheduled to meet at its usual time, 7 p.m. Tuesday [April 14, 2020], with councilors tuning in from their respective remote locations. Council President Peter Marchetti said viewers can tune in via Pittsfield Community Television, and we can expect councilors to appear in “Hollywood Squares” style.
During the meeting, Mayor Linda Tyer will ask councilors to approve $300,000 from the city’s free cash fund to a new emergency management budget for coronavirus-related expenses. The city has so far spent more than $100,000 toward emergency relief efforts, excluding personnel resources.
Expenditures to-date include about $98,000 in “general operational expenses,” like gloves, cleaning supplies, washer and dryer units for the fire stations, gates to secure city parks, computers and other technology to allow for remote work.
The city also spent $14,700 preparing the former St. Joseph’s Central High School for use as a temporary homeless shelter. City staff cleaned the building, reactivated its heating system, constructed temporary walls, installed emergency lighting, carbon monoxide detectors, handicap ramps, and reconnected the building to running water.
Matt Kerwood, the city’s finance director, said many of these expenses will be eligible for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Councilors will be asked to sign off on a $25,000 grant from the state Department of Public Health to aid the city’s relief efforts, which include the addition of public health nurses to the city’s roster. Also up for approval is a $25,000 grant from the Berkshire United Way to support a command post at the former Second Street Jail, and the associated costs of acquiring personal protective equipment for needs throughout the county.
The city hasn’t yet figured out how to include public comment in their remote meetings, but Marchetti said he’s working on it.
Tyer promises an update this week regarding a plan to help city businesses that were dealt a blow by the virus. The city received $789,382 in Community Development Block Grant funding to support economic recovery.
Heads up
Due dates for property tax bills are delayed until June 1, and Tyer waived penalties for failure to pay taxes and fees on bills due after March 10, as long as they’re paid by June 30.
County Ambulance will roll out at-home coronavirus testing this week for those unable to get to the hospital. Those seeking this service should contact the coronavirus call center at Berkshire Medical Center, available throughout the week at 855-262-5465 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
And prepare for more changes to your grocery shopping this week, as Gov. Charlie Baker installed new occupancy limits on the state’s stores. You may have to wait in line outside, and you’re asked to wear a mask.
Please talk to me at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, or by cell at 413-464-2859.
----------
April 12, 2020
With Matt Kerwood's creative accounting, the lovely Linda Tyer can spend any amount of Kapanski Ka$h that her heart desires. Pittsfield politics has carelessly spent millions of dollars of Kapanski Ka$h over the decades. (Sarcasm:) I want to know how I can swim in the public trough and roll in the dough! My plan to take Kufflink's out to a business lunch and buy him a few alcoholic beverages won't work during the coronavirus pandemic. I could use most of my stimulus check to donate a $1,000 to the lovely Linda's campaign coffers. My new business plan is to find a cure for COVID-19 at the empty PEDA site.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
The Pittsfield City Council meets for the first time Tuesday [April 14, 2020] - virtually, that is - after a monthlong hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. PCTV provided a live feed for viewers, who could see the city's leaders in "Hollywood Squares" style. credit: Screenshot via Pittsfield Community Television
“At first virtual meeting, Pittsfield City Council allocates $300,000 for coronavirus spending”
By Amanda Drane, The Berkshire Eagle, April 14, 2020
Pittsfield — The City Council ventured into the virtual realm Tuesday, using its first meeting to approve $300,000 in spending toward the global coronavirus pandemic that put it there.
The council's first foray into meeting via Zoom conference was not immune to the kinds of snags that many have found in the remote universe. There were audio issues, connection lags and, at times, Council President Peter Marchetti struggled to see when a councilor was requesting the floor.
Still, the show went on at the usual time, broadcast live via Pittsfield Community Television.
Gov. Charlie Baker's orders banning public gatherings temporarily amid the coronavirus crisis suspended elements of the state's Open Meeting Law, which says meetings must be held in a publicly accessible place and with public comment taken.
In the key issue of the night, Mayor Linda Tyer requested that councilors approve moving $300,000 from the city's free cash fund to a new emergency management budget for coronavirus-related expenses.
Ward 4 Councilor Chris Connell reached for the normal process, suggesting that the matter be referred to the Finance Committee for further vetting.
"This is a longer conversation, I think," he said.
But, Councilor at Large Earl Persip III argued that the circumstances are far from normal — "We're meeting via video Zoom conference" — and pointed out that the city already is incurring these emergency expenses.
Ward 1 Councilor Helen Moon agreed, saying "This is really not the time to hold back."
The vote to allocate the $300,000 passed 9-2, with dissenting votes coming from Connell and Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi.
Both councilors said they questioned the process more than the spending itself.
"I just feel we're trying to push this through," Connell said. "I'm going to vote no because there's other ways to do this."
Tyer said that, in the interest of transparency, she wants to create a separate budget for coronavirus spending and her team carefully is accounting for all emergency spending.
So far, the city has spent more than $100,000 toward emergency relief efforts, excluding personnel resources. Finance Director Matt Kerwood told councilors that he expects the spending will be eligible for reimbursement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency at a 75 percent rate.
But, when that reimbursement will be in reach remains a question.
"Until the state of emergency is actually over, we won't be able to begin submitting," he said. "At this point, no one can really say when that is going to happen."
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, @amandadrane on Twitter, and 413-464-2859.
----------
April 16, 2020
I hope the coronavirus ends sooner than later. Nursing homes have become death camps. The poor, disabled, elderly, and sick are most vulnerable to get sick from and/or die of coronavirus.
Matt Kerwood's creative accounting is horrible! He should NOT have a +$10 million dollar slush fund! Pittsfield politics' financial system will collapse in fiscal year 2021 without a federal bailout.
Mayor Linda Tyer should be doing more. So should BMC's CEO Dave Phelps. I believe the top "bureaucrats" are not being truthful about Pittsfield (Mass.) being in the top 10 worst areas in the World for coronavirus. Something is really wrong! It is time for the truth to come out!
U.S. Congress is on a 5 week recess that ends on May 4th, 2020, while "Rome is burning". Trump is in over his head. The U.S. and global economy has record debts and the financial system is on the brink of collapse.
If we don't solve this all encompassing crisis, we will be in the same or similar situation we were in during the early-1930s when Hitler rose to power. I hope we will learn from 20th Century history and help each other from seeing the people we love and our friends become starving and desperate. If we can be strong and compassionate to each other, love will prevail over hate.
I hope we win this battle and things go back to normal soon. I always believed in "reversion to the mean". I believe that things will get better over time.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
April 17, 2020
Re: Massachusetts and NH need bailout funds from U.S. Congress
Does Pittsfield politics' GOBs really own second homes in other areas of the state and country that Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski of Pittsfield (Mass.) pay for? If it is true, that means the GOBs have been raising municipal taxes, fees, and debts/liabilities for decades so they can vacation in places like Naples, Florida.
On another topic, I watched NH news on WMUR TV-this afternoon, and the newsman said that Massachusetts has more coronavirus deaths than New Hampshire has coronavirus cases. It doesn't look like Governor Charlie Baker is doing a good job containing coronavirus in Massachusetts. I feel fortunate not to live in Massachusetts anymore.
If I was in either NH Governor Chris Sununu or Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker's shoes, I would spend every hour of my working days telling U.S. Congress, which is on a 5 week recess until May 4th, 2020, and President Donald Trump that if they don't pass a bill to bailout state and local governments soon, the economies of NH and Mass. will collapse.
I recently explained to my mom how the Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts. The then English Colony of Massachusetts went bankrupt. The Founding Fathers asked King George III of England for a bailout for Massachusetts. The King declined to bailout Massachusetts. Instead, the King raised taxes on the people of Massachusetts. The Founding Fathers objected and used an old Irish protest saying: "No taxation with representation". The Founding Fathers raised an Army to fight King George III's Army. The rest is history.
It all began with Massachusetts going bankrupt and asking the King of England for a bailout. All of these centuries and decades later, things have gone full circle. Massachusetts needs a bailout from Capitol Hill or else the Commonwealth (of Mass.) and the other state governments (some former Colonies) will go bankrupt. I hope U.S. Congress and President Trump won't follow King George III's lead!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
April 17, 2020
Re: I am thankful to live in the U.S.A.
For many years of my adult life, I tried to find a living wage job. When I was in my 20's in the Spring of 1996, my dad was a Pittsfield (Mass.) area politician. We faced years upon years of retribution from both the GOBs who run Pittsfield politics and the corrupt pols on Beacon Hill. In June 2007, I was arrested in Manchester NH and wrongly indicted on 2 felonies for nearly 3 years of my life. Who would hire me when the State of NH is accusing me of 2 felonies? The 2 misdemeanors I was ultimately convicted of were annulled by the State of NH last Summer of 2019. I am a 100% service connected disabled Veteran who served our great country Honorably in the U.S. Army. That is where my financial well being is vested. I did not choose my difficult circumstances. If I didn't receive my Veterans benefits, I would be at risk of being a homeless Veteran. I am thankful to live in the U.S.A. where I am honored by my beloved country.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
“City of Pittsfield Mayor announces $1.1M aid package to help residents and businesses affected by coronavirus”
by: Jack Summers, NEWS10, April 17, 2020
Pittsfield, Mass. (NEWS10) — Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer announce on Friday, the City of Pittsfield COVID-19 Economic Recovery Program, a $1.1 million package of local and federal funding to help support residents, small businesses, community organizations, and cultural institutions affected by the pandemic.
“I have designed a robust economic recovery program that will help to meet some of the critical financial needs in our city brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. These funds will be put to work right here in Pittsfield and that is extremely good news for many members of our community who are experiencing tremendous financial strain during this very challenging time,” Tyer said.
The Program reportedly includes $789,382 in funding from the federal Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES), to be dispersed throughout Pittsfield’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).
Director Deanna Ruffer, of the city’s Department of Community Development said in a statement, “My team and I are extremely pleased to have worked on the development of this crucial economic relief program. As my office works closely with residents and local businesses on a daily basis, we recognize and understand just how vital these resources are needed in our city.”
“For over 40 years, the CDBG program has provided critical resources to the most vulnerable in our community. We are pleased Congress provided additional funding for this program during this time of urgent need throughout our community and we hope that this funding will offer some measure of assistance in the weeks ahead.”
Mayor Tyer said, “With the support of the City Council, these funds, in the form of grants, could be available in early May to assist Pittsfield families with rent, mortgage, and utility payments.”
The CDBG funding will reportedly be supplemented by two local sourced of aid from Community Preservation Funds and the Small Business Fund.
“I am submitting an emergency request to the Community Preservation Committee for a $100,000 allocation from the Community Preservation Funds to provide rental assistance to Pittsfield families,” Tyer said. “Also, I will dedicate 200,000 dollars from the Small Business Fund to help small businesses with cash flow. Small businesses would be eligible for up to $10,000 in forgivable loans if they commit to retaining or rehiring employees by the end of 2020.”
Eligible homeowners and renters could reportedly receive up to three months or a maximum of $5,000 per household to help pay for a mortgage, rent, or utilities. The Berkshire Regional Housing Authority (BRHA) will reportedly administer this portion of the city’s COVID-19 Economic Recovery Program and be able to provide meditation and other services to Pittsfield residents while they stay in their homes.
Grants of up to $10,000 will reportedly be offered to Pittsfield’s small businesses that are in need due to significant losses and even closures.
The funds are said to help small businesses in the city retain and rehire employees as well as help businesses to adapt their operations in order stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery period.
An additional element of the plan reportedly includes the use of CDBG funds to help enhance the vital work of several community partners that have existing or new programs in place to help offer support in the pandemic response.
“These community partners are on the front lines helping residents with many of their daily needs. I am pledging support to the Elizabeth Freeman Center in their ongoing fight against sexual assault and domestic violence, UCP of Western Massachusetts, and Elder Services for enhancing and extending their food service programs, as well as to ServiceNet for continue their outstanding service to the homeless during this public health crisis,” the mayor said.
Additional public service funds will reportedly be available through a rolling application process to help meet needs as they come up.
Additionally, grants will reportedly be available to cultural institutions for job retention, creation, and programming.
“Cultural institutions are essential to Pittsfield’s economy and to our sense of well-being. They have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and I am proposing funds to help these creative cultural organizations reopen and re-establish their presence and programming in our city,” Tyer said.
----------
April 18, 2020
Hello Lisa Tully RN,
I followed your political service in Pittsfield when you were on the City Council. I think you are very intelligent about public policy. I also like to read your husband, Mark Tully's, essays on public finances and Proposition 2.5. I agree with his belief that Pittsfield politics should have a new democratic system of government given the city government's excessively high levels of taxes, fees, and debts and how it negatively impacts the shrinking middle class and population.
I see that you are a Nurse in Pittsfield. Did you know that coronavirus testing has a 33% rate of false negatives? Did you know that America has a shortage of testing supplies? Did you know that ventilators are useless without sedation medications? Did you know that Governor Charlie Baker had to dispatch 2 Epidemiologists to Pittsfield due to the coronavirus outbreak that is in the top ten for per capita coronavirus cases in the whole World? Did you know that the state and local governments need billions of federal bailout dollars to be able to fight the coronavirus pandemic, but U.S. Congress is on a 5 week recess until May 4, 2020? Did you know that there is no coordinated federal leadership, which means everyone is fending for themselves to get PPE, medical supplies, and the like? Did you know that there is no way for the public to know the truth about the coronavirus infections, deaths, and spread of COVID-19 until we have widespread testing and tracing? Did you know that long term care facilities are where most of the coronavirus dealth happen?
In closing, Lisa Tully RN, I believe this is a mess and we need to be told the truth about what is really happening. Thank you and your husband Mark for all of your good work in public service.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
----------
April 19, 2020
(Sarcasm): I want in on Matt Kerwood's creative accounting and slush fund handouts. There is a global public health disaster where people are dying from coronavirus, but what is most important to Mayor Linda Tyer is how Matt Kerwood cooks the books to giveaway Kapanski Ka$h to the lovely Linda's politically connected campaign donors.
Here is my new strategy! I am going to use $1,000 of my stimulus check to donate it all to the lovely Linda's campaign coffers. Then, I am going to tell Matt Kerwood that his financial genius matches Warren Buffett's legacy. Then, I am going to propose my plan to help the homeless by giving them "3 hots and a cot" in an old GE building at the nearly 22-year-old vacant and polluted failed PEDA business park. Then, I will put my hand out for all of the money I can shakeout from the public trough. Then, I will retire and buy a fancy condo in Naples, Florida, a $490,000 summer condo in Lenox, and an upscale vacation condo in Vail, Colorado.
- Jonathan Melle
Not only the 3 highest tax levy hikes, but also double digit fee hikes, along with huge municipal debts and other liabilities that total in the hundreds of millions of dollars! Instead of Mayor, the lovely Linda Tyer should have the title: "Big $pender"! Pittsfield taxpayers should have the title: "Linda's ATM".
----------
April 21, 2020
Pittsfield politics = "$hakedown Politic$!"
TFB, the lovely Linda Tyer, Jimmy Ruberto, and their WHEN backers spent tens of millions of your taxpayer dollars on Pittsfield's arts and culture projects, and many other capital projects. They see Pittsfield taxpayers as their ATM. Matt Kerwood's creative accounting covers up the true costs of all of it. As long as Matt Kerwood has a +$10 million slush fund, then he can continue to cook the books!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
April 27, 2020
This nightmare is a terrible tragedy. I wish politicians would put their differences aside until we get through the coronavirus pandemic. 25% of the World's COVID-19 deaths are in the U.S.A. Tens of millions of American workers have lost their jobs and health insurance. We are in a recession and on the brink of economic collapse. The World as we know it has changed for the worse. After the coronavirus pandemic, we will have to deal with the debt pandemic. I feel sorry for all the people who are dipping in the 401k's and IRA's. I hope the workers' savings accounts don't get wiped out. Lastly, I think it is myopic and unfair that most people "Blame Linda Tyer" for all that is wrong in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The mess that is Pittsfield politics has been going on for decades! We are in a public health crisis. I hope Mayor Linda Tyer proves all of her critics wrong.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
“Pittsfield City Council approves $789K for economic relief amid coronavirus outbreak”
By Amanda Drane, The Berkshire Eagle, April 28, 2020
Pittsfield — Some $789,382 in funds should be rolling out to city residents, businesses and nonprofits next month after the City Council approved the first portion of Mayor Linda Tyer's coronavirus relief plan on Tuesday.
The city aims to get money flowing to those who need it "as early in May as possible," Community Development Director Deanna Ruffer told councilors during their second virtual meeting since the outbreak.
The funds approved Tuesday came from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and will be administered through the city's Community Development Block Grant program. Tyer's plan is to roll in more from the Small Business Fund and the Community Preservation Committee for an overall $1.1 million relief plan.
Homeowners and tenants could receive up to three months' rent under the plan, or a maximum of $5,000 per household to pay mortgage, rent or utilities. The Berkshire Regional Housing Authority will administer this part of the city's COVID-19 program.
Grants of up to $10,000 will be offered to Pittsfield's small businesses that are in jeopardy of significant losses or closures. Nonprofits and cultural institutions will also be eligible for support.
Details remain in flux, Ruffer told councilors. The city is still considering whether or not to offer funds on a first-come, first-served basis, or to keep rolling deadlines. That aside, a 50 percent or greater loss in revenue will provide the basis for eligibility.
Any business or institution receiving the funds "will need to demonstrate need," she said.
Councilors spoke to an urgency for these funds.
"I've been very concerned," Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey said of city businesses. "I think this is a time-sensitive issue."
Ward 4 Councilor Chris Connell argued in favor of slashing $80,283 in administrative costs budgeted as part of the plan. "I just think it's excessive," he said.
Connell's arguments did not move the group, and in the end he cast the sole dissenting vote. Councilor at Large Yuki Cohen abstained, and all other members were present and assented.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@berkshireeagle.com, @amandadrane on Twitter, and 413-464-2859.
----------
May 1, 2020
The U.S. government and corporate debts will never be paid back. Most money and debts only exist as digital numbers that bounce around on the Federal Reserve Bank's computer screens. It is not real money.
I believe blogger Dan Valenti does a first-rate job covering Pittsfield politics and beyond, but I cannot understand why he always myopically blames the lovely Linda Tyer for Pittsfield's economic demise when it mostly happened prior to her being Mayor of Pittsfield (Mass.) in 2016. I believe that Matt Kerwood practices "creative Accounting", and that Pittsfield's real municipal finances are very bad news. But, what else is new. We've watched this happen a couple times before during "the Doyle debacle" and "the now late Queen Anne Everest Wojtkowski reign".
In closing, without a federal bailout later in this lovely month of May (2020), state and local governments will soon go insolvent and then bankrupt due to the 2020 economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Photo: The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
IMAGE 1 OF 5
“This is how bad things are for museums: They now have a green light to sell off their art”
Sebastian Smee, The Washington Post, April 30, 2020
Every major American art museum is sitting on assets that, from the outside, look enviable. They're called works of art. If they're by Vincent van Gogh or Frida Kahlo or Jackson Pollock, they may be worth tens, or even hundreds, of millions of dollars.
Even if they're by less famous artists and consigned to storage - along with perhaps 90 percent of any given museum's collection - they can still be valued at eye-watering amounts. Set beside, say, a scary budget deficit or the prospect of having to lay off employees, this knowledge can take on an almost voluptuous glow.
To counter the constant temptation to regard art works as a way to get quick cash, the museum world heavily polices the sale of works from permanent collections - otherwise known as deaccessioning. The powerful Association of Art Museum Directors, made up of directors of museums in the United States, Mexico and Canada, has long frowned on any museum that sells off art for purposes other than acquiring new art.
AAMD's frowns have an effect. Museums that dare to ignore its guidelines - as the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, did in 2018, ultimately selling more than 20 works from its collection to raise money for a renovation - are censured, sanctioned and publicly shamed. For a renegade - or perhaps simply desperate - museum director, a decision to sell works from the collection, even if it's to raise money deemed necessary for survival, might mean career death.
However, in an unprecedented move, and as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic, the AAMD has recently relaxed its guidelines. It's too soon to gauge the effect, but it is already big news in the art world. Once unthinkable, the notion of selling off a Claude Monet or two to plug a budgetary hole - or to fend off a total financial meltdown - is suddenly something to contemplate.
The only problem, of course, is that once you've sold a Monet, or a Norman Rockwell, or an Albert Bierstadt, it's very hard to get it back.
"There are many members of the association who think that this is way too much, and others who think it's way too little," Brent Benjamin, the AAMD president and the director of the Saint Louis Art Museum, told the Art Newspaper.
No one doubts that they're a sign of how bad the picture is looking for museums now.
Since mid-March, when museums began closing because of the coronavirus outbreak, income from admissions and retail has evaporated. Turmoil in financial markets has caused endowments to plummet. Fundraising has been severely constrained. And for many museums, it has quickly become a question of figuring out how to survive.
The revised guidelines touch on two areas. First, they state that any museum that "decides to use restricted endowment funds, trusts, or donations for general operating expenses" will not be censured or sanctioned. The idea here is to allow museums the financial flexibility they need in an uncertain economic environment.
The more striking announcement concerns deaccessioning. According to AAMD, museums may now "use the proceeds from deaccessioned works of art ... to support the direct care" of their collection.
The language here is careful. But there's no doubt: This represents a major departure, and a recognition that many art museums are in financial free fall.
AAMD says it recognizes "the extensive negative effects of the current crisis on the operations and balance sheets of many art museums." It acknowledges, too, the impossibility of knowing when revenue streams might return to normal.
