A vacant position at the head of Berkshire County’s workforce and career center has been filled.Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi recently announced Ken Demers as the new executive director of BerkshireWorks. The organization helps administer unemployment insurance as well as workforce placement and training to all of Berkshire County.
Demers fills a position vacant since May when William Monterosso resigned just four months after he was appointed. Monterosso, a Pittsfield native, was put on paid administrative leave in April and has become the subject of an investigation about which the city has been mum. When Monterosso was brought on, Bianchi said the position needs someone extremely dedicated to the job.
“As I indicated to all the candidates, I want somebody that lives and breathes the issues of folks who are unemployed and takes the job almost home with them,” said Bianchi.
With an average labor force around 70,000 people, Berkshire County’s unemployment rate dropped one percentage point over the past year. Numbers from July show the county’s unemployment rate was 5.8 percent, lower than the state average of 6.1, keeping in mind the seasonal influx of area jobs during the summer. BerkshireWorks has locations in Pittsfield and North Adams. The center is state-funded, but Bianchi holds appointing authority by virtue of being the top elected official in the county’s largest city.
“It should have a critical role in partnering with organizations and corporations so that they are intimately aware of the needs of corporations and are intimately aware of those folks who might be able to fit the bill who are currently unemployed,” Bianchi said. “So it’s a very important part of economic development.”
According to a press release from Mayor Bianchi’s office, Demers got his start at the Berkshire Learning Center before moving on to the Corporation for Public Management in Springfield, becoming vice president of employment and training.
Demers also serves as vice president of Shelter and Housing for the New England Farm Workers’ Council, focused on expanded homeless shelters near Springfield and Holyoke.
BerkshireWorks is holding its annual job fair September 24 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza in Pittsfield. More than 70 companies are expected to attend.
Meanwhile, North Adams tourism director Veronica Bosley has stepped down for a position at Williams College. Over the past three years she’s worked to place North Adams into the county’s destination conversation.
“Jacob’s Pillow, Tanglewood and The Clark [Art Institute] have very, very long histories,” Bosley said. “Whereas a lot of our attractions have a shorter history and are more contemporary. I think that leads into what’s exciting about North Adams…is that our tourists and visitors on average I want to say 20 to 30 years younger than the tourists in any other part of the county. That’s really exciting for us because we only have room to grow and attract more people whereas at some of the places elsewhere in the Berkshires are looking for that younger audience.”
