Education Director Jennifer Smith teaches a citizenship class at the Berkshire Immigrant Center offices. The center helps more than 750 a year with citizenship and immigration status applications, settlement, language services and education.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Immigrant Center is celebrating 25 years of providing vital services to local immigrants.
BIC was founded in 1997 by the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires to resettle Russian refugees and, in October 2021, became an independent nonprofit organization.
The organization has helped more than 1,000 people become citizens, which Development Director Sheryl Lechner identified as its biggest impact.
"We're really the only local alternative offering accredited, legal immigration services accredited by the Department of Justice as an alternative to a private immigration attorney," she explained.
"If you're filing a citizenship application, a (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) renewal, a green card, and many, many other immigration status applications with the federal government, you have to either work with an immigration attorney or an accredited agency or accredited representative.
"BIC is an accredited agency and we have two full-time accredited representatives and one part-time volunteer accredited representative."
This milestone is being marked with the center's third annual One World Celebration on Sunday at 5 p.m. at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox. The event is BIC's annual benefit to fund free and low-cost services to local immigrants.
Honduran-born violinist Jorge Ávila will open the event accompanied by guitarist Oren Fader and Alex Torres & His Latin Orchestra will play a high-energy and dance-friendly blend of Afro-Caribbean rhythms.
It will also feature food from KJ Nosh catering in Pittsfield.
Lechner said they are excited to have the event live for the first time since 2019. It was postponed in 2020 and made virtual in 2021.
The center's advocacy for immigrants doesn't stop at legal aid. Settlement services, advocacy and public education, interpretation and translation services, and voter education are among the other services offered at the BIC's office at 67 East St.
With more than 750 clients a year, Lechner said the organization's work also plays a key role in the diversity and economic stability of the region.
Lechner said there have been times when the state has seen a significant economic downturn but the Berkshires have shown resiliency and she attributes this to the county's recognition of the role that immigrants play in economic stability.
"Foreign-born residents of the Berkshires remain the only growing demographic long term in the Berkshires over the past couple of decades," she added.
"So they're really in many ways the backbone of the economic resilience of the Berkshires."
BIC is still very closely connected with Jewish Federation of the Berkshires. There were many Russian refugees in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union, and with many of them being Jewish, the Jewish Federation wanted to help people resettle in the Berkshires.
The project started there and developed as the needs of the immigrant community changed. There began to be an influx of people to the Berkshires from Eastern Europe, Central and South America, Asia, and West Africa. Ghana is a big component of the local immigration influx.
"We grew over time to the point where we're seeing a lot of different people and we kind of outgrew just being a project of the Jewish Federation," Lechner explained.
"We were briefly a fiscal project at Berkshire Community Action Council and then in 2012, we became a project of Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and that is where we stayed until last year, and in March, we decided that we were ready after 24 years of being a fiscal project of other organizations, we were ready to become our own 501(c)(3)."
BIC is about 45 percent grant-funded with between 16 and 20 grants in process at any given time, about 45 percent individual and business funded, and about 10 percent comes from low-cost fees for service.
In April, the organization was awarded $80,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding for the expansion of legal and educational services for immigrants living in Pittsfield. It was also awarded $10,000 in ARPA funding from the town of Lee, which has many immigrants.
The center has also raised and disbursed more than $600,000 from its COVID-19 Relief Fund since March 2020 to help more than 200 immigrant families pay for basic needs.
Tickets for the One World Celebration are $100 so that BIC can continue to provide services to the county's around 10,000 immigrants. A recording of the performances will be available the following month.
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Pittsfield 2024 Business Wrap-Up: New Life and Closures
By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
Mayor Peter Marchetti gets ice cream cones from the reopened King Cone on Fenn Street.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — In 2024, the city's business landscape saw some shakeups, with restaurant openings and closures and some new ventures.
King Kone, a soft-serve staple, was purchased by the nonprofit Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds to be run as a workers' co-op. At the end of the 2023 season, the Barbarotta family closed the shop's order and pickup windows for the last time as they prepared to sell.
The ice cream shop had a soft opening in August, offering frozen treats on a "pay what you will" basis while employees perfected the craft.
In 2023, Roots and Dreams was allocated $179,000 to purchase the soft-serve ice cream shop at 133 Fenn St. and convert it into a worker cooperative. It owns a series of storefronts ranging from 117 to 129 Fenn St.
This model provides workers with a flat wage, revenue shares, and the opportunity to buy into the business.
There were moving trucks outside the location instead of preparations for the lunch rush. It was first reported by PCTV on its Facebook page and a call to the restaurant was answered by an employee who said the eatery had no plans to reopen.
The former Crossroads Cafe saw new life in 2024 as Bei Tempi, which is Italian for "good times." Owners Elizabeth and Richard Zucco wanted to bring back food while preserving the establishment's long-held popularity for live music.
In 2023, the Licensing Board approved a change of stock interest for Crossroads Cafe and an application from Zuke's Soups and Variety LLC, doing business as Bei Tempi, for the transfer of license, pledge of inventory, and pledge of license from C.T. Colvin Inc. doing business as Crossroads Cafe.
Bei Tempi was granted an entertainment license in June.
North Street saw a new breakfast and lunch spot when Marie's North Street Eatery and Gallery opened in the former Maria's European Delights.
Maria's European Delights closed at the end of 2022 after 15 years in business. Maria Sekowski's late husband Krzysztof "Kris" opened the store in Great Barrington in 2007, and, in 2013, it was moved to Pittsfield. The Eastern European deli was known for the smell of homemade soup, stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, and impromptu musical numbers.