The new guidelines are temporary, and are "not intended to incentivize ... the sale of art." But their effect may do just that.
Conscious of the significance of its about-face, AAMD has tried to look as though it is still walking calmly in the same direction. The organization's "long-standing principle" - that money raised from the sale of art from a permanent collection may not be used for general operating expenses - remains in place, according to the announcement in mid-April. Museums that choose to deaccession must maintain records of how money was raised and how it was used. They must have in place "a board-approved policy outlining what expenses it considers direct care, and the policy must be publicly accessible."
All this caution and qualification make sense. But in reality, almost any museum expense - from the salaries of curators, conservators and other staff members to costs associated with building maintenance and utilities - could conceivably fit the description of "direct care of the museum's collection."
And let's be honest: It's very theoretical. At a practical level - especially during a crisis - money inside big institutions such as art museums is fairly fungible. If a work of art is sold, the money raised is difficult to silo.
In normal times, and despite the strict guidelines, deaccessioning goes on all the time. The results can be transformative, restorative or alarming - sometimes all three at once. In 2011, for instance, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston sold eight works from its permanent collection to raise the money it needed to buy a single painting, "Man at His Bath," by Gustave Caillebotte. The paintings it auctioned off included canvases by Monet, Paul Gauguin, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
At the time, it seemed an extraordinary exchange. But after taking into account that the MFA has one of the world's greatest Impressionist collections; that most of the works it chose to sell tended to languish in storage; and that paintings by Caillebotte - an artist regarded as increasingly important - rarely come on the market, the decision began to look rational (if still controversial).
More recently, the Baltimore Museum of Art selected work by white men whose art they own in abundance - such as Andy Warhol and Franz Kline - to raise money for the acquisition of new work by underrepresented groups, especially women and African Americans, including Amy Sherald, Charles Gaines, Faith Ringgold and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
Here, too, the thinking was sound, and only mildly controversial. "I don't think it's reasonable or appropriate for a museum like the BMA to speak to a city that is 64 percent black unless we reflect our constituents," Chris Bedford, the museum's director, told Artnet in 2018.
And yet the practicalities of deaccessioning are rarely straightforward.
To begin with, there is a tension inherent in any decision by a museum to raise money by selling art. To justify selling the works, museums must play down their importance. But to get top dollar at auction, they must talk up their value.
This awkwardness can be managed. But the assumption that there are endless riches in a museum's storage rooms just waiting to be tapped is unrealistic.
In 2018, Michael O'Hare, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, argued in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Art Institute of Chicago could offer free admission in perpetuity by selling 1 percent (by value) of its collection and putting the resulting money in an endowment. The interest on the endowment alone, O'Hare said, would cover the cost.
His argument rested on dubious premises. Attempts to assign credible value to the works in a museum's permanent collection are notoriously fraught. The vast majority of the financial value of a museum's collection often resides in a very limited number of works, almost all of them on permanent display. So if a museum wants to avoid selling its most precious works, selling off 1 percent by value probably would mean selling vast amounts of art.
Logistically, that would be challenging, as Martin Gammon, the founder of Pergamon Art Group, pointed out in a 2018 response to O'Hare in the Art Newspaper. The museum probably would face lawsuits from donors who gave works with conditions attached. The market, too, may not cooperate with such a scheme.
Museums, after all, guarantee scarcity, because when they own works, it's understood that they won't come back on the market. This is a crucial factor in keeping prices high. Once undone, such a reliable assumption could trigger a market collapse. The bad publicity generated by a prestigious museum's desperate-looking fire sale also would be likely to affect prices.
Then there are the administrative costs. Deaccessioning involves time-consuming research. Museums that want to sell works have an obligation to look into restrictions and secure necessary approval from donors and their heirs. There also are costs involved in selling at auction.
So the potential gains from any kind of large-scale deaccessioning are almost invariably less than simple market valuations may suggest.
What museums need now is a combination of direct help and the flexibility to act in their own best interests. The new guidelines are an effort to provide the latter. But I believe the old principles remain sound. Even in these unprecedented circumstances, museum directors should not panic or be drawn into overly short-term thinking.
The choices they face aren't simple. In some cases, they may have to act to ensure their very survival (if they fail at that existential level, their entire collections may hit the market). But they have been entrusted with the care of things that are, collectively as well as individually, of profound and lasting importance. It is their job to safeguard these collections for the future, not to sift them with a view to finding parts of them wanting, expendable and convertible to cash.
----------
May 1, 2020
The U.S. government and corporate debts will never be paid back. Most money and debts only exist as digital numbers that bounce around on the Federal Reserve Bank’s computer screens. It is not real money.
I believe blogger Dan Valenti does a first-rate job covering Pittsfield politics and beyond, but I cannot understand why he always myopically blames the lovely Linda Tyer for Pittsfield’s economic demise when it mostly happened prior to her being Mayor of Pittsfield (Mass.) in 2016. I believe that Matt Kerwood practices “creative Accounting”, and that Pittsfield’s real municipal finances are very bad news. But, what else is new. We’ve watched this happen a couple times before during “the Doyle debacle” and “the now late Queen Anne Everest Wojtkowski reign”.
In closing, without a federal bailout later in this lovely month of May (2020), state and local governments will soon go insolvent and then bankrupt due to the 2020 economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
That is very true, and you are right! It is also true that we are in a 2020 economic recession caused by a global COVID-19 pandemic, which the lovely Linda Tyer had nothing to do with whatsoever. I hope Mayor Linda Tyer will be a strong leader during these difficult times.
Fair enough. The facts are on your side, Dan Valenti.
I have long supported the lovely Linda Tyer going back when I lived in Pittsfield in 2003 when she first ran for Pittsfield City Council. She is intelligent and wants to move post-industrial Pittsfield forward instead of backwards to the 1950's and 1960's GE era. Some of WHEN and Jimmy Ruberto's arts and culture projects cost way too much taxpayers' dollars, and it did not work out in the long run.
But, Mayor Linda Tyer's heart is in the right place. I do concede that she has raised municipal taxes, fees, and debts to unsustainable levels. I believe that Matt Kerwood's financial management is disconnected from realistic Accounting practices, and the working class who pays the bills to City Hall are getting screwed over. In closing, Mayor Linda Tyer is in it over her head, and Matt Kerwood cooks the books.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
“Act with Urgency”
Everett Independent – Letters to the Editor – May 6, 2020
(The following letter was sent recently to Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Bob DeLeo by a group of mayors around the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)
Dear Senate President Spilka and Speaker DeLeo,
Voting is a fundamental right and is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
In the midst of a highly contagious infectious disease, we implore you to ensure safe and healthy ballot access in 2020.
We ask the state legislature to act with urgency in reviewing and passing a vote-by-mail program in Massachusetts for this election cycle.
Our constituents deserve the opportunity to exercise their right to vote without risk of exposure to a deadly virus. Every voter in the Commonwealth deserves a safe chance at participating in the democratic process, even through this extremely challenging time for our country.
In recent years with many safeguards available, vote by mail has become the gold standard for voter access and participation. There are many excellent programs across the country in states including Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. In response to COVID-19, more states have stepped forward, including New York, New Hampshire and Maryland, to ensure ballot access.
Massachusetts has always been a leader during challenging times for our country. The Commonwealth with the leadership of the Senate and House must lead again with ensuring safe, healthy, widely available ballot access by passing a vote by mail program.
In this time of pandemic, no one should be forced to choose between their health and their right to vote. Even Dr. Fauci is uncertain when this current surge will subside, with experts projecting possible recurrence in the fall just as voters head to the polls for the statewide September 1 [2020] primary and the November 3 [2020] general election.
As Mayors serving 22 cities we see Vote by Mail as the best chance our constituents and Commonwealth have to protect the integrity of our 2020 elections and the health of our voters. Thank you for your urgent consideration of this request.
Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr., Everett
Mayor Thomas McGee, Lynn
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, Newton
Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, Gloucester
Mayor Kim Driscoll, Salem
Mayor John J Leahy, Lowell
Mayor Joseph M. Petty, Worcester
Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, Easthampton
Mayor Paul Brodeur, Melrose
Mayor William Reichelt, West Springfield
Mayor David Narkewicz, Northampton
Mayor Daniel Rivera, Lawrence
Mayor Yvonne Spicer, Framingham
Mayor Donna Holaday, Newburyport
Mayor Jon Mitchell, New Bedford
Mayor Neil Perry, Methuen
Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, Greenfield
Mayor Thomas Bernard, North Adams
Mayor Paul Coogan, Fall River
Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, Cambridge
Mayor Kassandra Gove, Amesbury
Mayor Linda Tyer, Pittsfield
----------
May 7, 2020
In less than one month's time, the U.S. National Debt increased by one trillion U.S. Dollars. It surpassed $24 trillion on April 9, 2020. It surpassed $25 trillion on May 7, 2020. We are in a 2020 economic recession. Massachusetts' state government faces a $5 billion budget deficit. Over 33 million American workers lost their jobs and health insurance so far. 1 out of 5 workers are unemployed. U.S. House of Representatives is still in recess after over 5 weeks and counting. The U.S. Senate reconvened on May 4th after taking the month of April off. The U.S. Senate this week is doing nothing about the coronavirus pandemic. Donald Trump is in it over his head as over 70,000 Americans have died so far from COVID-19. Nursing Homes are death camps! Holyoke Soldiers Home is a total debacle. Pittsfield' (Mass.)'s economic demise happened a generation ago. Re-opening Pittsfield (Mass.)'s distressed economy won't help the area's working poor. The lovely Linda Tyer will soon propose a fiscal year 2021 municipal budget with very low revenue projections. Without a federal bailout for state and local governments, Mayor Linda Tyer is looking at financial insolvency. Matt Kerwood will have to part with his $10.1 million slush fund. Berkshire County's tourism economy will take a hit this Summer of 2020.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
May 14, 2020
Pittsfield politics economic/financial answer to everything is to raise taxes and fees, and increase municipal debts/liabilities, to unsustainable levels, while ensuring that Matt Kerwood has a $10.1 million slush fund. Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski can either "Assume the position" or move out of town.
Thousands of people have moved out of Pittsfield (Mass.) over the past decades. Hundreds of living wage jobs have been lost. The only winners are the one political (Democratic) party ruling elites, the vested interests (Big 3 public - police, fire, & school - unions), and the special interests, such as out-of-town millionaires.
My theory about Pittsfield politics is that they either don't care about the city's distressed local economy and/or they use "perverse incentives" to collect as much social services dollars as possible to fill City Hall's fiscal coffers. GE left Pittsfield 3 decades ago, but Pittsfield politics has done nothing to create living wage jobs for the average working poor Pittsfield resident. The more poverty means more social services state and federal dollars for Pittsfield. It is similar to the state lottery and casino gambling, where it is really a voluntary tax on the working poor that benefits state and local government's fiscal coffers.
Since Mayor Jimmy Ruberto, Pittsfield politics has been in the media spotlight for its public investments in the arts and cultural venues. The catch is that "Ruberto's renaissance" spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, including around $3 million GE settlement fund dollars, on downtown arts and cultural projects and institutions. Pittsfield politics modeled downtown Pittsfield's arts and cultural venues after Brooklyn, NY's artsy gentrification. It didn't work for PIttsfield! Downtown Pittsfield is a scary place, especially after hours, that most people avoid like the plague. Now, with COVID-19, Berkshire County's tourism economy will take a major hit this coming Summer of 2020.
- Jonathan Melle
-----
I have followed and studied Pittsfield politics for decades. The Good Old Boys who run the show in Pittsfield politics are mostly interrelated families that go back generations. If you are not a G.O.B., you have to kiss their dirty behinds or be a voiceless outsider. Linda Tyer has kissed Jimmy Ruberto's dirty behind since 2003 - or for 17 years now. Pittsfield politics practices retribution against those who do not follow the G.O.B.'s orders. They will take away your job, blacklist you from ever finding a new job, spread vicious rumors against you, and block your communications to them. In closing, like GE's industrial chemical toxic waste PCBs that pollute Pittsfield (Mass.), Pittsfield politics is toxic!
----------
Letter: “City Hall is guilty of price-gouging”
The Berkshire Eagle, May 19, 2020
To the editor:
Dear Mayor Tyer
We recently paid our quarterly city real estate tax. Because of the mandated lockdown, we chose to pay online rather than go to the post office. We are in a high-risk group.
Imagine my surprise when I saw a $53 "online service fee." Nowhere on the bill or online invoice does it warn us! Or even mention this! Why are we paying you to take our money?
This is gouging. Govern yourself accordingly.
Gloria and Frank Finkelstein, Pittsfield
----------
May 29, 2020
Hello (blogger) Dan Valenti,
I wish to present you and your readers with facts from Mayor Linda Tyer’s fiscal year 2021 municipal budget for Pittsfield, Massachusetts:
https://www.cityofpittsfield.org/city_hall/finance_and_treasurer/Budgets/FY_21_City_Budget/Pittsfield%20FY2021%20budget-City%20Council.pdf
The city government will receive decreased revenues due to the economic losses from the COVID 19 pandemic. City services will be diminished. The proposed operating budget is $179,322,414. Mayor Linda Tyer may submit to the City Council amended budgets right up until the City Council sets the tax rate.
The excess levy capacity information is interesting. The city government’s levy capacity changed by –80.8 percent. This is yet another example of Matt Kerwood’s creative accounting gimmicks. “Kufflinks” is using $1,870,892 from municipal accounts to offset the loss in state aid revenues. Also, $750,000.00 will be transferred and appropriated from Certified Free Cash to reduce the fiscal year 2021 tax rate. That is a big tax hike ($2,620,892) on Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski. Also, let us not forget that he (Matt Kerwood) has a $10.1 million slush fund.
As of June 30, 2019, Pittsfield had $164,239,033 in capital debt accounts, which does not include its OPEB liabilities. Municipal debts will be increasing over the next decade, while Pittsfield tax base will continue to shrink with population and job loss. The most recent figures from the state Department of Unemployment Assistance (as of May 27, 2020) show Berkshire County with a (COVID 19 pandemic) jobless rate of about 16 percent and Pittsfield at 18 percent.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Patrick Fennell wrote:
Jonathon;
Pittsfield hasn't had a democrat mayor in over five decades and MA has been run by a veto-proof Democrat legislator since before I was born and that is sixty-three years.
More people in the banking and investment businesses are democrats as well as the billionaires in the US. At Twitter for example, 98% of their employees donated to the Clinton campaign. Gates has milked the system so well he is a happy liberal. Someday I will tell you a funny story about him. I ate next to him at a diner at the Everett Airport in Washington state.
The tax laws, as well as 90% of laws passed, are written by lobbyists. Let's be honest Richie Neal can't read or write, just raises his hand when nudged.
At this point, if anyone doesn't see all the flaws and corruption in government on ALL levels they are idiots. The China Crisis has certainly not been the government's best movement and will be a major failure in history books.
So in November when you see Smitty, Richie Neal, and adam Hinds on your ballots, think of all they have NOT done during this crisis. Not sure if Markey will be on a MA or MD ballot, but JoeKIII just mumble incoherently for a living.
Patrick Fennell
my response:
May 30, 2020
Hello Pat,
Pittsfield politics makes a mockery of democracy! After many decades, it is still run by the Good Old Boys (& Girls) club. Pittsfield politicians are mostly interrelated, multigenerational families that conspiratorially keep each other in political office by serving the vested and special interests over the people who live in fear of them.
Massachusetts politics is ran by Boston Democratic Party powerbrokers. The people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts all know that Boston Pols are never to be trusted. The Berkshire legislative delegation to Beacon Hill are more like bureaucrats who get rewarded for following top-down orders than Legislators who represent their Western Massachusetts legislative districts.
U.S. Representative Richard Neal is totally corrupt. He is the top Democrat in U.S. Congress for accepting K Street corporate PAC special interest dollars. The people he supposedly represents in mostly rural Western Massachusetts have nothing in common with his corporate agenda. If you are not a wealthy corporate PAC, Congressman Richie Neal doesn’t really represent you.
U.S. Senator Ed Markey and challenger Congressman Joe Kennedy are infighting for no good reason. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s politics are questionable because she has been known to fill her own and other Democrats’ campaign coffers with Wall Street dollars.
Donald Trump’s main strategy to win a second term in the Oval Office this year is to blame China for all of our country’s problems. He is wrong to target a race of people to win votes. The Chinese have been discriminated in our country since the 19th Century. Hitler rose to power by blaming the Jewish people for Germany’s problems. Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years.
The U.S. Senate will reconvene on Monday, June 1st, 2020, after taking all of April and half of May off from work. It is an election year, so I believe they will pass another stimulus package soon. Capitol Hill is still raising campaign money from K Street lobbyists, while millions of American workers have lost their jobs and health insurance. Most of Capitol Hill’s stimulus money went to Wall Street and the corporate elites.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
----------
Look Ahead, Pittsfield: “City takes stark look at fiscal future”
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, May 31, 2020
The city's financial standing will begin to come into focus next week when the City Council on Tuesday evening holds a remote public hearing on next fiscal year's proposed operating budget, all while the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continues.
The economic downturn caused by the outbreak has Mayor Linda Tyer forecasting a 15 percent drop in unrestricted local aid from the state, a projection factored into the $169.5 million operating budget sent to the City Council for approval.
Following Tuesday's public hearing during the Council's Committee of the Whole meeting set to begin at 7 p.m., councilors will take a look at proposed spending for the following offices and departments: The mayor's office, City Council, City Solicitor, City Clerk, Council on Aging, Veterans Services and the Office of Cultural Development.
At a second meeting on Thursday, which will also be held remotely, councilors will debate spending proposals for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Information Technology, the Berkshire Athenaeum, Building Maintenance, Airport, Community Development, the Health Department, the Building Inspectors Department and the Personnel Department. The council has the authority to reduce budget lines, but not to increase them. The final three budget hearings are scheduled for June 11, 15 and 17.
Officials are bracing for deep cuts to state education aid, which accounts for about 65 percent of the city's school budget. The school spending plan that was sent to the council reflects what school leaders say is a best-case scenario for Chapter 70 funding — the same amount the district received last year. Councilors will take a look at the school spending proposal at their third budget hearing on June 11.
Despite the rosy projection, school committee members heard at a recent meeting that some budget watchers predict state education aid could fall 10 to 15 percent. On the lower end, that would equate to $4.77 million less revenue for Pittsfield's school system.
Meanwhile, Tyer, in her weekly address on Friday, said residents might see COVID-19 cases rise as the health department continues contacting people who may have been exposed to the virus so they can get tested. Friday was also the day that CVS debuted self-administered swabs at its West Street location — but tests are provided by appointment only and those who wish to get tested have to sign up online first.
https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing
Amanda Burke can be reached at aburke@berkshireeagle.com.
----------
“Pittsfield City Council faces tough questions on budget”
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, June 3, 2020
Pittsfield — With question marks punctuating the process, the City Council on Tuesday evening started weeding through Mayor Linda Tyer's proposed $169.5 million operating budget.
The $169.5 million budget request is approximately $1.65 million more than last year's spending plan for city expenditures, schools and enterprise funds, which represents the portion of the budget over which the City Council has control — though the city is poised to spend a total of just under $180 million next year.
This first of five hearings on the budget kicked off in an unprecedented manner, with 11 councilors logging into the public meeting over Zoom. The councilors, Tyer and department heads whose appropriations were up for debate Tuesday found themselves speaking at a virtual public meeting that heard no members of the public.
Though councilors themselves picked through appropriations requests, no members of the public logged on to speak their piece about public spending into a microphone. Tyer is proposing to raise $93.5 million in revenues from property taxes, and also plans to offset the tax rate with a $750,000 appropriation from free cash.
The city has proposed a 2 percent increase on local taxes, a half-percentage point below the maximum allowable increase under state law. The city would have raised just over $1.5 million more if the levy was hiked to the ceiling, according to Finance Director Matthew Kerwood.
The remainder of revenues come from state funds from unrestricted municipal aid, Chapter 70 school aid and local receipts. The amount of money that Pittsfield will see from the state next fiscal year is a glaring unknown, amid what Tyer called a "historic and rapid economic downturn" during the global coronavirus pandemic.
In her budget presentation to councilors, Tyer said officials from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which earlier in the municipal budget process outlined a "grim" picture of state finances, more recently painted an even bleaker picture.
She said the economy is "unlikely to ramp up quickly, and the job losses will be much greater than expected." Tyer's budget assumes unrestricted municipal aid will decline by 15 percent and school aid will be level compared to last year.
Tyer's salary was among the first issues councilors debated, though councilors ultimately narrowly voted in favor of her contractually obligated $2,462 raise — which increases her salary to $100,915. Ward 4 Councilor Chris Connell, Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio, Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey and Ward 1 Councilor Helen Moon voted in favor of an amendment to reduce the mayor's office budget by roughly the amount of Tyer's raise.
The amendment failed by 6-5 vote, but not before several councilors took issue with Tyer including receiving a raise in the middle of an economic downturn that has resulted in sky-high unemployment.
"There's so many people out there that are struggling, there's so many residents, businesses in this city that are struggling, and will they ever make it back?" said Morandi. "I think to set an example it would be the right thing to forgo a raise."
Tyer said she did not take salary raises permitted to her by contract for the past two years. She said that if the council voted in favor of reducing the budget line for the mayor's office, which it ultimately did not, then "I will reexamine the mayor's budget."
At-Large Councilor Earl Persip said Tyer has been leading the city during the pandemic, and that questioning her raise was unnecessary. "To question the mayor's leadership of the $2,000 raise that is in the city charter is just uncalled for in my opinion."
