North Adams Graduated Awarded Stanley Scholarship

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The William Stanley Scholarship Fund announced today that 18-year-old Kristina Reynolds of North Adam has been named the 2009 William Stanley Scholar. She will receive a $3,000 scholarship per year for up to four years of her college education.

The highly competitive scholarship is awarded to only one student each year. It is intended for a Berkshire County graduating senior who is entering a four-year, nationally-accredited college or university. The student must demonstrate motivation and academic achievement, have SAT scores of 1000 or more, be in the top 20 percent of his or her class, have a grade-point average of at least 3.0, and demonstrate financial need.

Reynolds graduated from Drury High School this past June with a 4.0 GPA. She will attend Southern Vermont College in the fall and plans to major in radiography. She has volunteered at North Adams Regional Hospital for three years and was a member of the Youth Council that awarded grant money to selected service projects in North Adams.

Recent past winners of the scholarship who are continuing their studies and continue to receive scholarship funds are:

Peter Choi (2008 Stanley Scholar) is a pre-medicine student at Brown University. Outside of classes, he has participated in intramural sports and became an active member of the Korean American Student Association.


Justin Burdick (2007 Stanley Scholar) is majoring in electronic media, arts, and communication and pursuing a minor in game simulation arts and sciences at Rensselaer (N.Y.) Polytechnic Institute. He has been active in his band, acting as band manager and recording the band's new six-song demo.

Abigail Reardon (2006 Stanley Scholar) will enter her senior year at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the fall. She spent last summer studying at Trinity College at Oxford University through the English department at UMass' Oxford Summer Seminar.

The William Stanley Scholarship Fund, a fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, was established in 1991 following the dissolution of the Stanley Club, a social club for the General Electric Co. for more than 50 years in Berkshire County. The club was named after Stanley, an inventor and a pioneer in the early development of the advantages of alternating electrical current over Thomas A. Edison's direct current system. He demonstrated the practicality of AC generation and transmission by his historical lighting of stores and hotels on Main Street on March 20, 1886. Stanley was originally associated with Westinghouse, but formed the Stanley Manufacturing Co. in Pittsfield in 1992. The company was bought by GE in 1903.

The next deadline for the William Stanley Scholarship Fund is May 1, 2010. Applications can be found at www.berkshiretaconic.org/grantseekers or by calling 413-528-8039.
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Pittsfield Council Passes $232.7M Budget

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council unanimously approved a $232.7 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year. 

It is a modest, almost 2.9 percent increase from FY26. 

"I do want to give the community kind of a heads up as we move forward on budgets. What we see coming out of the federal government that's trickling down to the states, it's going to be harder and harder for us as a community to meet our needs under the Proposition 2 1/2," Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said. 

"We're going to have challenges, as we've seen communities across the state trying to override the Proposition 2 1/2, because we have dwindling amounts of money coming from the state and federal government." 

She pointed out that, at the same time, utility bills are going up for both residents and the city, as are the costs of pavement and other items. 

The amended budget of $232,777,720, down from the $232,782,090 originally proposed, includes cuts to the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the restoration of funds for councilors to attend the annual Massachusetts Municipal Association conference. 

The Pittsfield Public Schools' $86,855,061 budget includes $68,886,061 in state Chapter 70 funding and $18 million from the city. With $345,000 in school choice and Richmond tuition revenues, it totals $87,200,061 and is an approximately $300,000 increase from the Pittsfield Public Schools' FY26 budget of $86.9 million. 

The district's budget will fund 13 schools, as Morningside Community School will retire in the fall, and includes the middle school restructuring. 

Councilors also approved the use of $2 million in certified free cash to reduce the tax rate, and appropriated $450,551 for parking-related expenditures. 

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