BRTA Launches Route 7 Bus Route

Gary Shepard, left, Adam Falk and Benjamin Downing discuss the new routes during an announcement at the Harper Center on Friday.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is launching a pilot bus run down Route 7, connecting North County to Pittsfield in a much quicker fashion.

The route is an extension of a partnership with Williams College, which previously identified a need to connect students with jobs, internships and the Berkshire community. The route runs from Stop & Shop in North Adams to Berkshire Medical Center, with stops along the way.

Riders can request additional stops and pickups as well with a "call/tell" system, allowing the drivers to deviate routes according to needs. Two new mini buses — both equipped with a trial Wi-Fi connection — will run the route about a half dozen times a day. The earliest route run at 6:20 a.m.

The school is taking the money they would have spent running their own system to help BRTA expand — freeing up the school's resources of management and allowing the company to achieve goals they previously eyed quicker. The BRTA is also using some of a federal grant for the new route.

According to Williams College professor Paula Consolini, who headed the effort, the school identified a need for connecting the students with the community.

"This originated from a study group on community engagement," Consolini said. "We knew it. But we got confirmation that transportation was a problem with getting students into the community."

The college initially ran a Route 2 run with its own shuttle bus but the demand was so great the college reached out to the BRTA. That initial partnership proved to be successful and the college and BRTA launched another pilot to extend hours, and now have added the Route 7 corridor.

"Coming to Williams is about coming to Williamstown and the Berkshires," said Williams President Adam Falk.

"Route 7 is rich with opportunity," said BRTA Administrator Gary Shepard. "We are filling an opportunity that exists. It's always been part of our long-range plans."

Government, business and educational officials were all on the bus Friday morning.

On Friday, representatives from BRTA, Williams, Berkshire Community College, state Sen. Benjamin Downing and state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi joined in a bus tour around a portion of the new route. The bus made stops at Stop & Shop, Wild Oats, the Clark Art Institute, Mount Greylock Regional High School and the Williams campus and at each, a representative from the business or institute spoke highly of the opportunity to increase traffic.

"This just gives us flexibility that we didn't have," said Mount Greylock Principal Mary MacDonald, adding that the school is planning on using the service to transport students on small field trips or with tutors without having to increase their own spending on transportation.

The high school activity was something Shepard said had not been anticipated. The focus was to help connect elderly with health-care institutions on top of working with Williams students. Mount Greylock's participation was a welcomed addition.

Cariddi, who sits on the state Joint Committee on Transportation, said public transit is important in building strong communities. Downing said public transit is a "social safety net" in connecting residents with health-care services as well as an economic driver by getting workers to their jobs.

"It's all about the riders and building the ridership," Cariddi said. "It is most gratifying that our own BRTA is making use of the resources they have."

Falk said it is important that the college is in a "strong community," so for Williams, it is not just simply connecting students with jobs.

"All of us benefit when public transportation gets better," he said.

Shepard said the program will be reassessed in the spring and administrators will continually adjust the operations to fit needs.

Child-Care Providers Want Mental Health Support, Better Wages

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
06:15AM / Saturday, August 03, 2024

Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Early Education and Care Commissioner Amy Kershaw host a listening session on early child care at BCC on Wednesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Local child-care providers called for mental health support and equitable pay at a listening session with state officials this week. 

"We don't provide resources for our educators so that they have a strength in the classroom. They're putting out fires constantly. How are they educating? How are they teaching?" said Elise Weller, senior director of child care services at 18 Degrees.

"The social-emotional development of these children is so important."

Katherine Von Haefen, director of community impact at Berkshire United Way, said a single parent with school-aged children needs to make between $70,000 and $80,000 annually just to meet basic needs and a great many local parents are not making that mark — including teachers.

"Just over half of our population now in Berkshire County is considered to be economically challenged, working yet still struggling to make ends meet. Too many of our local educators are part of this economically challenged population," she said.

"Frequently we hear directors sharing stories of staff refusing raises or bonuses so that they do not lose out on key benefits. This is not OK. Early childhood compensation is truly a very complicated issue and one that frankly, has not yet been fully successfully addressed across the country. It's one that's complicated yet, we still need to look at a variety of possible solutions. Multiple solutions that can be piloted and road tested before engaging in large-scale efforts."

Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Early Education and Care Commissioner Amy Kershaw hosted the childcare listening session Wednesday at Berkshire Community College. The panel also included state Outdoor Recreation Director Paul Jahnige, Alvina Brevard of the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, and Undersecretary of Education Mark Reilly.

"We know that there are some really difficult barriers facing this particular field: accessibility, affordability for families, opportunity, and so we will be discussing, I'm sure, all of that," BCC President Ellen Kennedy said.

"I am particularly committed to this. I am the parent of a son who is now in his thirties with a son who was at a child-care center but my son went in at eight weeks old and I have shared on one or two occasions that it was the professionals in the child-care center that made me a better parent, that actually taught me how to parent, and I am forever in their debt for the ways in which they helped me help my son."