Kavey clarified that his opposition to the raise took a symbolic layer of importance and was not reflective of the mayor's leadership, saying, "when we're talking about laying people off and people losing their jobs, it's not appropriate to give people raises, but I do think mayor Tyer's been doing a great job."
Moon pointed to how at least 24 paraprofessionals and teachers will likely not return to Pittsfield Public Schools next year. She said the discussion about Tyer's raise is warranted "when I look at the school budget and I see the cuts that are being made."
On Tuesday, the councilors also approved a $106,062 City Council budget, a $219,623 city solicitor budget, a $344,272 city clerk's budget, and a $115,672 cultural development budget. The next budget hearing is on Thursday.
Amanda Burke can be reached at aburke@berkshireeagle.com, on Twitter @amandaburkec and 413-496-6296.
----------
Letter: “Fear the Fascists, not their foes”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 4, 2020
To the editor:
After this past week, we're now afraid of people that are anti-Fascist! With a Fascist in the White House are we really concerned with the left?
I know the bucolic Berkshires are only 4 percent minority but having a mayor worried about a group that confronts white supremacy, is disturbing at best..
Yeah, side with the overtime scammers and make sure you side with the people that you are actually afraid of, our police. Oops, you're white so you're not afraid, got it.
Dan Healy, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “City needs scientists on new water panel”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 5, 2020
To the editor:
Recently, households in the city of Pittsfield received a notification from the Dept. of Public Works that the water quality exiting the two Krofta water treatment plants did not meet regulatory standards. The possible harm to any residents was completely mitigated.
As one of the inventors of the sand floats which are the treatment units in the two water plants, I am certain that the problem arose because of improper operating procedures.
In January of 2019, I tried to convince the city to use ozonation technology at the sewer plant as the method to rid the effluent of phosphorus. The city instead used a process called ballasted proculation. The ballasted floculation method cost the city $61 million and is not able to remove the parasite Cyrptospan which killed 40 people in Milwaukee and sickened 4,000.
My recommendation was to use technology which can eliminate both the phosphorus problem in the sewage treatment plant and more importantly can remove the deadly parasite.
The plants also need daily Jar testing for optimum performance of our sand floats. This lack of daily testing can lead to less than optimum performance of the sand floats, which can lead to violations of regulatory standards.
As an expert in sand float technology I suggest that daily tests be conducted immediately at both plants. We can spot daily changes in water quality and we can easily change the dosing to the sand floats so they operate optimally and safely.
My proposal regarding the sewer treatment plant would have saved residents $40 million. In the 1980s, I and my partners took a $150 million proposal down to $32 million. This is proof that I have a track record of reducing public water and sewer projects by tens of millions of dollars.
Within the past couple of weeks, a common phenomenon known as seasonal overturn has been taking place at the reservoir. The water coming into the plant must be carefully studied for proper chemical dosing. This will also occur in the fall and winter and water chemistry must also be adjusted to prevent violations of regulatory standards.
I propose that a water commission composed of scientists and engineers be created to guide the mayor and City Council so they will not be hoodwinked on multi-million dollar upgrades to my two water treatment plants. This process must be guided by those with a solid background in science and engineering and not by elected officials.
The ratepayers and taxpayers of Pittsfield must insist that scientists and engineers make the decisions involving drinking water.
Formation of the water commission is essential so the city will have an organization that is working for them, not against them, as is the case with current city consultants. I will advise the commission as what needs to be done with the water plants and most importantly what doesn't need to be done. That's what the ratepayer demands to be done, and no bells and whistles we can live without.
Craig Gaetani, Pittsfield
----------
Letter: “Mayor shouldn't buy Trump's Antifa fiction”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 6, 2020
To the editor:
How disappointing that Mayor Linda Tyer would leap at the dog whistle of the president in his attempt to place the blame for the nation's unrest in a phantom radical left-wing cabal he labels Antifa. Snopes reports that the emails and other information sent out to state agencies is false. The Washington Post has published that the information sent out has, rather than originating from a non-existent organization labeled Antifa, comes instead from white supremacists trying to capitalize on the militarized police zeal to foment a race war.
It looks as though our State Police have decided to use this as an excuse to increase their presence in places it's not needed. Is it an attempt to increase their own overtime? Or is it something more nefarious? It has been reported in respected news agencies such as the New York Times and The Washington Post that there is evidence that white supremacists have infiltrated the very agencies who are supposed to protect and serve the community. We certainly see some of that in "White Power" signs caught on video by television reporters and demonstrators, flashed by a few officers patrolling cities during these demonstrations.
I certainly hope and do not think this is the case in Massachusetts, but by jumping at the red meat Trump is casting out there for his base, it certainly doesn't ease the racial tensions that thread through the Berkshires.
Stephen Collingsworth, North Adams
----------
June 8, 2020
Re: Open letter to blogger Dan Valenti
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I read your blog posting today regarding Matt Kerwood’s fiscal year 2021 municipal budget proposal for our native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Mayor Linda Tyer is increasing property taxes on Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski and their neighbors by $1,870,892 plus $750,000 from “free cash” for a total property tax increase of $2,620,892. The city government’s levy capacity changed by –80.8 percent. Moreover, Pittsfield’s fees are increasing by double digits. Also, Matt Kerwood has a 10.1 million slush fund, while senior citizens choose between food and medicine.
Tyer and Kerwood are big spenders of taxpayers’ dollars. They are also big borrowers! Pittsfield has $164,239,033 (as of 6/30/2019) in capital debt accounts, which does not include its OPEB liabilities. Matt Kerwood’s municipal debt projections increase during the 2020s decade.
There are little to no living wage jobs in Pittsfield. Thousands of people have moved away from Pittsfield due to the many hundreds of lost living wage jobs. In the 21st Century economy, once living wage jobs are lost, they are never coming back in our lifetime. The only way to get and retain a living wage job in Pittsfield is to kiss the dirty behinds of the infamous Good Old Boys (& Girls) club led by the likes of Naples, Florida and Lenox, Massachusetts resident Jimmy Ruberto.
Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas of the state and nation. One is either doing well or on some kind of public welfare and/or social services assistance. Good people have gone into help postindustrial communities such as Pittsfield, only to be turned away. My belief is that places like Pittsfield don’t want to change for the better because they make more money off of social services and public education state aid than they do when their working class residents earn living wage salaries.
I call it “perverse incentives”, which is a term in economics that explains how a firm makes money off of deleterious social outcomes. In Pittsfield, teen pregnancy rates double the statewide average while the state average in Massachusetts is trending downwards. In Pittsfield, people avoid the inner city after hours because it is filled with violent crimes, drugs, prostitution, and poverty.
I always felt there were two Pittsfields! One Pittsfield has doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, defense contractor workers, and the like. The other Pittsfield has a huge underclass. The ruling elite in Pittsfield profits off of this inequitable system, while thousands of young adults has little to no opportunity for upward social mobility.
The state government profits off of the state lottery and casino gambling, which is voluntary regressive taxation. They profit off of sin taxes such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and the like, which are called predatory businesses. Who do you think these predatory businesses target? The answer is places like Pittsfield. The underclass is financially illiterate and they do not understand economic exploitation by predatory businesses. The underclass doesn’t understand how politicians are inequitable to them on so many levels that it would be higher than the Empire State Building.
When the underclass gambles, smokes, drinks alcohol, and the like, the politicians are able to use “Matt Kerwood like” accounting gimmicks to lower the tax burden for big businesses who donate to their campaign coffers. I have a Master of Public Administration degree and I studied all of it. It used to confuse me decades ago, but then it all clicked that politicians are more interested in their power, status and campaign coffers than educating the people they are supposed to be serving about economic and financial public policies.
When you explain all of this to the ruling elite in state and local government, they block you or disregard it. If you call them out on how economically and financially inequitable their public policies are against Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski – the proverbial little guys – they dish out retribution. They will take away your job, blacklist you from employment, spread vicious rumors against you, make false allegations against you to the police, file “ethics” complaints against you if you are a state or local public worker, and the like.
In closing, it is hopeless to try to fight City Hall and/or the State House. The rich always get richer, while the poor always get poorer. The almighty dollar is all that matters no matter how unfair and inequitable it all is. I will always try to educate people about economics and financial public policies to the disdain of the ruling elite, but I don’t think it will help matters or bring positive change for the underclass.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
----------
June 11, 2020
I have read about Barry Clairmont's investments in a marijuana business in Pittsfield on Dan Valenti's awesome blog, but I do not have any first hand knowledge about it. I do, indeed, understand that Barry Clairmont is infamously known for his creative accounting practices in Pittsfield politics where his wife, the lovely Linda Tyer, is the Mayor. I believe Matt Kerwood is the worst of the worst when it comes to creative accounting in Pittsfield politics. I cannot believe that Matt Kerwood sits on a $10.1 million slush fund, while senior citizen fixed income taxpayers in Pittsfield (Mass.) have to choose between food and medicine. Matt Kerwood's fiscal year municipal budget proposal raise property taxes in Pittsfield by over $1,800,000 during a time when Pittsfield's distressed economy is at its nadir due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As for my arch-enemy Nuciforo, he obviously used his political connections in Pittsfield and Boston to be in the front of the line to open his marijuana dispensaries. It pay$ to be politically connected in the most corrupt state (Massachusetts) in the history of our country and World!
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
----------
“Pittsfield Public Schools to cut 140 teachers, administrators”
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, June 11, 2020
Pittsfield — The city's public schools district plans to cut nearly 140 educators and administrators from the district's rosters to prepare for steep declines in state aid.
Superintendent Jake McCandless told the school board Wednesday night that the district does not intend to cut all of those positions, but the reductions have been set in motion in order “to protect the district, to protect the city, against the very, very worst-case scenario."
In a letter to the school community announcing the reductions, he said it could be late July or August before the district how much Chapter 70 education funds it will receive from the state, an allocation that makes up about 64 percent of its annual budget.
District officials are estimating state aid will decline somewhere from 5 to 10 percent. According to McCandless, a 5 percent drop in state education funds would require another $2.5 million in budget cuts.
A 10 percent drop in state funds would create a $5 million funding gap, and represents the “worst-case scenario” for which McCandless is preparing by moving to reduce district rosters. He said “an unholy number” of contractually obligated notifications have or will soon be sent to educators and administrators informing them that, for now, they do not have a job at the district next year.
He said in his announcement earlier Wednesday that “we hope and we pray that this very worst-case scenario does not come to pass and that these non-renewals will be taken back as quickly as possible.”
The district has notified 70 educators who do not have professional teaching status and were hired on one-year contracts that their employment ends at the conclusion of the school year, said McCandless. The district anticipates eliminating 10 to 12 administrative positions.
On Friday, another 50 to 60 “reduction in force” notices will be sent to all first-year educators who are licensed in their field, and who started before Oct. 1, 2019, he said. Some more senior educators with professional teaching status could also receive force reduction notices that McCandless told the school community “we hope to not enact, but we will not know until deeper in the summer.”
Reducing the district’s ranks by nearly 140 educators and administrators “gets us closer to the worst-case scenario” for a 10 percent cut to Chapter 70 funding, he said.
McCandless said today’s City Council hearing on the school department's level-funded $65 million budget proposal will mark the first time in his career that he will stand before an executive committee and present a budget without knowing state aid levels.
At the school board meeting, he called on the state to send education aid to communities such as Pittsfield, where cuts are felt disproportionately compared to wealthier communities.
“Our real hope and our real confidence in the commonwealth is that, in spite of unprecedented economic challenges, they will indeed be fair and be equitable,” he said.
----------
Look Ahead, Pittsfield: “Stakes raised for budget season”
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, June 14, 2020
At the risk of stating the obvious, unprecedented is the only fair way to describe the past couple months.
As the pandemic stretched on protests for racial equality swept the Berkshires. The routine functions of government continue, albeit on Zoom, and local officials are staring down a deadline to put a budget framework in place by July 1.
To that end, councilors will scrutinize budget proposals for the city's police, fire and emergency management departments on Monday. As the national discussion around reducing and redirecting funding for police continues, we can expect some councilors and members of the community will have questions about the $11.4 million in spending proposed for the Pittsfield Police Department.
Chief Michael Wynn tells me he was asked to build a budget that maintains current staffing levels, so contractual obligations will necessarily rise. On the department's request for nearly $1.3 million for overtime, Wynn says chronic staffing shortages continue requiring his officers work extra hours.
He said he understands calls to invest more in social and community organizations, but says cutting his budget would mean cutting personnel in a city department that he says functions as "24-hour available response agency" even for noncriminal matters. Meanwhile, voices in the community are saying police are asked to do too much, and want city dollars flowing to social services agencies.
With cuts proposed at the school department in the background, the move to increase spending for police by $524,597, or almost 5 percent over last year, in Mayor Linda Tyer's municipal budget framework likely won't go unnoticed.
On Wednesday, councilors are expected to revisit the School Committee's proposed $65.1 million level-funded Pittsfield Public Schools budget, after a marathon hearing ended without a resolution last week. The proposal hinges on a great unknown: the district's allotment of Chapter 70 education funds next fiscal year. Assuming the state doesn't cut funding, the budget would eliminate more than two-dozen positions from the district's roster, largely through attrition.
But to prepare for what Superintendent Jake McCandless calls the "worst-case" scenario — that state funding craters — the district is due to notify nearly 140 teachers and staff members that they might not have a job next year. McCandless said he hopes and plans to rescind some or all of the notices.
On Monday, Pittsfield and other Berkshire County educators will join the front lines during a statewide series of "Week of Action" demonstrations backed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Rallies are scheduled for 4 p.m. in Park Square in Pittsfield and at North Adams City Hall.
The Police Advisory and Review Board will hold its first meeting in several months over videoconference 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Among the topics set for discussion are how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the police department, and how the community has reacted to systemic racism. The board will also review PPD policies for the use of chokeholds, restraining "individuals in a prone position" as well as the deployment of pepper spray and tear gas, according to the evening's agenda.
The June budget process could near an end on Wednesday, when councilors will meet remotely at 7 p.m. for the last in the series of scheduled hearings. On the docket that night is a vote to approve $169.5 million in municipal spending for fiscal 2021.
Amanda Burke can be reached at aburke@berkshireeagle.com, on Twitter @amandaburkec and 413-496-6296.
----------
June 20, 2020
Re: Corrupt EPA and GE settlement is horrible
Hello “Not That Simple”, news media, & the people:
U.S. President Donald Trump’s EPA is totally corrupt and is doing a disservice to environmental causes. GE is totally disingenuous about its heavy debt burden and billions of dollars in negative cash flow. The combination of the corrupt EPA and GE’s accounting fraud spells doom for the proposed cleanup of the Housatonic River in Berkshire County, Western Massachusetts.
The most important point I wish to make is that GE has up to $94 billion in debts, plus billions of dollars in negative cash flow over the past year. The corrupt EPA and GE has not put one cent into a trust account to cleanup the Housatonic River, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and will take over one decade to complete. Trump’s corrupt EPA will be history by the time the cleanup begins. GE’s corporate finances will have heavy debts for decades to come. Without a financial commitment, such as GE placing up to one billion dollars in a trust for the cleanup of the Housatonic River, the settlement is only academic and completely worthless. GE is disingenuous to make an agreement with the corrupt EPA without committing even one penny to back up its questionable promises.
The second most important point I wish to make is that capped landfills do not last forever. As time passes, the caps become defective, and the PCBs spread in the air, land, and water. Two decades ago, Pittsfield Mayor Gerry Doyle and the late then GE CEO Jack Welch’s Consent Agreement capped most of the PCBs in Pittsfield, which cost GE over $500 million. The capped landfills won’t last much longer, which puts Allendale Elementary School and neighboring areas in Pittsfield in danger of GE’s industrial chemicals. Lee, Mass., knows all about Pittsfield’s “leaky landfills” problem, and the people who live in Lee and Lenoxdale are protesting GE putting a toxic waste capped landfill in their town.
The last point I wish to make is that many thousands of Pittsfield residents have suffered and/or died from cancer due to GE’s cancer causing PCBs. When Pittsfield and neighboring towns cite the cost of litigating in court with GE, they all overlook the cost of human lives!
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
----------
June 21, 2020
Hello Pat,
I fully agree with you about Congressman Richard Neal selling out the people he supposedly represents in his Western Massachusetts legislative district. Richie Neal is the ultimate corporate Democrat, and he is #1 out of 535 Members of U.S. Congress for K Street corporate PAC dollars. Neal turns my stomach! He represents everything I stand against in government and politics. I wish he would retire after over 3 decades on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has been on both sides of the Main Street versus Wall Street proverbial fence. She is a politician of double standards when it comes to economic and financial public policies. The one thing I respect about Liz Warren is that she has lived the life of a working poor women, which means she understands what it is like for over 90 percent of the U.S. working population.
U.S. Senator Ed Markey will most likely lose to Congressman Joe Kennedy 3 on September 1st, 2020. He will be history soon.
U.S. President Donald Trump lives a double life! He won't disclose his personal and business financial tax documents. Trump has significantly outraised Joe Biden in Super PAC and K Street corporate PAC dollars. If the election is decided on special interest campaign donations, Trump will win by a landslide. And yes, I think that is horrible!
Trump's corrupt EPA has suspended environmental regulations that will put millions of people at risk of toxic waste chemicals similar to the ones (PCBs) in Pittsfield that run through your town of Great Barrington and down to the Long Island Sound. I am very upset with Trump's corrupt EPA for doing a disservice to our public health.
As for General Electric Company, they have a very heavy debt burden that will be with them for decades to come. GE's cash flow has been negative by billions of dollars over the past year. GE's accounting practices have been questionable since 1995 or for 25 years now. The corrupt EPA and GE are making false promises to cleanup the Housatonic River, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars by over one dozen years, without GE putting even one penny into a trust account. What if GE goes financially insolvent? What if GE goes bankrupt? What will happen when we have a new U.S. President who will stop corporate polluters like GE from making questionable settlements with the EPA?
Best wishes,
Jonathan
-----
Hello Pat,
I believe Joe Kennedy 3 will use his 6 year seat in the U.S. Senate to plan a run for U.S. President in either 2024 or 2028. Did you know that a Kennedy never lost a statewide election in the history of Massachusetts elections?
From what I understand, Donald Trump has a very long history with Deutsche Bank in Germany. Russia's billionaire Oligarchs who are all connected to Russian President Putin helped to finance Deutsche Bank, which helped to finance Trump's businesses because all other banks would not do business with Trump. In 2016, Trump had the full support of Putin and Deutsche Bank. Trump refuses to release his tax returns and other financial documents because it would prove his political connections are with Russia and Germany's Deutsche Bank instead of with the United States of America.
Joe Biden's family is among many political families with connections to Ukraine, Russia, and/or Eastern European special interests. From what I understand, Joe Biden's son Hunter got a Hooters waitress/stripper pregnant, and he did not want to take responsibility for his partner and baby, as well, he had questionable connections to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. He made mistakes in his life, but his father still loves his son nonetheless.
I am totally disgusted by Trump's corrupt EPA! No person should be at risk of industrial chemical pollution. The corrupt EPA suspended their regulations which protects people from being exposed to said chemicals. The corrupt EPA is wrong! The corrupt EPA and GE settlement to cleanup the Housatonic River is horrible, too!
I agree with you, Pat, that politicians and their bureaucrat cronies care more about their money and other benefits than the people they are supposed to be serving. Many people do not trust politicians and bureaucrats, including you and me.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
----------
Letter: “City Council threatening police, residents”
The Berkshire Eagle, June 26, 2020
To the editor:
The Pittsfield City Council has begun a revolt against city residents. At the June 15 City Council budget hearing, Police Chief Wynn explained the need to expand our police force to 110-120. They provide traffic enforcement, well-being visits, roadside assistance, emergency and wildlife response to a city both urban and rural and geographically larger than Springfield. Budgeted for 99 officers, the force is at 84. Ignoring strategies to recruit officers, the Council instead budgeted a radical agenda. They cut $100,000 and replaced two patrol officers with social workers. Nonetheless, they allocated $1,400,000 in overtime to cover the understaffed department.
Wynn answered precisely every question. What he got for his preparation was less than nothing. The Police Department's Community Outreach program was derided. Addressing the lack of personnel, our councilors propose replacing officers with civil servants who would act as first responders handling 911 crisis calls without officers present. Assuming a civil servant would be willing to risk the encounter without support, no department can afford the liability of sending civilians into a potentially hazardous environment without police presence. Predictably, Chief Wynn explained that the Police Department is not authorized to hire and manage social workers.
For almost four hours, Wynn witnessed extractions from funds, musings about how many bullets they need, and the paring of personnel. He endured withering suggestions that residents calling 911 for hazardous disturbances involving mental illness should not expect an officer trained in mitigation but instead an unsupported counselor. The Council never asked if a fully staffed Police Department could control the drugs, shootings, and crime-based oppression which mostly targets our minority communities and is driving out residents and businesses. This meeting is evidence of a revolt against the residents who expect City Council to allocate taxpayers' funds responsibly and conscientiously.
Pittsfield residents: is it acceptable to abandon a financially strapped police department lacking funds to attract recruits? Eight members on City Council state that their constituents want an impaired department and are using their power to accomplish that goal. If you oppose their plans, you need to make your voices heard in City Council and in print. In the June 15 public input period, our wealthiest residents echoed each others demands for reductions. No one asked the hard question of what the most endangered communities need from policing, and there seems to be no one standing in their way.
Charles Kronick, Pittsfield
----------
“Pittsfield City Council Approves 2021 Budget”
By Josh Landes, WAMC, June 26, 2020
The Pittsfield, Massachusetts city council has accepted a $170 million budget for fiscal year 2021.
