Pittsfield Anticipates Informal Cable Contract Negotiations

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Cable Advisory Committee plans to have "friendly" informal negotiations for the city's license renewal with Charter Spectrum.

Last week, the panel welcomed Mayor Peter Marchetti and a Spectrum representative to begin a narrative on the city's cable needs. Pittsfield's 10-year contract ends in September.

Marchetti looks forward to the negotiation process and hopes that they can find ways to provide quality service to residents. He wants to ensure that the quality of service seen in PEG (public, educational, and government) access channels can be maintained, pointing to the community's reliance on it whether they are watching governmental meetings, sports, or local programming.

"It is our way as a community of keeping in touch with the citizens and they have watched countless meetings, well over 250," he said.

In January, he debuted a bi-weekly public access show "One Pittsfield" to stay in contact with constituents and demystify the inner workings of the city.

The mayor added that Pittsfield Community Television was the residents' main connection during the COVID-19 pandemic and he will advocate for capital expenditure funding.

Marchetti noted that up until May of last year, he was the president of the nonprofit PCTV and has a ruling from the state Ethics Commission and has filed the proper disclosures with the city clerk, making him free to be at the table to negotiate the contract.

"It's just interwoven with every aspect of our lives," Chair Sara Hathaway said.

Attorney William Solomon has also worked in the county's other city, North Adams, where he said community television there is also essential for government, businesses, and the public working together. He sees similarities between Pittsfield and North Adams.

"Community television is a part of that local economy and very important to the fabric of the community, as the mayor said, connecting public to government and government to public," he said.

Lenox Class of 2024 'a Really Good Bunch of Kids'

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
08:43PM / Sunday, June 09, 2024

Valedictorian Genevieve Collins tells her classmates that they have had a bountiful harvest in what they had experienced at Lenox Memorial. See more photos here. 

LENOX, Mass. — The Lenox Memorial High School class of 2024 will be remembered as "a really good bunch of kids."

 

Superintendent William Collins said they earned the label early on — it's followed them from kindergarten through high school. 

 

"There was something special about the chemistry and history of individuals comprising the class of 2024," he told the family and friends in the Shed at Tanglewood for graduation ceremonies. I need not remind you that this is a class that began high school during the pandemic, a fate undeserved by anyone. It is a testament to their resiliency. They not only returned to in-person instruction but they made up the lost time. They've done a lot."

 

Collins called the 61 graduates on the Tanglewood stage "doers, achievers and accomplishers, highly intelligent and exceedingly kind."

 

He noted that the pursuit of happiness was held as equal to life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence. And rarely is the shortest line between two points the fastest road to happiness. A study on common factors of happiness, he said, found that rather than material wealth, "having a happy, connected friends for a wide social network, we are more likely to bring about enduring happiness."

 

"Circuitous routes are the best routes, serendipity by its very nature lives where we don't expect a pleasant surprises lie waiting unseen and unforeseen around the next bend on paths that we've never expected or intended to do," he said. 

 

Don't be afraid to ask for help, Collins said, make friends, or a friend. Know that Lenox Memorial is a better place because of the class, he said, "we know that you will carry a piece of us with you whether you stay in Lenox or travel halfway around the globe."