2024 Year in Review: Pittsfield Projects Unfold But Year Ends on Sour Note
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city started off 2024 with a new administration, had a visit from the vice president midway and ended the year with Pittsfield High School embroiled in scandal.
Two days into the new year, Mayor Peter Marchetti was sworn in along with the City Council, School Committee, and City Clerk. Over the next four years, the new mayor pledged to fight for current generations while building a city for new generations.
"There are many people working hard for Pittsfield, and I will continue to work hard for our city and our community. It is time to come together as one and work to expand upon the foundation that was built before us," he said.
"Communication and collaboration will be the key. Together we will tackle our problems and work towards one Pittsfield because I know our city is filled with hope for a prosperous future. Today I begin a journey, and I will be a mayor for this generation and implement new ideas that will help future generations."
Marchetti, the city's first openly gay mayor, was joined by Gov. Maura Healey, the state's first openly lesbian governor. The new government included Brittany Bandani in Ward 2 councilor and Matthew Wrinn as Ward 3 and Rhonda Serre in Ward 7.
Pittsfield made national news more than once in 2024, notably when Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Colonial Theatre for a campaign fundraiser. At the time, she was the presumptive Democratic nominee running against now President-elect Donald Trump.
Tickets sold out almost immediately ranging from $100 to thousands of dollars. The last national political fundraiser in Pittsfield was with Michelle Obama for her husband's second presidential run in 2012 against former Gov. Mitt Romney, now a U.S. senator for Utah.
On July 27, crowds gathered downtown hoping to catch a peek of Harris. iBerkshires was not granted access to the fundraiser but spoke to community members outside, many of them clad in red, white, and blue and holding signs.
About a week after the historic visit, iBerkshires.com was one of the first to break a national news story about the visit – though it wasn't a positive one.
Four One Three Salon was closed on the day of the visit. Owner Alicia Powers was shocked to find that her locked business across from the back of the theater had been entered and the bathroom used during this time.
After searching for answers, Powers said she received a call from a Secret Service representative in Boston who took responsibility for the incident even though he could not confirm that his agents were involved.
A STAFF SCANDAL AT PHS
The year concluded with an arrest, slue of accusations, and multiple administrative leaves on staff members at Pittsfield High School.
Community members are calling for answers after PHS Dean Lavante Wiggins was arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for allegedly conspiring to traffic large quantities of cocaine and two other staff members were put on administrative leave because they are being investigated by the Department of Children and Families.
Additionally, in a civil lawsuit, a PHS student has accused retired English teacher Robert Barsanti of making inappropriate comments to her and to classmates and Pittsfield Public Schools for failing to act. Barsanti apparently retired at the end of the last school year based on a post on the Pittsfield Public Schools' Facebook page.
During the following School Committee meeting, community members expressed outrage towards the district, even calling this an "abomination at all levels of the Pittsfield Public Schools." Superintendent Joseph Curtis recommended that the School Committee engage the services of an independent third party for an investigation.
BUDGET
Not long after Marchetti's inauguration, the City Council asked him to present a "close to level-funded" budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
He cautioned that it would come with cuts to employment and city services, but the administration would work to create a proposal that is "between level funded and a level service funded." Marchetti said a level-funded budget could mean the closure of a fire station on either a permanent or rotating basis and the layoff of 11 police officers and more than 100 school personnel.
Ultimately, the council approved a $215,955,210 spending plan for fiscal year 2025 which is a 5 percent increase from the previous year.
TRASH BECOMES MORE THAN JUST TALK
After years of deliberation, the city saw a new trash system in 2024 that uses 48-gallon toters for trash and recycling. In June, the City Council approved a five-year contract with Casella Waste Systems for automated collection.
Call it a victory for Marchetti, who was able to push through in six months a new waste pickup model that had eluded his predecessors.
The city was spending about $5.2 million on trash per year and the new contract trims the budget by about $600,000 to $4.6 million.
Pittsfield's nearly 17,400 households produce about 1,800 pounds of trash per household annually, collectively generating close to 20 tons as a community. The new system aims to reduce each household's waste to 1,370 pounds annually.
Marchetti began outreach about automated pickup in the spring, explaining that whether it is this year or three years from now, automation will be a thing unless the city wants to discontinue trash services and have all residents hire private haulers. Additionally, if the city continues to allow trash costs to skyrocket, he said taxes will increase.
There was mixed feedback from residents, some saying the toter trash proposal will be more aesthetically pleasing while others are concerned that their street doesn't have the space for automated collection.
"I get it, this is changing the way that we've all done things, especially you and I. This is the way we've done things our whole entire life," Marchetti said during a September episode of One Pittsfield, his biweekly show on Pittsfield Community Television.
"In fact, when I was a kid, the garbage man picked up your garbage at the back steps and put the pails back, right? So we don't have that anymore for obvious reasons and I think it's time to find new, innovative ways that have already been created for us to find the cash savings."