The city’s spending plan ultimately came in $100,000 less than its initial proposal – money cut from the police department at the June 15th budget hearing.
The final vote on the much-debated fiscal year 2021 financial strategy came Thursday night, after city administrators and councilors once again argued over how to fund Pittsfield’s public schools.
Ward 1 Councilor Helen Moon has been an outspoken critic of the proposed level-funded $65.5 million budget and its $1.4 million in cuts from fiscal year 2020 that would leave 26 positions unfilled in the coming year. She said she was disappointed that the school committee returned the budget back to the council unchanged after it was rejected by city legislators, and that the cuts would hit the city’s neediest students the hardest.
“I would have liked to have seen the $100,000 that was cut from the police budget to go the school department budget at least, and the response that I heard was that, well, we have to save that for if we get less than for the Chapter 70 funding,” said Moon.
With Massachusetts expected to see a multi-billion dollar revenue loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, uncertainty has clouded how much funding public schools can expect in the coming fiscal year. Last year, more than 70% of Pittsfield’s school department budget was funded by state aid.
“It did not make sense to me because there was money that was allocated to a different department that didn’t exist until it was cut from the police department budget, so I am a little confused at the hesitation on shifting those dollars over," continued Moon. "And if we are very concerned about what Chapter 70 funding is going to look like for the schools, then I think that we should wait until we see what Chapter 70 is for the schools.”
By some estimates, that information could come as late as September. Pittsfield faced a June 30th deadline to set its budget for fiscal year 2021, which begins July 1st. Failure to pass a budget would have forced the city to adopt a monthly or 1/12th budget for at least three months – something the school department and city administration were staunchly opposed to.
“We really believe that – and I say this as a superintendent that has never worked under a 1/12th budget – but we really believe that our planning, our ability to let people know that they are back and they are secure in their employment, our ability to schedule elementary schools let alone the high school scheduling which is very complex, is really going to be hampered by being on a 1/12th scenario because we will only have a full assurance of our elected city council that we have one month’s ability to pay these folks in front of us,” Pittsfield Public Schools Superintendent Jake McCandless.
The school department initially issued at least 140 pink slips to its over 1,500 employees this month in preparation for a worst-case scenario in state funding.
Mayor Linda Tyer explained her opposition to drawing on the city’s over $8 million in reserves.
“I’ve been very clear from the beginning that it is important for us to maintain our reserves, to maintain our excess levy to the best of our ability," she told the council. "And if we find ourselves in a predicament where we have a shortfall in Chapter 70 money, we will come back to the city council with a proposed plan to cover that shortfall. I’m not prepared to do any additional funding of the school budget at this time, but you have my commitment that if there is a shortfall in Chapter 70, we will cover it.”
The final 8-3 vote saw Councilors Moon, Christopher Connell, and Kevin Morandi in opposition to the budget.
-----
June 26, 2020
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
After you read the enclosed news article, please note how Mayor Linda Tyer won't touch Matt Kerwood's $10.1 million slush fund, while she and 8 Pittsfield (Mass.) City Councilors voted to raise property taxes by over $1,800,000 plus $750,000 in so-called "free cash". Why is it so important to Mayor Linda Tyer and 8 out of 11 City Councilors to raise property taxes during the 2020 economic recession during the COVID-19 pandemic, while not touching Matt Kerwood's huge slush fund?
The other thing that bothers me is that Beacon Hill has not passed a fiscal year 2021 state budget yet, despite July 1st, 2020, being less than one week away. How can municipalities like Pittsfield (Mass.) rationally pass a one year budget when it has no idea what its state aid funds will be? It is like trying to pick the winning numbers hoping to win the Powerball jackpot.
I feel bad for the working class taxpayers of Pittsfield (Mass.) because they are getting hit with a tax hike while Matt Kerwood sits on a huge slush fund and Beacon Hill hasn't passed a state budget yet. All of this makes no sense!
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: “Pittsfield's health insurance policies need scrutiny”
The Berkshire Eagle, July 13, 2020
To the editor:
The city of Pittsfield paid $94,827 for health care insurance for some current city councilors and former councilors who served 10 years ago or longer and are no longer representing Pittsfield in any way.
The city of Pittsfield is a business, not a charity, so why does the city have such a large expenditure for the equivalent of part-time employees?
I can see health coverage being part of an overall pay package and to help incentivize diversity, but how many businesses do you know of that provide or could afford 100 percent health coverage for part-time employees or past employees and to keep paying that expense for possibly a very long time, not only for individual coverage but family coverage?
It is also my understanding that councilors may also qualify for a pension as well after serving 10 years or more. Is being a councilor a full-time or part-time job?
I would suggest that the City Council give Peter Marchetti the authorization to publish in The Eagle an explanation of what benefits are available to councilors and past councilors and for how long and at what cost.
To hear that if all councilors opted into a family health insurance plan that the benefits would cost taxpayers $210,000 annually — what a frightening statement. How can Pittsfield afford to pay that kind of money while our public buildings go to ruin, teachers get threatened with pink slips, fire trucks aren't replaced, a police station remains in the 1950s, etc.
I congratulate Peter Marchetti for bringing this to our attention.
This present arrangement reeks of conflict of interest and poor financial planning.
King Francis, Pittsfield
----------
“Shelter closes, leaving homeless in the cold”
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, July 13, 2020
Pittsfield — An emergency homeless shelter at the former St. Joseph Central High School closed on Monday, putting even more stress on the city's capacity to house some of its most vulnerable residents.
To compound the problem, the city's permanent shelter is operating at reduced capacity due to the coronavirus pandemic and is already full.
"Right now, they got their cots filled, so if their cots are filled, everyone else is just on the streets," said a former St. Joe's resident that asked to be identified only by her first name, Jessica.
She spoke on the sidewalk Monday outside the Maplewood Avenue building, where a sign on the door notified the shelter's closing as of July 13. Someone wheeled a black fridge down a ramp into a truck parked outside, and Jessica said she was trying to get materials together for her Pittsfield Housing Authority application before the agency's office closed at 3 p.m.
She said she'd been in and out of Barton's Crossing and then St. Joe's since November, using money she receives through social security stay in a hotel room when she can. She spent the night inside the hulking former high school on Friday, when she learned the temporary facility was coming to an end.
Staff told residents of St. Joe's end date the week before, but Jessica said she hadn't been there. By Friday, all 10 of the cots Barton's Crossing were spoken for, she said.
"There's a lot of people here that say they don't have a spot. There's a lady here that said she's gonna sleep at the laundry. Another one said the post office," said Jessica. "I'm stuck in my car. So the plan is the McDonald's parking lot, and that's where I'll sleep."
ServiceNet operates Barton's Crossing. Its vice president of shelter and housing, Jay Sacchetti, said state-mandated physical distancing rules required the shelter reduce its capacity by half.
"We typically serve 20, but we're only contracted to serve 10 now," he said. There are also 13 permanent supportive housing beds at Barton's Crossing.
The overflow shelter opened in April to prevent overcrowding at Barton's Crossing. Mayor Linda Tyer had originally said St. Joe's would serve as a place where homeless people could stay for coronavirus-related isolations and quarantines, but the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency chose to use a city hotel for that purpose.
Tyer's office said she was not available to comment on Monday.
Sacchetti said a lack of funding and stress levels of the staff led to the closing.
But there are not enough beds at Barton's Crossing for everyone who requests one, he noted, and that capacity was an issue before the pandemic-induced distancing rules reduced the number of beds it can have at its facility, he said. Demand for beds has increased every year since ServiceNet took over Barton's Crossing and a number of temporary housing units for families in 2012.
Over the course of 2012, around 124 people received a shelter bed through one of the four programs it operates in the city, said Sacchetti. "Now we've pushed well into the early 300s. I think we're at 325," he said.
The temporary shelter launched toward the start of the pandemic, and was never meant to be a permanent addition to the city's existing homelessness services, Sacchetti said. It's been tough for employees as well as ServiceNet's finances, he said.
It's unclear whether state reimbursements will materialize to cover the expenses of operating the temporary shelter in July, during the first few days of the new fiscal year. He said, "We've been basically staffing it for free for the last three weeks."
Ed Carmel previously experienced homelessness and leads the city's Homeless Prevention Committee, which he said is down members and hasn't met for the past few months, when in-person meetings have been off the table.
He estimates somewhere between 20 to 30 people are "back on the streets or out in the woods" following the end of the temporary shelter at St. Joe's.
Last week, several people sought supplies at the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community on North Street. "They were begging for tents, begging. Because they knew on Monday they were gone," he said.
Ann Marie Jones, an advocate who was also formerly homeless, said the coronavirus pandemic has only made a difficult situation worse for direct homelessness service providers with limited resources and the people they serve.
"The emotional temperature of the homeless community is very high," she said. "There is just so much change since COVID, and so much concern."
Amanda Burke can be reached at aburke@berkshireeagle.com, on Twitter @amandaburkec and 413-496-6296.
----------
Letter: “On the closing of the shelter at St. Joseph's”
The Berkshire Eagle, July 20, 2020
To the editor:
I am responding to concerns raised regarding closing the St. Joseph temporary emergency shelter site in Pittsfield.
Declining shelter census numbers did not justify keeping it open, especially with low COVID-19 infections and limited resources available to support an expanded shelter operation indefinitely.
We needed to be strategic about the utilization of finite resources to ensure that beds are available when they are needed most. On the date we closed the shelter, there were four individuals whom we had a challenge assisting due to behavioral issues and a related resistance to housing search.
The shelter was opened in collaboration with the city of Pittsfield and Soldier On to address public health concerns related to the concentration of residents at Barton's Crossing during the initial outbreak of the pandemic in Berkshire County, one of the earliest pandemic hot zones in the commonwealth. The collaboration between the city, Soldier On and ServiceNet allowed for effective mitigation of this imminent public health crisis. It is important to note that this initiative worked with limited resources to meet the challenge of creating an expanded temporary emergency shelter, which included opening a previously vacant building, hiring skilled staff and creating safe sleeping quarters.
This incredibly rapid response allowed us to shelter up to 50 individuals a night through March and April, which effectively contained the spread of the virus and mitigated a potential public health crisis. At the same time, our staff had to learn how to manage the threat of potential exposure to the virus that confronted them daily. They are truly the silent heroes.
Our staff provided case management assistance to 55 individuals, which resulted in 30 formerly homeless people being rapidly rehoused into permanent housing. The remaining people through case management gained access to mainstream resources, making it easier for them to maintain stable housing in the future. We have continued to work with those individuals. For many others, the St. Joe's site was a brief stop as they had another place to go, which is not an uncommon dynamic among a percentage of the homeless population.
ServiceNet is working on a plan to address a potential second wave in the fall, which requires identifying and securing the necessary shelter space to accommodate an influx of individuals as well as allowing for shelter staff to regroup so that they can provide support in future high-demand periods.
We will continue to work with other social service providers and the city of Pittsfield to address the ongoing community challenges of homelessness, which is not unique to Berkshire County but a national crisis that has been made more acute by the pandemic.
Jay Sacchetti, Pittsfield
The writer is senior vice president of shelter and housing, vocational and addiction services at ServiceNet.
----------
After the temporary homeless shelter at the former St. Joseph Central High School closed, ServiceNet is moving ahead in pursuit of approvals to offer shelter beds at First United Methodist Church on Fenn Street before winter. credit: Eagle file photo
“Prayer might be answered after temporary Pittsfield homeless shelter closes”
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, July 17, 2020
Pittsfield — After the temporary homeless shelter at the former St. Joseph Central High School closed, ServiceNet is moving ahead in pursuit of approvals to offer shelter beds at First United Methodist Church on Fenn Street before winter.
Several years into its search space for a new shelter, an application for special permit approvals needed to allow shelter beds at the church is set to be heard by the Community Development Board on Tuesday night. Jay Sacchetti, ServiceNet 's vice president of shelter and housing, said the request is made all the more urgent as physical distancing requirements force shelters across the state to depopulate.
"For the duration of this pandemic, [the church] would be our expansion to depopulate and socially distance," Sacchetti said. "We want to be good partners, good neighbors, so if that can happen and we can keep Barton's [Crossing] open, we can have two sites."
Sacchetti said plans for providing shelter during the coronavirus pandemic are fluid, and he added that there could be roadblocks along the way.
"Funding materializes and disappears, and you run into little roadblocks here and there; you set a date and most of the time it's hard to hit that date," he said. Sacchetti also said that for as long as he has been working in the field, proposals for new shelter locations have prompted opposition from some.
"There's always people that are nervous and fearful," he said. "[But], I've never had one venture that we've done that turns into a nightmare for the community; it just doesn't happen."
Sacchetti said it's nerve-racking for him to think about pulling together the prospective shelter at 55 Fenn St. by the end of the fall, when temperatures drop.
"Can we do all of this before November, the winter? That's the question. I'm not hanging my hat on this, because I know how it all works," he said.
The temporary shelter at the former St. Joe's closed Monday, after more than three months in operation, prompting criticism from advocates who said the shelter closed suddenly and left residents without a place to go.
Sacchetti said ServiceNet informed the administration about its July 13 end date at the end of June. Erin Forbush, director of housing and shelter for ServiceNet, said many residents received two to three weeks' notice.
St. Joe's opened April 7, a few weeks before emergency winter shelters at Barton's Crossing and Soldier On closed for the season. There had been about 50 people at the Barton's Crossing winter shelter, Sacchetti said, and the temporary shelter at St. Joe's accommodated the same number of residents.
In past years, Forbushsaid, up to 20 shelter beds typically were available at Barton's Crossing at 1307 North St. after the emergency winter shelter closed, though, during the pandemic, capacity has been reduced to 10.
When the pandemic arrived in the Berkshires, ServiceNet's staff had to learn how to safely operate a shelter during the pandemic, which meant that all residents had their temperatures checked and answered a health questionnaire before entering, Sacchetti said.
One individual who had requested shelter at St. Joe's presented with symptoms, but staff redirected him to an isolation room that the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency established at an area hotel, according to Forbush and Sacchetti.
"They came to work," Forbush said of ServiceNet's staff. "And I made sure they knew that they were an essential employee."
Aside from that individual, they said no one who stayed at St. Joe's during its run experienced symptoms.
At its peak, the number of residents at St. Joe's reached 50, they said. Forbush said that when the number of residents at St. Joe's started dwindling, ServiceNet began considering whether it made sense to keep the temporary shelter open.
ServiceNet had run out of money to staff St. Joe's, Sacchetti said. The organization's request for about $800,000 in emergency Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act has received "preliminary approval," he said, though the money has not arrived and he expects that the organization ultimately will receive less than that because of high demand for CARES Act money from homelessness services providers statewide.
ServiceNet would use the CARES Act money to support efforts to depopulate the shelters it runs in Pittsfield, Greenfield and Northampton.
Staff members' ultimate goal is to find long-term housing for residents, Forbush said. She said there were 18 to 20 residents at St. Joe's on the last night of shelter operations, and before then, residents already had opted to leave after learning that the temporary shelter was ending. Ten residents received beds at Barton's Crossing, which reopened at reduced capacity as St. Joe's closed, and others left to stay with family or friends, according to Sacchetti.
He said all but four residents left without arrangements in place for a place to stay.
Amanda Burke can be reached at aburke@berkshireeagle.com, on Twitter @amandaburkec and 413-496-6296.
----------
July 20, 2020
Hello Dan Valenti, It is well known fact that Matt Kerwood is sitting on a slush fund worth over $10 million in cold hard Kapan$ki Ka$h. Why doesn’t the lovely Linda Tyer use some of the +ten million dollars to help the 120 homeless residents of inner city Pittsfield have a roof over their heads at night? Also, it is a known fact the Governor Charlie Baker is sitting on a slush fund of over $3.5 billion in cold hard Kapan$ki Ka$h. Why doesn’t Tricia Farley Bouvier and Adam Hinds use some of the +$3.5 billion to help the 120 homeless residents of inner city Pittsfield have a roof over their heads at night? What are all of these slush funds for if politicians don’t spend the millions or billions of dollars to help the most needy and vulnerable residents of Pittsfield, Massachusetts? If I were in the proverbial shoes of Matt Kerwood, the lovely Linda Tyer, Tricia Farley Bouvier, Adam Hinds, or Charlie Baker, I would use the slush funds to help the homeless people! Best wishes, Jonathan Melle
&
(Sarcasm): Pittsfield at its finest!
(Not sarcasm): We are in a coronavirus pandemic, 2020 economic recession, high unemployment and uninsured, distressed family and small business constrained finances, hospitals facing PPE shortages, financially insolvent state and local governments, at risk homeless people with medical conditions, and the like. What does Pittsfield do? They abruptly close St. Joe’s homeless shelter leaving its most needy and vulnerable residents to live on the streets/public parks.
Meanwhile, Matt Kerwood sits on a $10.1 million slush fund, which means the lovely Linda Tyer had the money to help the homeless people have a roof over their heads.
----------
(picture of First United Methodist Church on Fenn Street)
The United Methodist Church of Pittsfield, located at the corners of Fenn and Pearl streets and Renne Avenue, is the proposed site of a homeless shelter to be operated by ServiceNet, a mental health and human services agency. credit: Jenn Smith - The Berkshire Eagle
“Downtown shelter idea sparks resistance”
By Jenn Smith, The Berkshire Eagle, July 21, 2020
Pittsfield — As the number of homeless people taking up residence in Springside Park increases, only one proposal for a new shelter has been brought to the Community Development Board table, and it's meeting opposition.
The First United Methodist Church of Pittsfield, located at 55 Fenn St., has submitted an application to the board to approve a special permit to develop a shelter to serve between 20 and 40 people within the existing building space. The project, if approved, would replace the outdated Barton's Crossing shelter, located on the outskirts of the city, at 1307 North St. ServiceNet, the mental health and human services agency which currently operates Barton's Crossing, would lease the church space and manage the proposed shelter program.
The board heard nearly an hour's worth of public comment — namely from residents in support of the proposal and downtown business owners in opposition of its planned location — before deciding to continue the public hearing on the matter until Aug. 18.
"I'm not sure I've ever been involved in a decision as difficult as this one," Community Development Board member Elizabeth Herland said.
"For me I really need more time," board member Floriana Fitzgerald said. "We need to hear from the abutters. We need a better discussion, a more open discussion, where people will be able to have that conversation and give their suggestions and let us know what their fears are and learn how they can help the homeless. But we need more time and need more information."
On Monday, July 20, the United Methodist Church's Rev. Ralph Howe and members of the church and ServiceNet community held a two-hour virtual Zoom meeting with 60 people to discuss the proposal, but Jesse Cook-Dubin, a local attorney and former president of Downtown Pittsfield Inc., said the meeting was called with only two days' notice, leading to a lack of participation from abutters and downtown business owners.
Cook-Dubin and other opponents of the proposal acknowledged the increasing struggle of homelessness in the city but say they worry that the presence of homeless people could adversely affect already struggling downtown businesses and cultural venues.
"Panhandling is a detriment to downtown Pittsfield," Hotel on North owner David Tierney said.
Shipton Building owner Steve Oakes and others expressed concern with people loitering between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the shelter is closed.
"There's a window during the day when these people are a problem. It seems to me this shelter should not be in the heart of our downtown," he said.
Supporters of the proposed shelter questioned these opinions, noting that the matter of homelessness and the shelter proposal itself are nothing new.
Berkshire Craft Beer Festival co-founder Jim Bronson said that last summer's festival was heavily promoted to specifically raise funds for the relocation of Barton's Crossing to the church. The city has also approved permitting to allow the church to install a sprinkler system in preparation for renovations for the shelter, which will take up approximately 6,000 square feet in the building's former Sunday school classrooms. The proposal calls for the designation of two men's dormitories and a women's dorm, with renovated shower and restroom facilities, laundry services, shared kitchen space, and offices for programming on site.
"Successful communities are inclusive and are functioning for everybody," Berkshire Housing Development Corporation President Elton Ogden said.
A couple of hours before the 6 p.m. start of the lengthy Community Development Board meeting, Mayor Linda Tyer returned a call seeking comment from The Eagle then also took to her Facebook page to make a public statement on the issue of homelessness in the city.
"I understand there's a lot of concern about members of the homeless community. I'm concerned, too. This is an extremely complex situation and it does not have a one-size fits all solution," her post began.
Community members have mobilized grassroots efforts to support people displaced last week after the closing of a temporary shelter at the former St. Joseph Central High School.
"The City of Pittsfield and local government does not have the expertise to own and operate a homeless shelter," Tyer told The Eagle.
She said in both her public post and the interview that the city is working closely with ServiceNet and its human service partners to understand the needs of the local homeless population.
"The city depends on our service providers to best serve our homeless population and provide healthy and appropriate options," Tyer said in her post.
She encouraged anyone in need of support or wanting to help support the city's homeless to call ServiceNet at 413-448-5353.
related link: https://www.iberkshires.com/story/62685/Homeless-Encampments-Springing-Up-in-Pittsfield-Parks-.html
----------
To the editor:
My heart is breaking about the Verizon Wireless cell tower being constructed at the end of my street.
Like all my Alma Street neighbors, I was shocked to learn that the reason for the construction vehicles coming up here was to prepare for a cell tower.
It has been a hopeless, helpless feeling. We built this house with our own two hands and spent decades adding, investing in it and improving it. We bought the empty lot between us and our neighbor so it couldn't be developed and would preserve the nature and open space around us. We love it here. We felt safe here. That all changed in March when truck after truck came up the street and cut down trees.
Neighbors were told in the time it would take to organize, the tower would be up and there would be nothing we could do. It is a gut-wrenching feeling. I feel like everything my husband and I had worked so hard for is being taken away. We have retired here. We spend all of our time outdoors doing our own farming. We want our home to be a place for family reunions and a spot for our kids and grandkids to visit and enjoy the beauty of the Berkshires, not see a cell tower.
