Lanesborough Public Safety Committee to Query Residents on Rejected Proposal

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Public Safety Building Committee wants to know specifics of why residents voted down the nearly $6 million dollar police and EMS complex in March.

About a month into its work, the reconstituted committee is mapping out a survey for this purpose.

"This committee was criticized for not being transparent and not having the public involved," Chair Mark Siegars said about the now-dissolved Police Station Committee. "And we're going to just go the opposite direction."

On Tuesday, the panel approved a drafted survey that queries residents on their attendance or lack of attendance at the special town meeting in March where the vote was made, if they voted for or against the proposal, and if the committee should present more public information.

Utilizing Zip 'N Sort mail services, they plan to send the survey out to registered voters and have it available at Town Hall, at the annual town meeting on June 13, and on election day on June 20.

Included in the ATM warrant is a vote to appropriate and transfer $40,000 from the town's stabilization fund for the redesign of the new public safety building. Because $108,000 was approved at last year's ATM and has not been used, it will not create an additional burden on the taxpayers.

"So it is no new taxes," Siegars said. "It already sits there to be used on the police station."

The funds will go toward a geotechnical survey to determine if the former Skyline Country Club at 405 South Main St. is suitable for building.

Also during the meeting, member Eric Harrington defined a path forward for the committee.


"I think we've done a great job at getting our heads in the same direction, tackling things," he said to his colleagues.

After sending out the town survey, the panel will evaluate and discuss the responses and then potentially create a design for a police department and cost.

"In case this survey comes back this way that the town only wants to see a police department we have to be prepared for that," he warned.

Siegars reminded the committee that its mission is to explore various options for the proposal.

"Our mission is to look at just a police station, a police station with EMS, a police station with an add-on later of EMS, a police station EMS without a carport in that location," he said.

The next job will be to research funding for the station. They will research what monies are available in Lanesborough, what grants are available and what is the maximum available dollar, and what is available elsewhere without raising the tax rate.

"Monies is a big one," Harrington said. "It's going to be our biggest hurdle, it's going to be our busiest time, I think, in this project."

He believes that they can do the project without raising the tax rate even a dollar.

The committee will meet again on June 27 and it will have a public meeting on July 8 in the community room at town hall.


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Pittsfield BOH Condemns Two Homes

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Two more Pittsfield homes have been condemned.

The Board of Health voted Wednesday to condemn 86 John St. and 224 Fourth St. It came with a pang of sadness about demolishing homes during a housing crisis and a conversation about prevention.

"I would think many years ago this property had flowers in front of it," Chair Roberta Elliott said about the John Street home. "It was not like this."

Another member said it feels like capital punishment to the properties.

Both homes have no owner or heir who wants to take responsibility for them. The city has 43 open condemnation orders — about 20 residential.

"The condemnation can be as simple as no running water, no electricity," Code Enforcement Office Andrew Gagnon said. "So it is a spectrum of severity."

The four-bedroom John Street property has been sitting since 2018 and the Fourth Street multifamily has been subject to break-ins despite being secured and deemed unsafe by the Fire Department.

"It's unfortunate that so many properties on John Street have had to meet the wrecking ball," Gagnon said.

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