In August, the city began educational outreach for the new system. About a month in, more than 2,200 extra recycling toters and over 500 additional trash toters were requested.
A BIG YEAR FOR THE PITTSFIELD ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
The moonscape of Site 9 finally saw greenery in 2024.
Early in the year, concrete covering the parcel described as a "scar" was cracked and crushed to make way for development. The 16-acre site at the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and Tyler Street Extension previously housed a General Electric factory and is the largest and most prominent section of the William Stanley Business Park, its overhaul costing about $10 million.
Big news came in August when Mill Town Captial announced its intent to purchase 4.7 acres of Site 9 for a building upwards of 20,000 square feet and put a mixed-use building on 100 Woodlawn Ave. across the street.
GE's Buildings 12 and 14 were also demolished, clearing the view of the mountainscape in the distance. Work was paused in July due to elevated levels of PCBs in a single air sample. Authorities said the measurements were "conservative" and not a threat to public health.
The sample was taken between July 11 and July 12 and was received by the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority from an off-site laboratory on July 25. It was quickly forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the same day and work stopped.
Recently, PEDA accepted a transfer agreement for the 100 Woodlawn block from GE. PEDA's former building at 81 Kellogg St. (next to 100 Woodlawn Ave.) was also demolished. The 100 Woodlawn block is separate from the William Stanley Business Park.
HOUSING
The city continued to grapple with the housing crisis.
Hearthway Inc. recently hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking for 37 new units of supportive housing, 28 on vacant land on West Housatonic Street and nine at Zion Lutheran Church on First Street.
The approximately $16 million project offers tenants a variety of services from partner organizations such as the Brien Center and ServiceNet. It also includes a 6,500-square-foot housing resource center in the church's basement, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, with bathrooms, showers, laundry, offices for service providers to meet with clients, and more.
Early in the year, ServiceNet opened a new 40-bed shelter at 21 Pearl St. called "The Pearl." The facility includes three dorms with bunk beds and en suite bathrooms, two recreation rooms, handicapped restrooms, and a laundry room.
It now hosts a warming shelter for people to come in and have a drink or snack during frigid temperatures.
In July, a Pittsfield housing project was awarded more than $4 million through the state's Housing Development Incentive Program. Marchetti and Community Development Director Justine Dodds traveled to Lowell for the announcement of $27 million in HDIP awards — $4,099,686 going to Allegrone Construction Co.'s redevelopment of the historic Wright Building and Jim's House of Shoes property.
RECREATION AND A&E
Several recreation projects saw movement in 2024.
The Wahconah Park Restoration Committee tried to shave down the $30 million design for a new grandstand that was approved last year.
In July, it recommended moving from the schematic design to the design development phase for a $28.4 million rebuild of the grandstand and parking lot. Through value engineering, S3 Design was able to shave almost $2 million off the original $30 million price tag — half of the savings goal.
With $18 million committed between grant funding and capital borrowing, the committee must work to fill the $10 million gap.
In August, the Parks Commission supported a move toward the project's development and design phase.
Several parks and recreation projects, notably the Springside Pond restoration and the city's new pickleball facility, also came to fruition.
In June, city leaders christened the new pickleball courts on the northeast corner of Springside Park near the Doyle Softball Complex on Benedict Road. The pickleball proposal rose from the grave last year after its funding was scrapped in 2019, this time covered by more than $500,000 from the city's nearly $41 million American Rescue Plan Act funds.
In November, a ribbon was cut on the Springside Pond's new boardwalk. Over the last year, a quarter-century of planning culminated as crews removed sediment, repaired the dam, and increased accessibility on the historic site.
It was funded by more than $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act monies allocated in 2022.
That same month, local and state officials beckoned the first wave of pedestrians on the new leg of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail with a ribbon cutting. The trail is more than 14 miles long and connects Lime Street in Adams to Merrill Road.
Pittsfield's connection began in 2022 when a completed 1.5-mile section connected Crane Avenue to the Lanesborough town line. Construction on this latest leg began one year ago and includes a new 11-space parking lot accompanied by a pedestrian hybrid beacon signal at the entrance.
Towards the end of the year, the city was offered the shuttered Berkshire Carousel at 50 Center St. and it became a hot topic. While it opened to enthusiastic fans in 2016, it has not operated since 2018 after leadership and funding fell apart.
The property owned by James Shulman is assessed at $267,000. A 2025 operational model and budget put forward by the donors costs about $61,000 annually and brings in the same amount of money, with a $25,000 income from rides alone if they cost one dollar.
Reactions were mixed, as some worried it would become a financial burden or would not be successful in its present location. Earlier this month, the council recommended that Marchetti create a committee to explore the proposal, citing the need for more public input.
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