We want to feel safe here and not worry about a tower catching on fire, collapsing, not being maintained, potentially going up another 50 feet and having additional antennas built. We don't want to worry about our health or safety because we live near it. People who are living next to towers have reported a variety of symptoms. None of us want a tower in our beautiful family neighborhood, nor do we believe this is an appropriate location for one.
We have now spent the money saved for our retirement on trying to stop the tower. We want to enjoy our time here, and I'm afraid if the tower is allowed to go up, I will live in concern and fear every day for my health and the health of all those here.
Judy Herzig, Pittsfield
How many tens of millions of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski's hard-earned tax dollars were spent on "Ruberto's Renaissance" on dangerous downtown Pittsfield? In addition, well over $2 million dollars from GE's 2000 $10 million settlement fund were also spent by Mayor Jimmy Ruberto on the so-called arts and cultural mecca that is North Street that supposedly rivals Paris, London, Manhattan (NYC), and L.A. There have been art exhibits by Gregory Crewdson that show downtown Pittsfield in a Dickensian light that were shown at World famous museums in London, Manhattan, and L.A. The lovely Linda Tyer forgave millions in so-called loans to out-of-town millionaire Richard Stanley. I believe dangerous downtown Pittsfield is a black hole that sucks up Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski's hard-earned tax dollars. North Street is called "Social Services Alley" by day, and "The Shooting Gallery" by night/after hours. I spent my then young adult life trying my best not to end up on North Street. I call Pittsfield's social problems and issues "Perverse Incentives", whereby I explain that Pittsfield profits off of poverty and crime. I told my parents the other day that when I studied public administration, I read that a community thrives when the politicians and businesses invest in the people who live there. But in Pittsfield, Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski always get the proverbial shakedown and shaft by City Hall and Beacon Hill. Pittsfield has shrinking population, jobs, and tax base, while taxes, fees, public debts, poverty and crime always increase. Downtown Pittsfield is not a normal business district. If one ends up on North Street or inner-city Pittsfield, it usually means they did not succeed in living a rewarding life.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
----------
August 9, 2020
I am saddened by Gerry Doyle's death, too. He was kind to me when I was a boy and young man. I have criticized his time as Mayor of Pittsfield, but now I feel bad about it after he passed away. I was frustrated with him for signing the 2000 Consent Decree, the failed PEDA "business" park, the millions of public dollars that is still unaccounted for, his alcoholism, and "Good Old Boys" barstool Pittsfield politics. In the end, I feel warmly about him. He was a good man.
- Jonathan Melle
May 16, 2021
Here is my latest plan to get state and local tax breaks from the Lovely Linda, Kufflinks, Trippy Country Buffet, and Chrome Dome. I am going to donate $1,000 dollars to each of their campaign coffers, as well as a $1,000 to Kufflink's stash. I am going to take them all out to free lunches and buy them a few drinks. I am going to donate all of my Earthly belongings in my will to Kufflink's well over $10 million slush fund. Then I am going to tell them my latest business proposal to make Pittsfield vibrant and dynamic. I am going to build a brand new factory on PEDA's polluted and mostly vacant so-called business park that will turn 23-years-old this Summer of 2021. My proposed factory will capture all of the skunk-like marijuana odors in a bottle that Pittsfield's working class neighborhoods wake up to every morning. Then, I am going to set up a brand new website where people who are disgusted with their elected career politicians can order and send the bottles of stinky pot smells to City Hall, the Statehouse, or Capitol Hill and The White House. When the people and taxpayers get the proverbial shaft from their elected career politicians, my website will send up to the minute alerts about their politicians' latest disservices in order to sell the people and taxpayers the bottles of stinky marijuana odors to send to their elected career politicians.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
May 24, 2021
Isn't it ironic, blogger Dan Valenti, that Kamala Harris rightfully called Joe Biden a racist to his face before becoming his Vice President? Isn't it ironic that Massachusetts never elected a woman as Governor in over 4 centuries? Isn't it ironic that post industrial Pittsfield has little to no living wage jobs for its working poor residents who have to rely on social services and taxpayer-funded welfare assistance programs to survive? Isn't it ironic that North Street is called "Social Services Alley" and the immediate areas around North Street is called "The ring of poverty"? Isn't ironic that Pittsfield's ruling elites live in a gated community in homes valued at nearly $1 million a piece and other high end neighborhoods nowhere near inner city Pittsfield? Pittsfield (Massachusetts) is one of the most economically unequal communities in the state and nation, and it is only getting worse as time progresses forward. Lastly, I learned many decades ago that bureaucratic euphemisms like "diversity, equity and inclusion" really mean TOKENISM for the ruling elites in government to screw over the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
May 26, 2021
RolodexTeenth: Jimmy Ruberto touting his useless rolodex that is now discarded in the bottom of Silver Lake, while dangerous downtown Pittsfield's so-called renaissance rivals Paris, London, NYC, and L.A.'s homeless shelters
GatedCommunityTeenth: The Lovely Linda raising Pittsfield's municipal taxes, fees, debts and other liabilities to record levels on the backs of Veterans, Seniors, and other fixed income Pittsfield residents, while living in her and millionaire Accountant Barry Clairmont's mansion only a few feet from the Pittsfield/Hancock border
ChromeDomeTeenth: Adam Hinds voting for his own 40% legislative pay raise and then openly supports raising state taxes on the wealthy without offering to cut his own public pay and perks
CountryBuffetTeenth: Trippy Country Buffet leading the political campaign for the Berkshire Museum selling $55 million in historic artwork, but then protests the Country Buffet's abrupt closing in Pittsfield
PACManTeenth: Richie Neal raking in millions of corporate lobbyists' special interest dollars per year from K Street, while the common people in his Western Massachusetts Congressional District can only pound sand in protest
ChevyChaseTeenth: Ed Markey solving every socioeconomic and environmental problem with his hot air Green New Deal $100 trillion spending plan, while he lives in his upscale home in Chevy Chase, Maryland
PersistTeenth: Elizabeth Warren persisting to only annoy Republicans in the U.S. Senate, while publishing books about the economy being rigged by Wall Street billionaires
YouAreARacistTeenth: Kamala Harris telling Joe Biden to his face on national television that he is a racist, but now she is his loyal Vice President
HunterBidenTeenth: Joe Biden openly saying that he is proud of his only surviving son Hunter Biden for having smoked crack cocaine every 15 minutes, drowning himself in alcohol, spending his family's money on sex workers, fathering multiple children with multiple women, taking home hundreds of millions of dollars from China when Joe Biden was Obama's Vice President, and being investigated for money laundering by federal law enforcement agencies
- Jonathan Melle
----------
Letter: "Pittsfield's roadways are deteriorating"
The Berkshire Eagle, May 26, 2021
To the editor: Any chance the “leaders” of Pittsfield could use some of the “free” money to make repairs to the ever deteriorating roadways, as opposed to yet another revised design change to the debacle on North Street?
Jeffrey M. Costa, Pittsfield
----------
May 28, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
https://www.wamc.org/post/budget-hearings-continue-pittsfield-new-fiscal-year-approaches-july-1st
Pittsfield politics is finishing up its public hearings and review of the Lovely Linda's fiscal year 2022 municipal budget next week, and it plans to vote for the record setting nearly $180 million operating budget on Tuesday, June 8th, 2021.
I have Pittsfield politics' financial questions that I hope you may have answers to on your awesome blog.
1) Please explain to me what exactly "FREE CASH" means?
2) How much money does Matt Kerwood have in his slush funds or reserve accounts as of June 1, 2021?
3) What is happening with the $41.7 million in Biden Buck$ that the Lovely Linda will receive in direct aid over the next two years?
4) Why does Pittsfield politics always increase its operating budget spending by 5% per fiscal year?
5) How much municipal debt and other liabilities does Pittsfield politics have as of June 1st, 2021?
6) How do municipalities such as Pittsfield put together their operating budgets without the state government passing their budget first?
7) How much money does Pittsfield politics receive from state aid?
8) What is the average tax and fee liability for residential families in Pittsfield?
9) What is the average tax and fee liability for commercial businesses in Pittsfield?
10) How do the average residential and business tax and fee liability compare to other municipalities similar in size to Pittsfield?
11) How many millions of tax dollars does Matt Kerwood shuffle around various city accounts?
12) Was there ever a forensic audit of Pittsfield politics' municipal finances? If not, why not? If so, when was it?
13) Why does Matt Kerwood always use the same auditor year in and year out for Pittsfield politics' municipal finances?
14) How much taxpayer dollars does the city's Big 3 (School, Police and Fire) Unions receive for their public workers each fiscal year?
15) Why aren't Pittsfield public school teachers paid as much as neighboring public school districts?
I like to learn, and I have always been interested in public financial management schemes, especially in Pittsfield politics. Thank you for considering my request for your possible future blog posting on the fiscal year 2022 Pittsfield politics' municipal budget.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
"Council boosts use of free cash in $179.2 million budget, easing impact on taxpayers"
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, June 5, 2021
PITTSFIELD — The City Council has given a preliminary green light to a $179.2 million spending plan for the next fiscal year, including an agreement from Mayor Linda Tyer to double the amount of free cash that will be used to offset the tax rate.
The issue of how much free cash the city should apply to the budget, reducing the taxpayer’s share of the burden, butted up against a Tyer Administration policy not to use more than $1 million on a given year.
The more free cash that city officials choose to use, the lower the city's property tax rate. Meantime, Finance Director Matt Kerwood said the money powers the city’s reserves, a topic of interest to bond rating agencies judging the city’s financial health.
“It’s really an issue of fiscal prudence in terms of how you want to best not only preserve but also build your reserves,” he said.
The exact impact of the additional use of free cash was not clear; the city sets the tax rate in November.
This year, Tyer proposed using $750,000 from the city’s $5.3 million free cash reserve to reduce the tax burden — the same amount she proposed last year but less than what was applied in 2019.
In the background this year is a hot local housing market sending home valuations up. Councilor Chris Connell pointed to unspent funds returning to city coffers, and suggested doubling the mayor’s free cash request for an allocation amounting to $1.5 million.
“We have over $3 million in turnbacks from last year,” he said. “Every little bit of reduction of the tax rate by use of free cash helps the taxpayers.”
Also during the meeting, Connell apologized for using the phrase “too many chiefs, not enough Indians” earlier when describing his belief that the public services department needs more workers in the field rather than more administrators. The expression sparked a heated exchange with Councilor Helen Moon, who lamented the "racially charged statement."
Tyer’s free cash order failed by a vote of 6-4, with councilors Nicholas Caccamo, Yuki Cohen, Earl Persip III and Pete White in favor, sending the order back to the mayor. But toward the tail end of the meeting, Tyer told the council she was amenable to the $1.5 million figure.
“I’m agreeable to this amendment," Tyer said. "You can make this change.”
The council took a procedural vote to reconsider the free cash request, then unanimously amended the free cash order to $1.5 million and gave it an initial stamp of approval. Tyer returned a new order to the council for consideration at the panel’s next regular meeting onTuesday.
Also at that meeting next week, councilors will be asked to take a final vote on the budget they approved on Wednesday. Councilors also gave preliminarily approval to a $6,992,000 capital budget for things like a new fire department pumper truck and stormwater improvements.
----------
June 5, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
Please explain why Pittsfield politics has $5.3 million in FREE CASH, and why the Lovely Linda and City Council unanimously voted and agreed to double the use of FREE CASH from $750,000 to $1,500,000 to lower the municipal tax hike on local residents.
Pittsfield politics is always totally predictable when it comes to its fiscal year municipal budget. For decades now, the Mayor and City Council always increase municipal spending by 5% per fiscal year. Matt Kerwood has made things worse by building his huge multimillion dollar slush funds on the backs of the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family. Over the next two years, the Lovely Linda will receive $41.7 million in Biden Buck$ direct aid.
I hope you will make financial sense of all of this for your blog readers. It sure as hell makes no financial sense to me!
Also, please note that Pittsfield City Councilor Helen Moon scolded fellow Pittsfield City Councilor Chris Connell on his cliché, and then Connell's apology.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
----------
June 7, 2021
I feel that life is too short for humankind to focus on conflict and violence. But for some reason, we waste much of our lives on negativity, power, money and wanting to be better than everyone else whether it be morally, financially, and/or powerfully. Class and Status is our country's failing. We are all just people instead of a few of us being rich and powerful living in a gated community far away from the rest of society. Life shouldn't be so weird! We make it that way because we are all really a bunch of insecure jerks.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
DANGEROUS DOWNTOWN PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS!!!!
Currently, the Pittsfield Police Department’s “Crime Statistics” page on its website at pittsfieldpd.org is blank, and its short-lived CityStat Report program hasn’t been updated since October 2015 [- which was when Dan Bianchi was the Mayor of Pittsfield, Massachusetts].
“Since May 9th, [2021,] we've had 12 shooting incidents or shots fired incidents," said said Pittsfield Police Department Captain Mark Trepani.
The Lovely Linda states, "I mean, it’s known to us that we are a destination city for gun trafficking."
https://www.wamc.org/post/pittsfield-police-call-public-help-effort-curb-gun-violence
----------
Yet another sad day for the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family who have to pay for Pittsfield politics' excesses.
The Pittsfield City Council meets remotely for the final time Tuesday [June 8th, 2021] at 6 p.m. when they vote on the Lovely Linda's $179.2 million budget proposal.
https://www.wamc.org/post/final-pittsfield-budget-vote-expected-tuesday
----------
"Council signs off on $179.2 million Pittsfield budget"
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, June 8, 2021
PITTSFIELD — The City Council on Tuesday approved a $179.2 million operating budget for Pittsfield’s next fiscal year.
Three councilors who had raised concerns about portions of the budget, over a series of hearings in May and this month, voted against the budget at the council’s last remote meeting before members return to in-person meetings.
Councilors made only minor adjustments to the spending plan Mayor Linda Tyer submitted to them this spring, reducing her proposal by $205,000 to account for mistakenly overbudgeted expenses within the Police Department.
Councilors Helen Moon, Chris Connell and Kevin Morandi voted against the budget. The vote closed the budget process for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The council had approved the budget on a preliminary basis last week, and accepted it Tuesday with little debate or discussion, save for Councilor Anthony Maffuccio, who clarified that while he supported Tyer’s municipal spending plan, he disapproved of the $67.3 million budget for the Pittsfield Public Schools.
Maffuccio wanted more money for teachers.
“They have failed the teachers year after year with pay raises. They continue to fail our teachers,” he said.
Also approved by the council Tuesday was a new order from Tyer to appropriate $1.5 million from the city’s free cash reserve to reduce the city’s tax rate. Despite a Tyer administration policy to use no more than $1 million annually for the purpose of easing the burden on taxpayers, Tyer agreed to the increased figure after the council rejected her previous proposal of $750,000.
Final approval also was given to Tyer’s $6,992,000 capital budget.
During her regular COVID-19 update, Tyer said the city’s case rate and test positivity rate continue to trend lower, with no new positive cases reported in several days. She also offered an update on the number of coronavirus tests administered locally since the pandemic began last spring.
“We’ve hit a milestone,” she said. Over 100,000 tests have been administered to Pittsfield residents since March 2020, she said.
----------
June 10, 2021
The Lovely Linda offered to pay with Kapanski Ka$h the rent for one year for each the 5 families living in Springside Park IF they can find themselves respective apartments to live in.
https://www.wamc.org/post/springside-park-inhabitants-say-pittsfield-has-renewed-removal-efforts
Springside Park Inhabitants Say Pittsfield Has Renewed Removal Efforts | WAMC
I have an idea, Lovely Linda. Why don't you offer each of these homeless families a respective room in your nearly $1 million home in your gated community neighborhood that is very close to the Pittsfield/Hancock border that you and your millionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont live in while they search with little to no success to find apartments? I understand that you and Barry only like to live with fellow millionaires so you wont follow up on my suggestion on taking in Pittsfield's homeless families living in Springside Park other than making empty promises to them.
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
June 10, 2021
I was never romantically involved with the Lovely Linda Tyer, Mr. Fritz. While she is cute and adorable, I wish her a good life with Barry Clairmont. There are leadership qualities and values that she represents that I still support. I do NOT agree with all of her Mayoral Administration's decisions. She inherited a mess. Pittsfield, Massachusetts and Pittsfield politics has had serious and severe systemic problems long before she arrived on the scene. She is still carrying on "business as usual in Pittsfield politics", which is unfortunate for the people and taxpayers who live in the heart of the Berkshires' Shire City.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
June 22, 2021
I am sorry to hear of Jonathan Levine's passing, too. I always enjoyed reading his weekly community newspaper about Pittsfield, Massachusetts and Pittsfield politics. I always enjoyed talking with him during my workouts at the Berkshire Nautilus.
In memory,
Jonathan A. Melle
Native hometown: Pittsfield, Massachusetts
----------
Re: Inner City Pittsfield (Mass.) residents live in fear of gun violence - June 23, 2021
Please read the following news story by WAMC's Josh Landes about gun violence in inner city Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
https://www.wamc.org/post/pittsfield-city-council-presses-mayor-gun-violence-plan
The inner city Pittsfield residents live in fear of gun violence. I know I haven't lived in or around Pittsfield for over 17 years now, but I am saddened that North Street is known as "Social Services Alley" instead of a business district, while the area around North Street is known as the "Ring of Poverty" with decades of entrenched intergenerational family poverty, welfare and criminal cases.
My theory about why Pittsfield sucks is that the state and local leaders use inner city Pittsfield's worst rated Level 5 public schools, social services programs, welfare caseloads, and criminal caseloads all as revenue sources instead of investing in the underclass and working poor who live there. I call it "Perverse Incentives", which is similar to the state lottery regressive taxation predatory scheme that takes advantage of the unknowing poorest people and communities in Massachusetts.
Mayor Linda Tyer married a millionaire Accountant named Barry Clairmont who owns a near one million dollar home in a wealthy and elitist gated community very close to the Pittsfield border with Hancock. The Lovely Linda and Barry are very political in state and local government, but they are also disconnected from the majority of people who live in Pittsfield. I still believes the Mayor cares about all of the people who live in Pittsfield, but she is unfortunately unavailable to them.
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
June 23, 2021
I would NOT want to be Mayor of Pittsfield, Massachusetts! Mayor Linda Tyer inherited a mess from all of the failed Mayors before her. She obviously hasn't changed things for the better! BUT, I don't believe anyone out there could. She is part of Godfather Jimmy Ruberto's useless faction of the one political party - the state Democratic Party - that is ran by the same Boston Democratic Party leaders who ran a homophobic smear campaign against Alex Morse to favor K Street's favorite PAC Man Richie Neal in last year's Congressional election in September of 2020. Tricia Farley Bouvier is another loyal Lieutenant of Godfather Jimmy Ruberto. She has gone to Boston's corrupt Statehouse for nearly one decade now, but she has proven herself to be a do nothing rubber stamp for Boston's corrupt State House leadership that only does DISSERVICES to the people of Massachusetts. Chrome Dome Adam Hinds lives in a $690,000 home in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is NOT in his legislative district. Godfather Jimmy Ruberto has given the people and taxpayers of Pittsfield two of his loyal women politicians, along with one Chrome Dome, who all have NOT changed things for the better in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. I wonder how things are going in Jimmy Ruberto's hometown of Naples, Florida? I wonder how Jimmy Ruberto likes his $490,000 Summer condo in upper class Lenox? Jimmy Ruberto is too good to live in Pittsfield! BUT, Jimmy Ruberto sure screwed over Pittsfield during and after his 8 years as Mayor of Pittsfield (2004- 2011). Sarcasm: I read that the Berkshire Museum is fishing his Rolodex out of the bottom of Silver Lake to put it on display so that museum goers can learn how Pittsfield lost a record number of living wage jobs and thousands of residents to population loss during and after Jimmy Ruberto's time in the corner office in Pittsfield City Hall. PUKE!!!!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
June 24, 2021
Are you (Planet Valenti) indirectly writing about Mayor Linda Tyer and Matt Kerwood sitting on tens of millions of city government and public school district slush fund and Biden Buck$ dollars, while Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski will pay for Pittsfield politics' always predictable 5 percent increase in municipal spending starting next week on July 1, 2021? Is Pittsfield politics a farce or a shakedown operation to screw over the proverbial Kapanski family? Perhaps it is both!
- Jonathan Melle
----------
July 4, 2021
I feel bad for the working class Allendale neighborhood on many levels. The stinky stench from (not my [Nuciforo]) friend's marijuana growing building on Dalton Ave., GE's 2 toxic waste leaky landfills that abut Allendale Elementary School, Level 5 schools, the very high municipal tax rate while the Mayor & Matt Kerwood sit on tens of millions of slush fund and stimulus fund dollars, inner city violent crime, Chrome Dome living in his new $690,000 home in Amherst, Massachusetts, Trippy Country Buffet fighting Boston's progressive battles while Pittsfield gets the shaft, PAC Man Richie Neal representing K Street instead of the people in his Western Massachusetts Congressional District, Ed Markey living in Chevy Chase Maryland, while his promises to save the world from global warming are really more hot air, Elizabeth Warren promising to fight for Main Street, while Wall Street is at record highs and Main Street is at rock bottom, Kamala Harris abusing her staff, and Joe Biden spending $6 trillion in his first 100 days, while inflation is at decades high. To be clear, the Allendale neighborhood has to be one of the worst served places in the city, state, nation and world by big business and big government. If I lived in the Allendale neighborhood in Pittsfield, Massachusetts I would have lawn signs on my front yard that would read, "Thanks for the toxic waste dumps", "Thanks for the skunk-like stinky marijuana odors", "Thanks for the Level 5 public schools", "Thanks for City Hall's high municipal taxes, slush funds and stimulus funds", "Thanks for Beacon Hill's DISSERVICES", "Thanks for the Swamp's hot air", "Thanks for the decades high inflation", and "What else will big business and big government do to me?".
