PITTSFIELD, Mass. — State Sen. Paul Mark spoke of his efforts advocating for the region and rural communities, the transition from the House of Representatives, and answered questions from community members in a variety of industries a luncheon this past Friday.

 

"Shortly after Senator Mark was elected this fall, we immediately knew that we wanted to do some kind of an event to welcome him to the new role," said 1Berkshire President and CEO Jonathan Butler. 

 

"The relationship between our state senator and the business community has long been steadfast and strong and we're looking forward to continuing that with Senator Mark. The senator has spent his career fighting for the people of Western Massachusetts."

 

The event took place Friday at Berkshire Hill Country Club on the 100th day of his tenure in the Senate. 

 

During those first 100 days, state Senate President Karen E. Spilka visited North Adams, he hosted a district conference in Lenox with seven committee chairs including Joint Committee on Ways and Means Chair Michael J. Rodrigues.

 

"When you're in Senate, every member of the Senate, because there are only 40, is a member of the leadership. You're either a member of the party leadership, whichever party you're in, or you're a committee chair," Mark explained. "And that's wonderful because it means every one of you has some leverage to have your voice heard. 

 

"So every bill that comes down there is the opportunity to put the stamp of this region on that piece of legislation whether it's policy or whether its budget and that's something I've been dying to be able to do and I'm so excited to have the opportunity."

 

 

Mark said there is a Chapter 90 road funding bill that was inspired by feedback from the towns of Becket, Mount Washington, Washington, and Goshen that includes $25 million for rural communities using a formula based on road miles and a lack of population density.

 

"It's the same job but you go from representing a small area really close on the ground to representing a gigantic area with so many people, 170,000 people, and so much needed," he said.

 

"But the opportunity to deliver results like this quickly has been so affirming and so exciting."

 

Shakespeare & Company director Amy Handelsman queried Mark on affordable housing. He pointed out that Gov. Maura Healey declared housing as one of her top priorities and the Senate recently moved on her effort to separate the Department of Housing from the Department of Economic Development to create a standalone secretary of housing.

 

There is also an intention to turn unutilized or underutilized state-owned property into housing.

 

"There also needs to be, importantly, recognition that a development that could work in even Pittsfield or North Adams and would work in many parts of the state might not work in a town like Becket, in a town like Peru," Mark added. "And how do we make it attractive that a development that might include four properties, five properties, and resulting in 20 people moving in is still worth doing and still needs to be economically attractive."

 

Mark was also asked about plans to support early education by the preschool director of Kidzone Childcare.  

 

After the onset of COVID-19, he said there was a realization that lack of child care affected many people's ability to work. This is an impediment to economic activity and disproportionately affects women, he added.

 

State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier has been a supporter of early education, sponsoring a bill to provide affordable and accessible high-quality early education and care to promote child development and well-being and support the economy in the commonwealth.

 

"Early education is another place that the governor has been a priority," Mark said.

 

"And it goes right alongside a vision that I think is emerging for how K-through-12 education should look and be properly funded, how higher education should look and be properly funded, and then early education too as the foundation that builds into education in higher education and vocational training."

 

The senator serves on the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and People with Disabilities.

 

Berkshire County Arc President & CEO Maryann Hyatt thanked Mark for his support of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the organization.  

 

She pointed to a workforce bill that aims to raise the minimum salary of direct support workers up to at least the 75 percent threshold.

 

Mark explained that the Berkshires and the entire state is having trouble attracting workers because of factors including child care, pay, and qualifications.

 

"Making sure that salaries of workers in organizations like Berkshire Arc and others are adequate, that we're fully funding that as best as possible, and then making sure that's also supplemented by opportunities to proper training, proper education, loan forgiveness programs, loan relief, student grants, is extremely critical," he said.

 

He said the entire delegation supports the bill and will fight for it, it's just a matter of phasing it in slowly while making sure that workers can be attracted to do the extremely important job.

 

Richard Alcombright, former North Adams mayor, thanked Mark for his work to support folks suffering from substance abuse and mental health issues, recognizing that there were many people in the room whose professions support those populations.

 

Mark said he was eligible for free lunch at school, saying the stigma that came with it was similar.

 

"It has been a priority of mine to also eliminate that stigma, allow people that just need help to get help so they can also break through those barriers," he said adding that every penny invested in recovery is a dollar that is saved later.

 

Friday's gathering was 1Berkshire's largest in-person event since the pandemic began three years ago.

 

"If you go back to 2019, we would throw together breakfasts and lunches and other business community networking events where we can kind of get the business community and our nonprofits and our educational institutions all sharing a meal together and networking and getting to know each other," he said.

 

"We consider it to be one of the most important pieces of work that we do."

 

General Dynamics Mission Systems, Jiminy Peak, and KB Accounting were chief sponsors of the event and it was catered by KJ Nosh.