New owner Neil Davis, a veteran entrepreneur, has kept an office in the historic Shipton building for about 10 years and Marie was a formal administrative assistant before they went into business together. He also owns a shredding business in California and has other startup ventures.
When Maria's closed, he saw an opportunity in the space and a way to connect with the community and purchased the business in February of 2023.
The space had been formerly occupied by Berkshire Palate, a farm-to-table eatery, which opened its second location in the Hotel on North in 2021. Around the same time, its owners opened 413 Bistro in the previously shuttered restaurant attached to the Holiday Inn on Main Street in North Adams.
Unfortunately, not all city eateries made it to 2025.
Attorney Bill Martin said there is a "really bad relationship" with the holder of The A's liquor license — with owners struggling to even get in contact. A few years ago, the former tenants went out of business and now, he said the GEAA is facing a worse situation with the latest tenants.
He said there are unpaid vendors, amounting to "tens of thousands of dollars worth of obligations that we're probably going to have to clear in connection with an application" for a liquor license transfer.
According to The A's Facebook, the restaurant appears to have been closed since late summer.
Pittsfield also saw a new plant shop and liquor store/Latin market.
Owners Emilee Yawn and Bonnie Marks opened the original location on historic Eagle Street in North Adams in 2020. Within two years, the shop outgrew the Eagle Street storefront and moved to a larger location on Main Street.
They offer classes and workshops, residential and commercial plant care, and sell various plants and related merchandise. They also offer personal and cleaning products that are green, sustainable, and refillable.
It features authentic Latin food from several countries, including Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru.?
The owner Frank Goncalves would drive by the building every day and see the rough condition it was in. He made it into an opportunity to make the area look better and more welcoming.
Prior to the opening of the market, the Hispanic, South American, and Central American communities had to drive an hour or longer to get authentic Latin food, Goncalves said.
Independent Connections officially unveiled its Massachusetts branch on Fenn Street in March with a ribbon cutting. The IT solutions company's specializations include consulting, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.
"We're focused on serving local businesses with state-of-the-art technology while providing superior customer service," CEO Christa Proper said. "And Indy's presence in Pittsfield will help keep jobs here, and continue to attract talent to this area."
The building, formerly occupied by Alliance Appliance for more than 40 years, underwent a makeover after it was purchased by the company last year. Proper explained that it was an "employee collaboration," with staff members assisting in ripping out carpet, cutting bushes, cleaning windows, and painting.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren meets with local entrepreneurs Destiny Saunders, Jocelyn Guelce, Desean Scales and Ludwig Jean-Louis, who all received support through the Berkshire Black Economic Council.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was in the city in July to talk small business opportunities and met with four local entrepreneurs who have received assistance, advice and promotion through the council's programs.
The Berkshire Black Economic Council's work to support and attract new small businesses to the gateway city got boost with $455,000 secured by Warren in 2023's appropriations package.
"I'm here to celebrate partnership because I really do believe that we have the pieces right, every part of it then starts to work better," Warren said. "And of course, I'm also here to celebrate being able to put nearly half a million dollars into funding this effort, and the work that is being done here to make sure that small businesses, that Black-owned small businesses, are not at a competitive disadvantage."
Jonathan Butler was recognized for a decade of leadership at 1Berkshire's annual meeting, held at Barrington Stage.
When Butler joined the organization in 2014, he was executive director of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce. He then navigated the 2016 merging of the chamber, Berkshire Economic Development Corp., Berkshire Business Bureau, and Berkshire Creative into the 1Berkshire that is known today.
While serving the entire county, 1Berkshire has had its strongest impact in Pittsfield, where it is headquartered. The organization has sold its property at 66 Allen St. after 12 years and will move to the second floor of Crawford Square on North Street.
A few businesses with locations in Pittsfield announced closures in 2024.
Designer and entrepreneur Annie Selke started with a bedding and sleep items business in 1994 as Pine Cone Hill. The largely wholesale home decor operation added Potluck Studios dinnerware in 2002 and Dash & Albert Rugs in 2003.
She invested nearly $4 million into the former Interprint mill on Peck's Road that dates to the 1860s and moved in 2007. The company was purchased by Rugs USA in 2023.
In the fall, signs appeared on Staples' front window in Berkshire Crossing indicating that it would close on Dec. 13. Then Big Lots announced in December that it would liquidate its assets after a purchase agreement with a competitor fell through.
"We all have worked extremely hard and have taken every step to complete a going concern sale," Bruce Thorn, Big Lots' president and CEO, said in the announcement.
"While we remain hopeful that we can close an alternative going concern transaction, in order to protect the value of the Big Lots estate, we have made the difficult decision to begin the GOB process."
The closeout retailer moved into the former Price Rite Marketplace on Dalton Avenue in 2021. The grocery had been in what was originally the Big N for 14 years before closing eight months after a million-dollar remodel. Big Lots had previously been in the Allendale Shopping Center.
Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. It operated nearly 1,400 stores nationwide but began closing more than 300 by August with plans for another 250 by January. The Pittsfield location had not been among the early closures.
Advanced Auto Parts, with three locations in the Berkshires, is also closing 500 stores and 200 independently owned locations by about June. The North Adams store has had a "going out of business" for weeks and one of the Pittsfield stores is also slated for closure.
The Public Safety Advisory Committee has ranked four properties to consider during its feasibility study on locations for a new police station. Three have existing structures and one is a vacant lot. click for more
During the event, Pittsfield Bureau Chief Brittany Polito will ask the four Select Board candidates questions curated from voter submissions.
click for more
Officials approved a third-party investigation on alleged staff misconduct at Pittsfield High School that's expected to wrap up by March. click for more