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
July 5, 2021
The Civic Authority debacle would have usurped democracy from Pittsfield politics and put political power in a few unelected hands. It failed, but then WHEN and Jimmy Ruberto came next in 2003. One of the WHEN ladies is the Lovely Linda Tyer, who has been the Mayor of Pittsfield since early-2016 - or for the past 5.5-years now. Jimmy Ruberto bet it all on downtown Pittsfield's so-called cultural renaissance that turned out to be yet another one of Pittsfield politics' costly failures. Local residents sarcastically joked that Ruberto's renaissance rivaled Paris, London, NYC and L.A. "chuckles". Instead, dangerous downtown Pittsfield is full of dozens of empty storefronts, social services agencies, the underclass, and daily gun shots that make local inner city residents fear for their lives. Jimmy Ruberto's cultural investments with Kapanski Ka$h were insincere because he went on to lead the Berkshire Museum's sales of tens of millions of dollars worth of historic artwork, which was one of the lowest points in Pittsfield's decades of screw ups and DISSERVICES to the people of the Berkshires. Jimmy Ruberto writes letters to the editor of the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) and signs them from Naples, Florida, which is very far away from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Dan Bianchi seized on Ruberto's snake oil sales pitches and expensive failures to serve as Mayor of Pittsfield for 4 short years, but Godfather Jimmy Ruberto organized around his former WHEN ladies with Pittsfield State Representative Trippy Country Buffet and the Lovely Linda. The Mayor, Linda Tyer, married millionaire Accountant Barry Clairmont, who filed a lawsuit against his wife's 2019 challenger Melissa Mazzeo, and she (Linda Tyer) moved in with her husband into his wealthy gated community as far away from inner city Pittsfield as possible while still living in Pittsfield. The Lovely Linda is inaccessible to the average Pittsfield residents, but she and Barry are active with the big wheels in city and state politics. Linda Tyer is the perfect symbol of Pittsfield severe economic inequality and corrupt political insiders games of screwing over the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family. Blogger Dan Valenti writes for the proverbial little guy, and is taking on the latest caper of turning Springside Park into a bike project and ultimately a bike park for the leisure class to degrade for their fun and recreation. What blogger Dan Valenti doesn't fully understand and/or write about in his awesome blog that often is that when a proverbial little guy speaks out to the ruling elites who run Pittsfield politics on the state and local level, they only face retribution instead of a sincere welcoming from Godfather Jimmy Ruberto, Mayor Linda Tyer/Accountant and lawsuit filer Barry Clairmont, and State Representative Trippy Country Buffet, among other leaders of Palookaville. They will shut you out of their corrupt insider network, take away your job, play dirty politics against you, file lawsuits and/or other legal complaints against you, give police false information against you, spread vicious rumors against you, and make you want to drop out of the civic arena and even move out of Pittsfield. To be clear, all that they want is your hard earned tax dollars so they can sit on tens of millions of slush fund and stimulus dollars on the local level, and billions of the aforementioned dollars on Beacon Hill, while you sacrifice your lifestyle for no rational reason other than for them to hoard your tax dollars in their slush funds. Chrome Dome and Trippy Country Buffet still haven't passed a state budget for fiscal year 2022 yet, but they have billions of excess dollars that they are sitting on. Chrome Dome and Trippy Country Buffet always talk up the environment and say they are fighting global warming, but where are they on the Springside Park bike project proposal? Perhaps Ed Markey can chime in from Chevy Chase Maryland with his hot air on the Green New Deal legislation that is still a pipedream in the Swamp. In closing, Pittsfield politics is infamous for screwing over the local people who pay for all of these debacles going back generations.
- Jonathan Melle
----------
July 6, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I copied and pasted a news article from the NH Union Leader online newspaper about the City of Manchester, New Hampshire's Mayor Joyce Craig's proposal to spend the municipal government's $43.2 million in direct aid "Biden Buck$". Mayor Joyce Craig surveyed 156 city residents on how the city government should spend the stimulus dollars. The city has received $21.6 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) so far, and is expected to receive another $21.6 million in May 2022. The stimulus funds have to be allocated by the end of 2024 and projects using the funds must be completed by 2026. She is hoping to win approval from the Board of Aldermen (& Alderwomen) tonight - Tuesday, July 6th, 2021 - and then send the spending plans to her city's finance office. She wants to get these funds out to the people, agencies and business who have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as soon as possible.
Has Mayor Linda Tyer done any of this with her city government's $41.7 million in direct aid "Biden Buck$" in Pittsfield, Massachusetts? If the stimulus funds have to be allocated by the end of 2024, which is less then 2.5 years from now, and projects completed by 2026, which is less than 4.5 years from now, shouldn't the Lovely Linda be doing what her counterpart in Manchester, New Hampshire is going to do at her Board of Mayor and Aldermen (& Alderwomen) meeting tonight - which is spend the city's stimulus dollars as soon as possible to help the people, agencies and small businesses in her community?
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
----------
July 11, 2021
Hello Clarence Fanto and Bill Cameron,
I enjoyed reading your two part interviews between journalist Clarence Fanto and retired Superintendent Bill Cameron. I wish to share my thoughts about Bill Cameron's thoughts on public education in the Massachusetts public school system.
Bill Cameron's chair work on Berkshire County Education Task Force with a focus on consolidation, sharing public educational resources, and collaborative projects gave him data on declining enrollment, socioeconomic inequality, and performance results based on the proverbial zip code of the child. Bill Cameron's work on the Pittsfield School Committee showed him that standardized tests do not explain the city's economically poorer students' barriers or obstacles to academic success. The state's one size fits all bureaucratic assessments are misguided in disadvantaged and distressed communities such as Pittsfield, Massachusetts. School choice maintains the enrollment numbers and the viability of the public school system. School Committee politics is part of the job of a School Committee member.
I would like to add that inequality in public education by zip code has a lot to with the public funding of public school districts. Pittsfield receives a lot more (millions of dollars more) state aid for its underperforming public school system than Lenox for its well performing public school system. I believe in the "Perverse Incentives" theory of municipal government and public school district administration when it comes to my native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
To be clear, I believe that economically distressed communities such as Pittsfield rely on its socially disadvantaged underclass and working class residents to receive millions of dollars in public funding for welfare assistance programs, disability programs, social services agencies and not-for-profit organizations, and their public school district. In Pittsfield, North Street is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley" during business hours. Inner city Pittsfield public schools are rated Level 5 by the state, which is the bottom evaluation number. Pittsfield has large numbers of teen pregnancies, welfare caseloads, and low wage workers, and so on.
I graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1993, which is over 28 years ago now. In 3 decades, Pittsfield has made no net gain(s) in economic development, and its inner city public school district is failing. I have come to the conclusion that Pittsfield politics wants Pittsfield to be economically unequal because City Hall and the School Department receives millions of dollars in public funding for its failing school system and social services centered downtown. I do not believe, at this point, that Pittsfield politics wants economic development, living wage jobs, economic justice for the working class, and so on, because City Hall and the School Department would lose their inequitable revenue sources.
Around 50 years ago, the government stopped investing in the working class, which was after black workers had legal protections of the Civil Rights Act. The result was CLASS WARFARE where ALL working class families had do live under Social Darwinism to achieve a middle class lifestyle of economic and financial security. Instead of working families having government investments and job security back in my grandparents' day (post World War 2 through the 1960s), the underclass and working class became numbers on an Accountant's spreadsheet to be managed in big business and big government's billion and trillion dollars fiscal year budgets.
Back to Pittsfield in the year 2021, the state and local government and public school system not only does not invest in the working class families there, but also, they see Pittsfield's underclass and working class families as numbers on an Accountant's spreadsheet as revenue sources for City Hall and the School Department. At some level, the students and their families understand all of this bureaucratic nonsense, but on another level they take comfort in living in their own socioeconomic class. Education has been mainly a system of socioeconomic stratification for hundreds of years. In history, the royals and other elites two main ways of living in wealth were going to elite schools and colleges, and then marrying into wealthy families. To be clear, it was NOT "hard work"!
Lastly, I know both Clarence Fanto and Bill Cameron. I talked to and emailed Clarence Fanto when he worked at the Berkshire Eagle newspaper in Pittsfield. Bill Cameron was my philosophy professor when I was a philosophy student in college in the mid-1990s, and he was also a neighbor I would say hello to when I went for family walks as a young man living in Pittsfield decades ago. I believe they both men mean well for the beautiful Berkshires and for public education. I have expressed my frustration with Clarence Fanto's op-eds over the years because he is always on the side of the one political party corrupt state and local political establishment in Berkshire County. But, I have also told Clarence Fanto that I respect him and enjoy reading his work in news journalism. I find Bill Cameron to be on the conservative side of politics, but I also believe he has an open mind and cares about people. Bill Cameron is very intellectual, and I remember as college students decades ago we were all impressed by his professional and educational background.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
July 11, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
That is my point about Pittsfield politics in a nutshell. The worse Pittsfield's municipal government and public school district becomes over the decades, the more public funding they receive. Bill Cameron would tell you the difference in state aid for the Lenox Public School District (around 15 percent of its budget) and the Pittsfield School District (probably above 60 percent of its budget) is huge. Lenox's School District has a wealthy tax base and excellent academic performance results in its school system. Pittsfield's inner city schools have the worst state rating (Level 5) possible. I sincerely believe that Pittsfield politics has diminishing public services and public schools so that they can receive millions upon millions of additional federal and state public dollars for their municipal and public school district coffers than the well performing Lenox Public School District.
Boston's "Big Dig" was originally estimated to cost federal and state taxpayers $2.5 billion, but now the price tag is over $20 billion. Boston's "Big Dig" leaks millions of gallons of dirty water through its leaky tunnels everyday. Boston's "Big Dig" claimed innocent lives. Boston's "Big Dig" will only last around 50 years before it submerges into the Atlantic Ocean. The rest of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts got screwed over by Beacon Hill to fund Boston's "Big Dig". The debt payment's on Boston's "Big Dig" state government bonds will last for the rest of our natural lives. My dad, when he was a Berkshire County Commissioner in the late-1990s, told Beacon Hill lawmakers that Boston's "Big Dig's" recurring multi-billion dollar cost overruns were much worse than Berkshire County government's $2.5 million fiscal year budget. Then State Representative Marty Walsh scolded my dad and I for criticizing Boston's "Big Dig", and he told us that it was "an engineering marvel".
I read the Boston Herald online newspaper column this weekend, and the columnist wrote that Boston's state lawmakers do not work on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. That means that they only work 3 days of the week - Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - when they are not on months-long recesses (or taxpayer-paid vacations). The Boston Globe's weekend editorial wrote that they take unanimous votes in the Boston State House of Representatives to avoid being personally accountable to their constituents on legislation. The great majority of State House of Representatives voted against House Rules reform amendments last week to show their loyalty to House Speaker Ronny Mariano over the people they are supposed to be representing throughout Massachusetts.
Governor Charlie Baker, his executive office in Boston, and his state government bureaucracies have made deadly mistakes, especially with the Holyoke Soldiers Home debacle and the RMV oversight that led to 7 U.S. Marine Corps Veterans dead in Randolph, New Hampshire by a Massachusetts truck driver whose driver's license was supposed to be suspended by the Massachusetts' RMV. Governor Baker has never apologized for the deaths of all of our heroes who are our beloved U.S. Veterans due to his managerial failures. Governor Baker does not have the decency to apologize for his fatal mistakes and systemic state government mismanagement.
The Biden Buck$ gave the state of California $42 billion, the State of New York $24 billion, the state of Illinois $13 billion, and so on, while those large state governments mismanaged their public finances for decades. The state government's that were managed well financially got less Biden Buck$ than the states that pissed away their tax dollars like drunken Sailors on leave for decades on end.
Joseph Stalin killed between 20 million to 60 million innocent people and Peoples, while Adolf Hitler killed around 15 million innocent people and Peoples, especially the persecuted Jewish People in the Holocaust. That means that Stalin killed at least 5 million more innocent people and Peoples than Hitler did. W.E.B. DuBois was friends with the mass murderer war criminal Joseph Stalin, and he (W.E.B. DuBois), as a registered Communist, praised Joseph Stalin's leadership. W.E.B. DuBois praised a mass murderer who killed millions more innocent human beings than Hitler. W.E.B. DuBois hated Great Barrington, and W.E.B. DuBois hated the United States of America. So what did the Town of Great Barrington and the school district do? They named the Great Barrington Middle School after W.E.B. DuBois. What a slap in the face to the families of the 20 to 60 million innocent human beings that Stalin had slaughtered. What a slap in the face to the Soldiers and Veterans who gave their lives to stop Stalin and the then Soviet Union from taking over all of Europe. But it is more important for the Town of Great Barrington and the school district to be politically correct and, as Bill Cameron told Clarence Fanto, "paper over history".
I am on your side, Patrick Fennell. I wish there were more Veterans and citizens like you out there to tell off the ruling elites who are rewarding government failure with millions and billions of dollars in state and federal funding. I wish that political correctness and papering over history would be stopped once and for all.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
"Pittsfield gets $16.2 million in first round of American Rescue Plan funds"
By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, July 11, 2021
PITTSFIELD — The city has received the first of its payments from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act money, and is ready to begin the process of deciding how to spend it.
The first installment totaling $16.2 million arrived in city coffers last month, and is half of the $32.4 million in ARPA funding awarded to the city.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime infusion of funds that could have a significant, meaningful impact on the future of our city,” Mayor Linda Tyer said Friday.
Tyer said she plans to put together an advisory council of “community members, business leaders, nonprofit leaders, community activists” and possibly a City Councilor to oversee how the money is spent. Tyer, in a memo to the City Council, which will be asked to accept the money at its meeting on Tuesday, told councilors she “welcomed” their recommendations for who should serve on the council.
“I will be looking for a very diverse group of people that represent all different stakeholders,” she said. The city is also planning to survey the community on how residents would like to see the funding spent this summer.
Tyer said her office has worked with “key” department heads to understand the more than 200 pages of federal spending guidance and how the city can spend the funding.
According to Tyer, the federal guidelines allow ARPA money to be spent in seven areas: Supporting public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; addressing pandemic-caused impacts in the realms of tourism, travel, hospitality and cultural the economy; serving the hardest-hit neighborhoods and families with the Morningside and Westside based on census tract data; replacing lost public-sector revenue; providing “premium pay” for low-income essential workers; investing in water and sewer infrastructure projects; investing in broadband infrastructure in underserved areas.
“The federal guidelines very clearly articulate that the emphasis should be placed on the hardest-hit neighborhoods, and the hardest-hit communities, and hardest-hit people,” Tyer said.
The money, said Tyer, cannot be spent on things like offsetting tax reductions, filling pension funds, making legal settlements or matching grants awarded to the city through other federal programs.
The ARPA funding is separate from the several million in COVID-19 recovery grants distributed to the Pittsfield Public Schools. Tyer said federal rules require the money must be encumbered by 2024, and spent by 2026.
As of now, “we haven’t spent $1” of the American Rescue Plan Act money, said Tyer. “And we’re quite a ways away from that. I would say, we won’t be seeing expenditures until the fall, based upon the community survey that we want to conduct, the other kinds of stakeholder engagement that we want to participate in. So we’re talking about the rest of the summer, really, to do that and to do it right.”
“What we’re doing now is laying the foundation for how this will play out over the course of these next few years,” she added.
----------
July 11, 2021
Hello Berkshire Eagle Journalist Amanda Burke,
I read your news article about Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer receiving $16.2 million in Biden Buck$ plus "the several million in COVID-19 recovery grants distributed to the Pittsfield Public Schools". Pittsfield, Massachusetts received and will receive $41.7 million in Biden Buck$ direct aid in two installments in 2021 and 2022. $16.2 million + $4.65 million = $20.85 million in Biden Buck$ was received by the Lovely Linda in 2021, and $16.2 million + $4.65 million in Biden Buck$ will be received by the Lovely Linda in 2022.
Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer is now sitting on $20.85 million in Biden Buck$. The Lovely Linda should be working as fast as humanly possible to survey the community to get the tens of millions in Biden Buck$ out to the people, agencies and businesses who were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. I did not like it that the Lovely Linda told you that:
As of now, “we haven’t spent $1” of the American Rescue Plan Act money, said Mayor Linda Tyer. “And we’re quite a ways away from that. I would say, we won’t be seeing expenditures until the fall, based upon the community survey that we want to conduct, the other kinds of stakeholder engagement that we want to participate in. So we’re talking about the rest of the summer, really, to do that and to do it right.”
Other Mayors and public community managers across the country are working to get their millions in Biden Buck$ out as soon as possible. Pittsfield has a long-term homelessness crisis, and Pittsfield does not have a permanent homeless shelter. Homelessness is an immediate need that Mayor Linda Tyer can address this Summer of 2021 with her millions of Biden Buck$ direct aid.
Please keep up your great journalism.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
July 14, 2021
I hate it when the politically-connected, who are the incestuous ruling elites in Pittsfield (Massachusetts), respond with complete banality to concerned citizens and taxpayers, "No one cares anymore". It really means, "GO AWAY, Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski!!!!" Cliff Nilan used to say that to me many years ago; (but my dad still likes Cliffy, but I don't trust Cliffy).
There is no immediate need to start a bike project in Springside Park. Pittsfield and nearby communities have 9 bike parks. I believe the conspiratorial projection that the bike park is part of a bigger agenda for private developers.
Post Industrial Pittsfield, Massachusetts is the General Electric Company's DUMP! PEDA is a 23-year-old debacle that is still polluted with industrial chemicals called PCBs and has millions of dollars in liabilities that will never be paid off. Dangerous downtown Pittsfield is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley" due to Pittsfield's severe economic inequality and multi-generational poverty. The Mayor, the Lovely Linda Tyer, and her millionaire Accountant husband, Barry Clairmont, live in a wealthy gated community west of BCC very close to the Pittsfield/Hancock border. She (the Lovely Linda) is sitting on over $20 million in Biden Buck$ direct aid, while homeless families are still living in Springside Park and elsewhere in Pittsfield. On top of Matt Kerwood's multimillion-dollar slush funds - that belong in Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski's personal bank accounts - why doesn't she (the Lovely Linda) use some of the tens of millions of dollars she is sitting on to help the homeless people? It doesn't take a community survey or mayoral advisory council to help Pittsfield's homeless population find affordable/subsidized housing!
Pittsfield politics only benefits the politically-connected vested and special interests, while the rest of the people and taxpayers are told to "POUND SAND!" by the one political party state and local insider political hacks such as the Lovely Linda Tyer, Chrome Dome (Adam Hinds of Amherst, Massachusetts), and Trippy Country Buffet.
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
Letter: "Bike lanes another strike against downtown Pittsfield"
The Berkshire Eagle, July 13, 2021
To the editor: Just when I think the powers that be in Pittsfield couldn't possibly make another foolish decision, bingo, a bike lane on North Street.
The worst mess ever. While driving along, all of a sudden we are dodging cones, cement barriers, cars parked into the street not to mention people walking or in some cases darting out from between parked cars.
What is the need to have a bike lane on North Street? I have yet to see any bikers using it. Most times they are on the sidewalk. Do we think this will change? What ever happened to bikers riding along with the flow of traffic?
Downtown over the years has become a disaster — limited shopping and restaurants and as it is we have several empty dirty storefronts, trash in the street and people sleeping on the bus stop benches. It isn't an appealing drive. People who haven't been here in years comment on how run-down and depressed Pittsfield is.
Now as we drive along we come upon orange cones and/or barriers throughout the city. I must admit my personal favorite are the barriers at the corner of South Street and West Housatonic. That turn must have been just too easy to make.
How is it that other towns have a nice, clean, free-parking Main Street such as Lee and Adams?
Maybe more time should be spent on important things and less time spent on how many pot stores we can have.
Judy Tobler, Pittsfield
----------
July 16, 2021
The Berkshire Eagle newspaper wrote that you can send them an email letter to letters@berkshireeagle.com with your ideas on how the Lovely Linda should spend the $20.85 million in Biden Buck$ direct aid she is sitting on until sometime this Fall of 2021 by putting "Pittsfield ARPA funds" in the subject line of your email with a submission deadline of Thursday, July 22nd, 2021.
I disagree with the Berkshire Eagle Editors that Mayor Linda Tyer should sit on tens of millions of federal stimulus funds for over 2 months while she surveys the community. The reason for my disagreement is that Pittsfield, Massachusetts has immediate needs now, such as the long-term homelessness crisis and the lack of a permanent homeless shelter in Pittsfield. The federal stimulus dollars are meant to provide immediate help to people, agencies and businesses that were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Why can't the Lovely Linda do both: target immediate needs now, and also survey the community on her 5 year plan to spend the sum total of $41.7 million in Biden Buck$ through the end of 2026?
On Springside Park, City Hall and the City's Park Commission, I believe the State's Ethics Commission - Massachusetts State Ethics Commission - needs to look into the proposed bike project. It ALL looks and smells CORRUPT!
