Red Shirt Farm Receive Agricultural Food Safety Improvement Program Grant

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LANESBOROUGH — Red Shirt Farm will receive a $28,000 grant from the he Agricultural Food Safety Improvement Program (AFSIP), administered by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) to improve refrigeration.
 
The Baker-Polito Administration announced $1,000,000 in grants to 23 Massachusetts farms to implement practices that improve food safety within their operations. 
 
The Agricultural Food Safety Improvement Program (AFSIP), administered by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), is a competitive grant program that allows produce and aquaculture operations to address food safety on their farms, enabling the operations to meet buyer demands, increase consumption of local food, and protect public health by reducing food safety risks.
 
"The Commonwealth's agricultural industry continues to grow and upgrade its practices to both meet marketplace demands and regulatory requirements," said Governor Charlie Baker. "These grants underscore our Administration's commitment to helping farmers implement important upgrades within their operations to ensure that food safety risks are managed, that their marketplace needs are addressed, and their businesses continue to grow."
 
Grant funds for produce operations provided through AFSIP focus on assisting these efforts meet regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), as well as to protect public health, sustain public confidence in the food system, and meet buyer requirements. Examples of awards to produce operations include cold storage, wildlife fencing, washing/packing facility upgrades, and produce washing lines.
 
This round of grant funding has a focus on assisting commercial oyster farmers to comply with the Department of Fish and Game's (DFG) Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) and the Department of Public Health's (DPH) Vibrio Control Program.
 
"The Baker-Polito Administration is committed to supporting the state's local farms utilizing a variety of strategies and funding programs, such as the Agricultural Food Safety Improvement Program, to enable great access to fresh, local food that is grown and harvested according to appropriate food safety practices," said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Bethany Card. "These grants will further assist farmers in helping modernize their operations and strengthen the local food supply safely and sustainably."

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Lanesborough Administrator Gives Update on Snow Plowing

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

LANESBOROUGH, Mass.— Five staff members plow about 50 miles of town roads during the winter.

On Monday, Town Administrator Gina Dario updated the Select Board on snow plowing.  The county began to see snow around Thanksgiving and had a significant storm last week.

"I just think it's good for transparency for people to understand sort of some of the process of how they approach plowing of roads," she said.

Fifty miles of roadway is covered by five staff members, often starting at 8 p.m. with staggered shifts until the morning.

"They always start on the main roads, including Route 7, Route 8, the Connector Road, Bull Hill Road, Balance Rock (Road,) and Narragansett (Avenue.) There is cascading, kind of— as you imagine, the arms of the town that go out there isn't a set routine. Sometimes it depends on which person is starting on which shift and where they're going to cover first," Dario explained.

"There are some ensuring that the school is appropriately covered and obviously they do Town Hall and they give Town Hall notice to make sure that we're clear to the public so that we can avoid people slipping and falling."

She added that dirt roads are harder to plow earlier in the season before they freeze 'Or sometimes they can't plow at all because that will damage the mud that is on the dirt roads at that point."

During a light snowstorm, plowers will try to get blacktop roads salted first so they can be maintained quickly.

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