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
July 23, 2021
What happened to North Street since the 1980s is a very sad story. There was once England Brothers, bookstores, shops, restaurants, and a bustling business district in the 1950s and 1960s, but for a long time now North Street is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley" during business hours, and the place in Pittsfield to avoid after hours. In the 1970s and 1980s, the mentally ill were deinstitutionalized and placed in distressed cities like Pittsfield, then GE pulled out of Pittsfield, and then Gerry Doyle, Sara Hathaway, Jimmy Ruberto, Dan Bianchi, and the Lovely Linda Tyer came along to make Pittsfield politics into the land of excessively high municipal taxes, fees, and debts/liabilities with diminishing and lousy public services. Everything that could have went wrong did go wrong in Pittsfield, especially with the aforementioned failed Pittsfield politicians who sold snake oil to the proverbial Kapanski family. We now live in the Summer of 2021, and Pittsfield is struggling to recover from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, along with decades of failed state and local leadership, and a perpetual distressed economy. It must be said over and over again that a lot of Pittsfield politicians do not live in the real Pittsfield where the working class and underclass live. Mayor Linda Tyer and her millionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont live in a wealthy gated community close to the Pittsfield/Hancock border. Jimmy Ruberto lives in Naples, Florida and has a Summer condo in upscale Lenox. Chrome Dome Adam Hinds recently purchased a $690,000 home in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is well outside of his legislative district. Trippy Country Buffet lives near the Pittsfield/Lenox border and sent her children to the Lenox public school district. PAC Man Richie Neal lives on K Street in Washington, D.C. where he takes in millions of dollars from well heeled corporate lobbyists in return for favorable legislation. Ed Markey lives in Chevy Chase Maryland where he promised that he will save the world from global warming....and put wings on Pigs so they can fly around in the sky in the Markeyverse world of hot air and make believe.
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
July 30, 2021
Jimmy Ruberto lives full time in Naples, Florida. He signs his letters to the editor of the Berkshire Eagle from there. He has a Summer or part-time residence in Lenox where he purchased a $490,000 condo unit there. The irony of it all is that he promised the world to the voters of Pittsfield from 2003 - 2011, but he didn't even believe his own snake oil sales pitch! Pittsfield public schools are rated Level 5, which is the lowest rating by the state. Downtown Pittsfield is called "Social Services Alley" during business hours, and is crime-infested after hours. Pittsfield's municipal taxes are excessively high, while city services are lousy. To cut to the chase, I would live in Naples, Florida and Lenox, too, after I ran Pittsfield further into the proverbial ditch for 8 years as its Mayor from 2003 - 2011. To Mad Trapper, Jimmy Ruberto's Rolodex can be found under the cap put on Silver Lake, along with the late Gerry Doyle's barstool. Pittsfield politics needs to move out of the Good Old Boys' shadow.
- Jonathan A. Melle
----------
August 1, 2021
It looks like Deanna Ruffer started in Pittsfield politics in the latter part of the first year of the Jimmy Ruberto administration in September of 2004, left Pittsfield politics during the first year of the Dan Bianchi administration in 2012, and came back to Pittsfield politics during the third year of the Linda Tyer administration in 2018, and she has been in Pittsfield politics ever since (Summer of 2021). It all means that she is part of the Godfather's political faction that is now led by Mayor Linda Tyer. If the Dan Bianchi political faction wins back the corner office in the 2023 municipal election, then it would only be logical to deduce that Deanna Ruffer would either put in for her public pension and perks, or seek work in another community.
My thoughts about Godfather Jimmy Ruberto's legacy in Pittsfield politics are mostly negative. He bet it all on the "Ruberto renaissance" of arts and culture in downtown Pittsfield. After nearly one decade of post-Ruberto administration Pittsfield politics, Jimmy's bet lost big time. The arts and cultural push in Pittsfield did NOT revitalize Pittsfield's decades-long distressed economy, but in fact, Pittsfield's population and living wage jobs continued to diminish, while municipal taxes, fees, debts/liabilities skyrocketed higher. Pittsfield politics is in a vicious cycle of economic loss and inequality that has been a reality for at least the past 3 decades and counting. Jimmy Ruberto sold only snake oil to the proverbial Kapanski family, and the biggest irony of it all is that Jimmy Ruberto is too good to live and invest his money in Pittsfield. Jimmy Ruberto's full time residence is in Naples, Florida, and his Summer or part time residence is in upscale Lenox.
Deanna Ruffer and Mayor Linda Tyer are part of Jimmy Ruberto's failed leadership of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. IT DID NOT WORK!!!!
Jonathan A. Melle
----------
Letter: "Springside Park entrance road an accident waiting to happen"
The Berkshire Eagle, August 6, 2021
To the editor: In case the Pittsfield powers-that-be haven't noticed, the entrance road to Springside Park off First Street is a civic disgrace.
It has deteriorated to the point that is has become downright dangerous. If the city cannot find the will or the money to fix that road, I suggest they erect a sign reading "SUVs & Pickup Trucks Only" at the entrance, to keep unwitting drivers of passenger cars from expensively damaging their vehicles.
Gary Soucie, Williamstown
----------
August 9, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
GE's settlement $10 million, Bossidy's gift $1 million, Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar $lu$h Fund$, and now tens of millions of dollars in Biden Buck$. Mayor Linda Tyer is rolling in a lot of ca$h!!!! Sarcasm: I could give the Lovely Linda Tyer my financial advice for a one percent commission, but she already has her millionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont to tell her how to either hoard or piss away millions of dollars in Kapan$ki Ka$h. Mary Jane and Joe Kapan$ki still paid for Pittsfield politic$ annual 5 percent budget increase, despite Mayor Linda Tyer's millions. It is NOT even rational anymore, but instead, it is always "Typical Pittsfield"!!!!
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
-----
August 31, 2021
Mayor Linda Tyer's online interview about her tens of millions of Biden Buck$ dollars:
Survey On How Pittsfield Should Spend $32 Million In Federal Aid Closes Wednesday | WAMC
https://www.wamc.org/news/2021-08-30/survey-on-how-pittsfield-should-spend-32-million-in-federal-aid-closes-wednesday
How will the Lovely Linda spend the direct aid stimulus funds? On housing, tourism, and public health.
I agree with the sitting Mayor of Pittsfield (Massachusetts) - Linda Tyer - that the funds should invest in the people and their success in the future. She held 4 public forums and heard from over 900 surveys that mental health and housing were the most important needs to her constituents. The Lovely Linda has not developed any plans on how to spend the funds yet, but she is going over all of the public input right now.
I believe that communities across the country are passing 5 year plans on how to spend their direct aid Biden Buck$. That means that Mayor Linda Tyer will disperse the tens of millions of dollars in the rest of 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and if reelected, in 2025, and 2026. If Mayor Linda Tyer does indeed use the stimulus funds to invest in the people of Pittsfield, then she has my support and full agreement. Her heart is in the right place!
Jonathan A. Melle
-----
September 2, 2021
I hope some good things come out of Mayor Linda Tyer's 5 year plan on how to spend over $40 million in direct aid stimulus Biden Buck$. I have criticized the Lovely Linda on this awesome blog many times before, but I have to give her credit for seeking public input on how to spend the money from the Swamp. That she said she will invest in the people of Pittsfield (Massachusetts) shows that she means well with her upcoming 5 year spending plan. On the other hand, Beacon Hill is still sitting on over $5 billion in Biden Buck$, and no one knows what Boston's state career politicians' 5 year plan is because nothing has been done yet. When I compare Mayor Linda Tyer to Governor Charlie Baker and Boston-based state lawmakers, I give the Lovely Linda an A+, and I give Baker & state lawmakers an F-! Mayor Linda Tyer is doing everything she should be doing, while Boston's state elected officials have done NOTHING AT ALL so far. The only criticism I have of Mayor Linda Tyer is that she should be using some of her over $20 million on Pittsfield's immediate needs, such as finding housing for the homeless population. But, I hope she is using other city funds to help Pittsfield most disadvantaged residents. Lastly, I will wait to see what Mayor Linda Tyer's 5 year spending plan will be before I make any further praises or criticisms.
Jonathan A. Melle
-----
September 27, 2021
Re: Manchester NH versus Pittsfield politics
Hello NH Union Leader newspaper, and Manchester Ink Link,
I grew up in Pittsfield Massachusetts where my father was elected to a couple of Pittsfield offices, including to the School Committee in the 1970s, which had more power prior to Proposition 2.5, and the Berkshire County Commission, which was abolished and taken over by Beacon Hill effective July 1, 2000. Pittsfield politics is made up of a China-like one political (Democratic) party leftist group of interrelated families and their cronies that has produced one of the most distressed and unequal local economies in 21 Century post-industrial America. I still follow Pittsfield politics from my new home in Amherst, New Hampshire because its systemic political corruption in state and local government interests me in the way that a incestuous-like small group of political insider state and local government hacks can effectively intimidate and thereby always screw over the working class and underclass residents who live there with no adverse consequences to their political careers. When my dad and I spoke out about state and local politics during his tenure as a Berkshire County Commissioner (1997 - mid-2000), we received more retribution from Pittsfield politics and Beacon Hill in Boston than anyone could possibly imagine. And it still goes on today, as illustrated by the Boston Democratic Party Officials' conspiratorial, sleazy, homophobic smear campaign that took place during the Summer of 2020 against challenger Alex Morse who opposed "K Street PAC Man" Richie Neal in last year's Democratic Party primary election for U.S. Congress, and as I write this email, the Boston Democratic Party Officials are all still in their same offices, and they never apologized to Alex Morse for their mean-spirited persecution of him.
I lived in Manchester NH for 4 years of my adult life (early-2005 to early-2009), and I observed state and local politics there. Concord's State House downshifted enormous costs onto the City of Manchester, and the local officials complained about then Governor John Lynch's state budget shell games to no avail. Then Mayor Frank Guinta always proposed low-ball city budgets that the Aldermen had to discard and then pass their own city budgets for Guinta to sign into law. Then-Mayor Frank Guinta's biggest failure was in public education when I lived in Manchester back then, and some of his decisions, such as banning to showing of the Diary of Anne Frank film to school children, as well as his underfunding the school district, were very controversial. Many residents of Manchester knew that Republican Party candidate Frank Guinta really wanted to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and his time in the Mayor's Office was only a stepping stone to win a seat on Capitol Hill. We all know what Frank Guinta did next: He illegally spent $381,000 of his parents' money (elder abuse) to fund his successful 2010 Congressional campaign, and then he lied about it for many years afterwards. After Frank Guinta's political career ended in disgrace, he is now a sleazy K Street lobbyist in the Swamp. Frank Guinta should have NEVER been the Mayor of Manchester!
When I lived in Manchester from early-2005 to early-2009, I got to know Joe Kelly Levasseur, who was always active in city politics. He accepted my friendship, despite me being a Democrat, and he always cared about the City of Manchester. It should not matter that Levasseur is a Republican and an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump when it comes to municipal government because local government is supposed to be about investing in the people who live, work and visit the city so that the people can then invest their time and money back into the city. Since Joe Kelly Levasseur is committed to that worthwhile cause, then his support of Republican Party politics and Donald Trump are irrelevant.
From a public finance standpoint, I would like to tell Joe Kelly Levasseur that his allegiance to the city tax cap is somewhat misguided, similar to the flawed Proposition 2.5 law in Massachusetts, because arbitrary caps on public spending often miss the mark on optimal budgeting for city services and public education. Rather than his myopic view on the city tax cap, the Mayor and Board of Aldermen in Manchester should look at how much revenue is needed to fund city services and public education, and then pass a budget to meet those needs with a focus on the city taxpayers. I never liked Proposition 2.5 in Massachusetts municipal government, and I am skeptical of city tax caps in New Hampshire municipal government because they are both arbitrary budget caps that are disconnected from the financial needs that municipalities face year in and year out. Arbitrary tax caps often gives Beacon Hill in Massachusetts and Concord's State House in New Hampshire a way to downshift a lot of costs onto municipalities and school districts by unfairly pointing to excessive municipal spending, which is usually the fault of the State Legislature(s) and Governor(s) in the first place by the state government shortchanging local government's financial needs.
Jonathan A. Melle
-----
City Matters: "Top vote-getters on opposite sides of spectrum"
By Mark Hayward, NH Union Leader, September 26, 2021
I FOUND THE RESULTS of Tuesday’s Manchester primary election depressing.
I write not about the mayoral race, but the races for two other citywide positions — alderman at-large and school board at-large.
I fret because the two people who topped the ticket in the two races — Joe Kelly Levasseur and Jim O’Connell — are ideological opposites. Hence my fellow voters and I have provided no direction for the city, other than a Manchester Middle East, a city always in conflict. A den of sworn enemies.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” admitted Tammy Simmons, a former Republican city chair. “There’s a slice (of people) that likes anyone who’s outspoken. Joe and Jim both are, just in opposite directions.”
Levasseur, a Republican and avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, has been involved in city politics the longer of the two. If he wins the general election, he will have a seventh term as alderman. He has an uncanny ability to convert potential bad publicity — such as confronting a parking officer over a ticket — into favorable press.
In three of the last five alderman at-large elections, he has been the top vote-getter.
O’Connell, a Democrat, is running for his second term on the school board. He was top vote-getter in the school board at-large race two years ago.
They don’t agree on what the results mean.
“The country and the city are split down the middle. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground,” Levasseur said.
O’Connell said the outcome shows him that people don’t vote along ideological lines.
“They vote for the people they perceive will represent them, work hard for them and be responsive to them,” he said.
O’Connell won 4,400 votes compared to 3,550 for Levasseur. It would be easy to say that O’Connell won the popularity contest, but O’Connell had only four other opponents. And he actually lost by 1,800 votes to the top-vote getter — the number of blank ballots in the race.
Levasseur had seven other opponents. Right on his tail was Dan Goonan, the former Manchester fire chief who wants to run a non-partisan campaign.
The third highest vote-getter in that race was blank ballots, at 3,350, meaning large numbers do agree on something — not doing their homework so they can cast intelligent informed votes up and down the ballot.
Kathy Sullivan, a Manchester resident and former Democratic National Committee member, said there are several factors involved in the strong showings for the two.
She suspects both encouraged their supporters to bullet vote, meaning that the voter, faced with two choices, would vote for only one, denying a vote for any other competitor, even a political ally. (Both deny doing so.)
And she said they are both well known.
“Obviously, Joe’s always doing things to put his name out there. They both have (public access) TV shows. They’re both very well known,” Sullivan said.
(She actually sees more drama for the second alderman-at large position. Will the likeable Goonan be able to tread a non-partisan tightrope? Will the hard work of June Trisciani pay off? Will veteran alderman Dan O’Neil survive his biggest challenge yet?)
As for O’Connell and Levasseur, I like them both. They are intelligent, articulate and engaging. And, unlike Mayor Joyce Craig, they return my calls and those of my reporter colleagues.
They both live in the North End’s Ward 2 — Levasseur off Wellington Hill, O’Connell in the older Currier museum neighborhood.
O’Connell is 63; Levasseur 60.
Both sent their children to Catholic elementary schools. The four O’Connell children switched to public schools in their middle school years. Levasseur’s two boys are still at St. Catherine elementary school.
They have their differences.
Levasseur is a Manchester native and grew up in Elmwood Gardens housing project.
O’Connell grew up in Ireland and has lived in the United States since 1992. He became a citizen in July 2019, the same day he registered to run for the school board.
O’Connell worked for tech companies in the network security business and now does business consulting and copywriting.
His biggest accomplishment on the school board is prodding his colleagues to review school buildings and facilities and start the decision-making process on their future, he said.
Levasseur used to own and run restaurants and is now a lawyer. His biggest political accomplishment over the past two years is blocking budgets that would exceed the city’s tax-and-spending cap, he said.
The general election in November will probably draw twice as many voters as last week’s primary. My hunch is that both will get re-elected. So divided government will prevail?
“Isn’t that good in some ways?” Republican Simmons said. “Think what it would be like if all Democrats, all of one thought process, won. There would be no middle ground.”
Likewise, Levasseur sees a divided Manchester. He doesn’t expect many Manchester residents will vote for both him and O’Connell on Nov. 2.
“From my side of the aisle, I don’t see why people would vote for this guy,” Levasseur said.
O’Connell didn’t want to acknowledge that some of his supporters may also vote for Levasseur. He said Manchester is more divided along lines of old and new than Republican-Democrat.
To him, it’s the well-connected people with ancestral ties to the city vs. newcomers with young families who want a vibrant city with good schools and other amenities.
“If there is a divide,” he said, “it’s that divide right there.”
-----
September 27, 2021
Re: Who does Pittsfield (MA) Mayor Linda Tyer represent?
Candidate for At-Large Pittsfield City Council Craig Benoit explains his reasons for running for elected office in Pittsfield Massachusetts:
Mayor Linda Tyer is going to spend $40 million in stimulus cash, but she still charges small businesses full price in city fees after they were shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mayor Linda Tyer's order to shut down local restaurants was the only city/town in Massachusetts to do so, and restaurant owners had no contact with her about it. Small businesses and citizens have a difficult time trying to communicate with Mayor Linda Tyer. It is tougher to do business in Pittsfield than other communities. Pittsfield politics is getting stagnant and needs new elected officials to change the way city government does its business.
Bidding For City Council Seat, Hot Dog Ranch Owner Says Pittsfield Is “Stagnant” | WAMC
https://www.wamc.org/news/2021-09-27/bidding-for-city-council-seat-hot-dog-ranch-owner-says-pittsfield-stagnant
-----
"Pittsfield’s Ward 2 Will Have New City Councilor After A Decade"
WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Josh Landes, September 27, 2021
With a longtime incumbent stepping down at the end of the year, two candidates are vying for the Ward 2 city council seat in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Kevin Morandi has represented Ward 2 on the Pittsfield City Council since he was first elected in 2011. Now, with his decision to not seek reelection, the door is open to new leadership.
“Ward 2 is very diverse," said Matthew Kudlate. "It's probably the most diverse in the city as far as just income wise. We have a lot of different neighborhoods between 2A and 2B. There's a lot of businesses in 2B. Of course, half of North Street is in Ward 2A. And we've got all the Tyler Street businesses. Got a couple of schools here in Ward 2.”
Kudlate, 36, is a retired Pittsfield firefighter and business owner.
“I own Berkshire Graveside Services," he told WAMC. "It's a company that I started in 2015. It originally started as a grave restoration business- So, older gravestones, we would clean and repair. And we have expanded that over the years to a funeral product line that allows people that have lost family members to have more affordable options for the things that they need to memorialize loved ones.”
He’s running against Charles Ivar Kronick, 52, who does bookkeeping and purchasing for Vermont Violins.
“The company actually is a manufacturer of violins," said Kronick. "They trademarked just this year, and they went into full production of a proprietary line of the Richelieu, as in the Cardinal Richelieu of the Three Musketeers. But otherwise we sell and rent commercial violins. Eastman, mostly.”
Both are running for office for the first time.
“I've been in Pittsfield my entire life," said Kudlate. "I've been born and raised here. I've got three children, two of them are in school. You know, Ward 2 school, Allendale here, and one starting next year, I run my business here in Ward 2, or in Pittsfield in general. And, you know, I own two houses in this ward. So I have a lot of investment in Pittsfield, and I just want to make the best decisions possible for the ward.”
“Living in Pittsfield for 10 years, I've gotten quite feel a good strong feel for what the city has gone through, where it's been where and where it can go,” said Kronick.
Both candidates say they’re supporters of Morandi and agree with his fiscally conservative outlook. Kudlate says he wants to find ways for the city to cut its spending.
“People feel like we're being, we are taxed to the limit," he told WAMC. "You can't raise the taxes anymore. Clearly, we have more money going out than coming in. So we do have to find ways to save, save taxpayer money.”
“I don't see myself as conservative in fiscal so much as I really stand for the principles of accountability and transparency and respect for the residents that tends to lead, I believe, to what you would call a, someone might describe as conservative fiscally. Which is to say, before we spend the money, something who's going to benefit from it? Where's that money going to come from? Is that money being really well spent?” said Kronick. “The people of Ward 2 are mostly very, very poor. And a lot of them don't vote because they move around from apartment to apartment. They're not fixed in their location and live on the threshold of existence. I would say a lot of people I've talked to are almost trapped in their apartments due to disabilities. So when it comes to spending money, I want the money we spend to really benefit those people. I don't call it, myself, conservative. But I really would like to see our tax rate kept stable so our rents and our property value taxes are affordable. And that when repairs and work is done on the city, it is done really efficiently.”
Kudlate says he disagrees with the administration of Mayor Linda Tyer on a recent redesign of the city’s major downtown thoroughfare, North Street.
“The bike lanes, clearly, there's a lot of people that do not support the bike lanes going into North Street and all of the changes that have taken place, and I have a hard time understanding the bike lanes myself," he told WAMC. "So yeah, North Street is, I think we're going to have to take a look at the way they've laid that out and see if we can make some changes in the future.”
Kronick has a laundry list of issues he wants the city to better address.
“We have PCBs behind Allendale School and Hill 78 that's been there for as long as GE dumped them there, and they're oozing to the surface," he told WAMC. "That’s an intractable looking problem. We've got a declining business presence on North Street. We have crime that is grown substantially since Dan Bianchi left office, and we have a drug crisis that’s killing people every day. It's not really well reported. It's probably hard to report due to lots of laws, there's no criticism there, but is a real problem, it’s claiming a lot of lives in Pittsfield on a weekly daily basis. I don't know about daily, but definitely weekly. And there's open prostitution in center in the center of town and the in residential neighborhoods right off of North Street.”
Kronick says Pittsfield lacks consensus and unity in its efforts to move forward. Despite that, he wants to project a sense of optimism.
“You talk to people, and the sense is that it can't be fixed," he said. "But my answer to that, is that anything can be fixed. But we have to try and try and work every day. You have to try things that won't work and try things that will work and hope to find the ones that do work.”
For Kudlate, the election is an opportunity to serve a community he says he’s deeply invested in.
“It’s my neighborhood too," he said. "Every decision that I make is going to directly affect me as well and my neighbors. So my promise to everybody is that I will be accessible. I listened to [what] everybody has to say. They can call me, message me on Facebook or email me, text me, anyway they want. And I will take a collective approach to everything that I do. Every decision that I make was based on what everybody wants and what's best for the ward.”
Pittsfielders head to the polls on November 2nd, 2021.
-----
"Pittsfield residents got to chime in on a survey on spending coronavirus relief money. Here are the highlights."
By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, September 27, 2021
PITTSFIELD — The majority of people who took a city survey on how to spend American Rescue Plan Act money coming to the city support using that money for economic assistance to businesses, nonprofits and the self-employed and are least interested in backfilling lost city revenue related to the coronavirus pandemic.
More than $40 million is headed to Pittsfield in federal coronavirus relief money. On Friday, the city released the results of its monthlong online survey, which was conducted in August and taken by almost 1,200 participants — or about 3 percent of the population of Pittsfield.
“I’m so proud that so many people have been engaged in this process already,” Mayor Linda Tyer said.
While some residents have argued in recent weeks about the efficacy of the survey, the number of respondents and the survey questions’ ability to create an accurate image of what all Pittsfield residents value when it comes to ARPA spending, Tyer said she felt that the online survey created a good first look at “community sentiments.”
“When you combine the community forums and what we learned in those sessions and what we learned from the survey, I think we have a good starting point [to understand community sentiments]” Tyer said.
Comparing 2019 American Community Survey estimates to the demographics of survey participants shows an underrepresentation of several groups: renters, male residents, residents with a disability and residents older than 75.
Race demographics for the survey were skewed by 141 people who chose not to identify their race, but Asian American, Black or African American residents and white residents were underrepresented in the survey.
Residents from Ward 4 and Ward 3, on the city’s southeast side, were overrepresented in the survey.
Tyer said that the results of the survey and feedback from four community forums hosted by the city on public health and human services, economic recovery, housing and neighborhoods, and tourism and cultural organizations, will be vital in instructing a soon-to-be-formed ARPA advisory committee and a new special project manager position.
Survey highlights
City officials asked survey participants to rank their preferences for spending within categories established by the Treasury Department.
Participants of the survey said that they would prefer that the city prioritize economic assistance to businesses, nonprofits and the self-employed when spending its ARPA money.
Lowest on the list of survey takers’ priorities was backfilling lost city revenue related to the pandemic.
The Treasury Department has told municipalities that they can use ARPA money to cover a calculated lost revenue amount.
Finance Director Matthew Kerwood said the initial revenue-loss calculation for Pittsfield came to about $2.33 million.
Within this category, most of the survey participants said that financial assistance to small businesses and the self-employed, and job skill development projects, should top the list of any business projects the city pursues.
While economic projects topped survey takers’ priorities for ARPA spending, only a slight majority, about 51 percent of survey participants, said they worked in the city.
About 38 percent of survey participants said they were employed full time in Pittsfield. About 7 percent said they were self-employed, about 6 percent said they worked part time in the city and about 3 percent said they were unemployed.
When it came to ranking potential ARPA-funded resident assistance projects, survey participants prioritized meeting immediate needs for food and shelter.
The American Community Survey results from 2019 show that about 13 percent of residents were living in poverty before the pandemic. At a recent community forum on ARPA spending related to neighborhoods and housing, residents said that population has grown even as supports have been eaten away by the economic impacts of the pandemic.
The Morningside and West Side neighborhoods have been highlighted by the city as areas that might have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, because of the level of poverty in the area. Despite the potential for spending in the area, the city saw low participation on the survey from the wards encompassing the neighborhoods.
About 180 people who took the survey identified as residents of Wards 2 or 6.
Almost 60 percent of survey takers said the first public health project city officials should prioritize is additional mental health, substance abuse and behavioral health supports.
A consistent theme through the city forums on ARPA spending was the mental health impact of the pandemic. During the forums, residents said they see existing mental health concerns exacerbating problems around employment, housing, health and school.
The results of a question on the type of infrastructure projects Pittsfield should support with ARPA money showed a clear prioritization for better drinking water infrastructure.
In Pittsfield, six surface reservoirs provide drinking water to residents. In the latest consumer confidence report, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection categorized the water system at a “high” susceptibility to contamination, and the department also commended the city on “promoting measures to protect our potable water supply sources.”
The report found that while there was lead, copper and 18 other regulated contaminants in city water, none of the contaminants levels was high enough to pose a risk to residents’ health.
Meg Britton-Mehlisch can be reached at mbritton@berkshireeagle.com or
413- 496-6149.
Cultural organizations tell Pittsfield ARPA money could help get them 'back on track'
Residents tell city to use pandemic recovery funds quickly to help the homeless, Morningside and West Side neighborhoods
Pittsfield to get $40M total in COVID aid; residents say use it for housing, mental health
-----
September 28, 2021
I was born in mid-1975, so I never experienced old school Pittsfield like my parents and grandparents. I have heard stories and saw old photos of post World War 2 Pittsfield. Congressman Silvio Conte brought home pork for the working class in Pittsfield back in the old days. In 2021, K Street PAC Man Richie Neal, Chrome Dome Adam Hinds of Amherst (Massachusetts), Trippy Country Buffet, and Level 5 Linda Gated Community Tyer are totally disconnected from inner city Pittsfield and the distressed families who live in daily fear of daily shootings, violent crimes, gangs, drugs, prostitution, and multigenerational poverty. GE's industrial heyday in Pittsfield is a distant memory, while GE left the area and made Pittsfield into its dump. Jimmy Ruberto once called Pittsfield the best city, but now he lives in Naples Florida with summer condo in upscale Lenox. Pittsfield politics is corrupt with an incestuous-like group of political insider hacks taxing the proverbial Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski out of the Pittsfield's ever shrinking middle class. Nightmarish 2021 dystopian Pittsfield reminds me of Pottersville in the 1946 Christmas movie classic "It's a Wonderful Life" and Biff's casino magnate city in "Back to the Future Part 2".
Jonathan A. Melle
-----
Letter: "Dalton right to resist DOT roundabout project"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 2, 2021
To the editor: Rejecting a fully state-funded Department of Transportation project isn't a common occurrence in Berkshire County.
However, it appears the residents of Dalton have watched the results of their Pittsfield neighbors rush to cash in on available state-funded road projects over the years that promised a solution to generations of accepted driving conditions. ("Dalton makes it official: DOT should park its roundabout plan," Eagle, Sept. 27.)
For more than 200 years, Pittsfield had perhaps the most historic roundabout in all of Massachusetts — that is until state funding gave birth to the notion that change was needed.
Greedy city officials would tout that it's only going to cost the city 20 percent of the total project, but we have to move quick or another city's going to beat us to the available funding. I remember as a young driver in the early 1960s how Park Square once offered parking places alongside its southern curbing, and on Sunday mornings the northern curbside provided unofficial parking for nearby church-goers.
The transition from all four directions back then wasn't as difficult as it is today. We now have what is basically a large four-way intersection with no direct access to Allen Street and Wendell Avenue Extension. Over the years, Pittsfield has furthered the demise of a once-driver-friendly city by reducing all aspects of North Street with the (state-funded) additions of a center median, sidewalk round-outs, bicycle lanes and so-called parklets for roadside dining that resemble boat docks. Not to mention the numerous other lame-brained traffic improvements taxpayer money has been squandered on around the city.
Can anyone who remembers honestly say Pittsfield is better now than when the population was nearly 60,000 and there were three lanes of traffic in either direction and parking on both sides of North Street? Hats off to Dalton.
David Potts, Pittsfield
-----
Letter: "North St. didn't need fixing; now it's broken"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 12, 2021
To the editor: If the present administration is trying to totally destroy any chance of new business coming to downtown Pittsfield, they have succeeded.
The latest incarnation of traffic flow on North Street is something to behold. There are no, I repeat, no turn lanes from Wahconah Street to South Street. I have personally been caught trying to come out of Summer Street. Because of the single lane, the traffic spills out to the middle of the intersection and if you are trying to get out of a side street, you are stuck.
It is hard to believe that anyone with knowledge of traffic flow would design such a system. The bike lanes are taking up way too much room and are not being used. I travel North Street several times a day and have encountered fewer than five bikes. The sticks that are supposed to direct traffic will have to be taken down every winter and reinstalled every spring, and at what cost?
This whole debacle is a joke and a waste of good taxpayer money. We are losing North Street businesses and it's due partly to this traffic pattern. I have not spoken to one North Street business that supports this latest change.
As a result of this change, traffic on First Street has increased dramatically and has caused First Street to become congested. Ambulances and fire trucks are having a hard time getting through the street as well, because people do not know which way to turn to let them through.
All and all, it's a mess and if someone wishes to become mayor, all they have to do is promise to bring North Street back to four lanes. Years ago when I was on the council, we were told that if we put in diagonal parking, we would lose Chapter 90 funds. Does this qualify?
Louis A. Costi, Cheshire
-----
Letter: "Heed Costi's letter on North Street"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 13, 2021
To the editor: If there is a Pittsfield representative who really cares about citizens and what they truly care about, they will read Lou Costi's Tuesday letter to the editor ("Letter: North Street didn’t need fixing; now it’s broken," Eagle, Tuesday).
Heed his words and do what's right and eliminate this ridiculous new traffic pattern. Who better to let us know what is needed in this city than an ex-representative with an extensive knowledge of city workings. Certainly not the present band of councilors and their leader.
Vic Ostellino, Pittsfield
-----
"Take a look at Pittsfield's plan to spend $5.64 million in federal rescue act money. And that's only the start"
By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, October 20, 2021
PITTSFIELD — Officials now know how they'd like to spend $5.6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money: Infrastructure projects that improve public health in city buildings, two new public health positions and support for daycare programs, the Fenn Street Shelter and another round of grants for homeowner projects.
Mayor Linda Tyer presented the first set of plans for use of the $20.3 million in federal coronavirus aid that's already in city coffers in a closed press conference Wednesday afternoon. The city is to receive about $40.6 million in all over the next two years.
The projects — which are proposals and not under contract — would allocate about $3 million to public health efforts; $1.6 million to healthy childhood, housing and neighborhood projects; $620,000 to water and sewer projects and about $340,000 to tourism and cultural goals.
The projects were unveiled along with the names of the members of the mayor's ARPA Advisory Council.
The residents who will serve on the council are A.J. Enchill, Rev. Joel Huntington, Sheila Irvin, Dr. Alan Kulberg, City Council President Peter Marchetti, Ellen Spear, Kamaar Taliaferro, Dubois Thomas and Brett Westbrook.
Tyer said the council held its first meeting Oct. 14 and received a presentation about the basics of the federal coronavirus program and the proposed spending projects created by the mayor's internal team: Community Development Director Deanna Ruffer, Finance Director Matthew Kerwood, Commissioner of Public Utilities Ricardo Morales, Director of Administrative Services Roberta McCulloch-Dews and the Mayor's Executive Assistant Catherine Van Bramer.
Tyer said she expects the council will meet weekly at least through the end of the year. The mayor said that the advisory council meetings will not be accessible to the public or televised.
"I think it's essential that that experience of serving on the advisory council is honored in a way that allows them to be honest and forthright with us about what they're seeing, without being worried that they're being watched and questioned," Tyer said. "It's really important to me that space is honored in a way that builds trust ... so I think — for now — I think we're going to keep it a sacred space for us to work together."
Tyer said the council "was comfortable that we should proceed" with the proposed projects. Ruffer added that the group "developed a really robust understanding of why we as the administration would put forward" these projects.
Here's the list of proposed projects by category:
Public Health
The city hopes to use a portion of the funds to fill two new positions focused on public health: a Community Health Outreach Coordinator and a Public Health Data Analyst.
The rest of the proposed public health spending centers around improvements to make city schools and fire stations "post pandemic healthy," according to Tyer. The projects would include window and heating and cooling system upgrades in the fire stations and heating and ventilation updates to Pittsfield High School, Reid Middle School and Crosby Elementary School.
Pittsfield officials expect to receive an additional $4 million in federal pandemic money, bringing the total to over $40 million. Residents want the city use some of the money for affordable and accessible housing opportunities, mental health services and better supports for families with "at-risk" children or youths.
Healthy Childhoods, Housing and Social Determinates of Health
Officials said that repeated requests from residents in community forums for more childcare solutions is driving their proposal to invest in a YMCA daycare upgrade and expansion.
Housing stability was another common request from residents, aligning with the city's desire to use a portion of the federal money to fill a funding gap for renovations of the Fenn Street Shelter.
The mayor said she'd also like to institute another round of the At Home in Pittsfield project, which helps cover the cost for residents to invest in exterior home improvements.
The Morningside and West Side neighborhoods meet federal rules for additional supports from the ARPA money. Officials said their first project in these neighborhoods would be to upgrade neighborhood sidewalks.
Infrastructure
The first infrastructure project proposed is for repairs and upgrades to the city's Ashley Water Treatment Plant in Dalton and a nearby dam.
Negative Economic Impacts
City officials said they want to help remind tourists of all Pittsfield's cultural institutions have to offer. To do this, they're proposing an extensive marketing campaign in partnership with tourism and cultural businesses in the city.
Tyer said the city is also looking to replicate a successful North Adams program called Assets for Artists which would help support self-employed artists. That program would run in tandem with the city's plans to work with Roots Rising on a job training program.
Meg Britton-Mehlisch can be reached at mbritton@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6149.
The projects would allocate about $3 million to public health efforts; $1.6 million to healthy childhood, housing and neighborhood projects; $620,000 to water and sewer projects and about $340,000 to tourism and cultural goals.
-----
Letter: "As a Pittsfield city councilor, I believe Benoit, Kalinowsky have what it takes"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 20, 2021
To the editor: This year, the residents of Pittsfield have an opportunity to elect a new City Council.
It is extremely important that the right individuals are on the council to ensure that the city finally moves forward with the assistance of the more than $40 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The council is in desperate need of independent members that care about the city and its residents. That's why I will be voting for Craig Benoit and Karen Kalinowsky for councilors at large. Craig is a business owner and Karen is a former police officer. Both have different life experiences and they both have demonstrated a desire to listen to their constituents and vote on matters that benefit the city and not the administration.
The majority of the current City Council seems to have forgotten one of their primary purposes: to be a check and balance to the administration. The council is supposed to represent the residents (after all, that's who elected them) and not be a rubber stamp for the mayor.
Pittsfield residents, take the first step in taking back your city with proper representation and transparency by voting for Craig Benoit and Karen Kalinowsky. I am confident that they won't let you down. My only regret is that I will not be serving on the council with these two fine individuals.
Christopher J. Connell, Pittsfield
The writer is the Ward 4 city councilor and is not seeking reelection.
-----
October 20, 2021
Can she always say "Dynamic" and "Vibrant"? Does she live in a millionaires only gated community? Does she preside over Level 5 inner city public schools? Does she want a rubber stamp City Council and School Committee? Does she sit on tens of millions of Biden Bucks plus Matt Kerwood's multimillion dollar Slush Funds? Does she block dissenting Pittsfield political emails, especially from Pittsfield Massachusetts native JON MELLE? Is she out-of-touch to local residents and small business owners? Does she allow a certain politically connected Dalton Avenue pot growing operation to stink up abutting working class neighborhoods with "Dead Skunk Odor" marijuana smells? Did she take no responsibility for the dozens of dead seniors at Pittsfield long term care facilities last winter? Did she give out-of-town millionaires huge tax breaks? Did she pass record breaking municipal budgets, fees, public debts and other liabilities? Does she understand that homeless people are pooping on North Street's sidewalks? Does she call any candidate or other speaker who disagrees with her failed leadership "Melissa Mazzeo plants"? Did she rise through the ranks of Pittsfield politics through sucking up to Godfather Jimmy Ruberto of Naples Florida? Does she support the 23-year-old indebted, polluted and mostly vacant PEDA land that looks like the surface of the Moon? That is not candidate Karen Kalinowski, but rather, it is Mayor LINDA TYER!
-----
Letter: "Vote Kronick for Ward 2 councilor in Pittsfield"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 21, 2021
To the editor: As a resident of Pittsfield's Ward 2 since 2005, I ask everybody here to vote for Mr. Charles Kronick.
Mr. Kronick is well known for his active participation in Ward 2 and whole city of Pittsfield's life and needs. He is completely independent — not connected to any special interest groups, not a member of the old boys club. Charles Kronick is married and has a daughter. He went to Williams College, worked in Carr Hardware and worked as a senior graphic designer and email coder for a National Automotive Marketing company-Dominion Dealer Services.
I have seen him many times speaking during City Council meetings on hot issues trying to bring common sense solutions into frequently bizarre city decisions. Mr. Kronick and I oppose bike lines on North Street as a waste of taxpayers' money, unsafe for drivers and bikers. I must add as a commercial Class A driver that these bike lines violate state and federal traffic rules, since you can’t make a right turn from the left lane because of this bike lines project.
Mr. Kronick opposes property tax increases and opposes recycling bag mandates. He stands for restricted cannabis, asking to change Pot Mile back to Dalton Avenue. For dealing with American Rescue Plan Act funds, he asks no planning until we get transparency and accountability. Mr. Kronick asks to reevaluate PCB levels since Allendale School is our Love Canal — having PCBs at Hill 78 is unacceptable and must be fixed.
Kronick proposes helping homeless and low-income residents. He approached the Pittsfield Police chief with support for full police funding to fight local crime. Current Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi endorses Mr. Kronick. Mr. Charles Kronick is the person we need. Please, vote for Charles Kronick for Ward 2 on Nov. 2 [2021].
Alexander Blumin, Pittsfield
-----
Letter: "Elect Benoit, Kalinowsky to Pittsfield City Council"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 23, 2021
To the editor: I am writing to ask the voters of Pittsfield to elect Craig Benoit as a city councilor at large.
As many of you may recall, I was an at-large councilor for 10 years, and it didn’t take long to realize that being an independent voice on a council of 11 was not going to be easy. Often, there was pressure to agree more with the mayor and your colleagues than to vote for what was right for your constituents. Staying true to the promises that got you elected is what a public servant should be doing.
Craig Benoit will be that kind of councilor. He’s not running to be a career politician; he is running because a strong, business-minded voice is needed on the City Council. When COVID-19 shut down the food industry, Craig, the owner of the Hot Dog Ranch, was struggling along with his fellow restaurant owners. When the city opened indoor dining again, he went to work with his loyal employees and served the community again. Not long after, Mayor Linda Tyer shut down all Pittsfield eateries due to an isolated breach in COVID protocol. Craig spearheaded a petition to ask the mayor to reconsider. He didn’t take no for an answer. He wanted a chance to speak and plead their case and, within days, restaurants were open for business again.
Craig told me then and there that he never realized how important having a voice in city government is for small businesses. So much was lost in the city with this shutdown — meals tax revenue, unemployment for staff and no money to donate to youth organizations and nonprofits. Pittsfield is made up of small businesses and they need to have a strong, independent voice on the council, and that is what they will get by electing Craig Benoit.
Another independent voice to elect is Karen Kalinowsky. Being a retired police officer with many years spent as a school resource officer, Karen will bring real experience in public and school safety, and is not afraid to ask tough questions. I ask you to put your faith in Craig and Karen as you did when you elected me for 10 years. Thank you.
Melissa Mazzeo, Dalton
The writer is Craig Benoit’s campaign manager.
-----
Letter: "Pittsfield's ARPA advisory council should be meeting publicly"
The Berkshire Eagle, October 28, 2021
To the editor: Regarding the article “Linda Tyer lays out $5.6M in spending and names an advisory council,” I have a question.
If the American Rescue Plan Act money is supposed to be distributed throughout our community, and we have a general idea of what areas the money will be applied to, why would the meetings need to be held in a private, sacred place to not be watched or questioned?
Having closed meetings is a big deal to me. The mayor, city councilors and committees work for the public, making decisions to best help the public. So the meetings should be open so the public can watch and question in order to make sure the city and committee are doing what the public wants.
The goal isn’t to have all like-minded people discussing how things should be done; it’s about having open-minded people so a bunch of different ideas can be brought forward and the best ones can be applied.
City officials do not work for themselves, but for the people and when things go unwatched and unquestioned is when they’re afraid of what the public may think. Why would that be if they have the public’s best interest in mind?
Karen Kalinowsky, Pittsfield
The writer is a candidate for an at large seat on the Pittsfield City Council.
-----
November 4, 2021
A Pittsfield politics funny Joke: What do you call a man at the top of a hill in Pittsfield Massachusetts? Cliff Nilan.
I received an email today introducing Pittsfield's newest website:
Best things to do in Pittsfield, the Berkshires, MA. (lovepittsfield.com)
Pittsfield issues an indoor mask directive starting on Monday, November 8th, 2021:
Pittsfield Board of Health issues indoor mask directive effective Monday | WAMC
Fact: State Government spends over 50 percent of their fiscal year budget on public health; (also a fact: the Federal Government spends of one-third of their fiscal year budget on public health). The fiscal year 2022 state budget in Massachusetts is near $50 billion. That means that well over $20 billion state government dollars per this current fiscal year in Massachusetts is being spent on public health. Why then are Pittsfield's Covid-19 caseloads doubling in number from this past Summer? Taxpayers biggest contribution to their corrupt career politicians in Beacon Hill's Statehouse is so that the people will have public health, yet the results are dismal. Where does the money really go for public health?
Jonathan A. Melle
-----