On Tuesday, outgoing 3rd Berkshire District State Representative Smitty Pignatelli hosted a visit from Congressman Richard Neal in his capacity as interim Lenox, Massachusetts town manager. The Democrat is stepping down this year after representing the Southern Berkshires in the state legislature for more than two decades. Pignatelli, a Lenox native, stepped in to lead the town while it searches for a replacement for Christopher Ketchen, who left this year after a decade. The state rep says he is not interested in the permanent position, and continues to abstain from endorsing in the four-way race to replace him on Beacon Hill. Pignatelli spoke with WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes about the $750,000 federal earmark to restore the historic Lenox town hall that brought Neal to the Berkshires and more.
PIGNATELLI: Well, I think it's awesome. I mean, what happened here a couple years ago is, the roof was in bad shape, and after a torrential rainstorm, I walk into my office, the offices on the front of the building were flooded out. I had standing water on my desk, lost the computer, lost the files, town manager lost a lot of good quality information. So, I just happened to be talking to the congressman, I said, jeez, any way to get some emergency funds to repair the cupola? And he's delivered. So, we fronted the money, obviously. This is a reimbursement from the from the federal government. It's a cornerstone of this town, is this town hall built in 1901, and I think it's pretty unique and special. Personally, and selfishly and professionally, I'm very fond of this building. It’s dedicated to my father, and to have this cornerstone with a solid gold dome in the town of Lenox, I think it’s pretty cool.
WAMC: And put this in context for us- That amount of money for Lenox, if it was to come from another source or from taxpayers, how big of a burden would that have been?
It would have been- Lenox has some challenges. I mean, the town's in the best financial shape it's ever been in in the history of Lenox, but we're facing some real big issues – I'm learning this as the interim town manager – facing some big challenges over the next couple of years. I remember meeting with the Ways and Means chairman as a state rep, he says, we'll get through this year, but I'm a little concerned about next fiscal year, so I think towns and cities have to be aware of that and be prepared for maybe an economic downturn of some sort. And I think this is a big boost. This is like we hit the lottery today.
Anything else on your checklist of things you'd love to get from the federal or state government for Lenox?
There’s constant things. I mean, we're trying to build a $40 million sewer plant upgrade. In a town of 5,000 people, that's a lot of money. If there's some additional help from the USDA to alleviate that cost burden, I think that's going to be really important. We're under a federal mandate to upgrade the sewer plant. It'd be nice to the federal government delivered some money to back us up.
Now, we're speaking at the height of the season here in Lenox- obviously there's tourists pouring into Tanglewood, other cultural events. Give us your perspective as the interim town manager- How are the numbers looking this summer?
I think so far so good. I mean, we got our hotel, motel tax revenue at the end of the fiscal year, June 30th, we did extremely well, a record-breaking amount. So, people came to the Berkshires, they came to Lenox. As long as the weather cooperates- I mean, this hot weather is one thing, but as long as it doesn't rain, I think people are visiting here. I had dinner with some friends from Worcester here last night, spending two or three days, going to the concert tonight. So, I think we've become a magnet, not only for the New York metropolitan area, but during COVID, people from Boston discovered the Berkshires, and I think we're seeing a big trend and a big shift of our visitors coming from the eastern part of the state as well.
Turning to Boston, the budget, still not delivered. Where are we at in that process?
They say we're getting close, the conferees are very close. I'm not sure what the intricate details are of the discourse right now, but I think the ultimate goal will be to have it done this week in order to get it to the governor, who has now done 10 days to lay out any vetoes. As you know, we have to be done by July 31st. We have a lot of things in play, the budget is probably the most important thing to get it done. In case the governor vetoes things, we have an opportunity to revisit that, possibly override that, and then all cities and towns and agencies will know exactly what their numbers are on August 1st.
Now, as far as I know, I don't think Healey has really used the veto power very much being sort of a one-party rule right now. What are the odds of that?
I think every governor puts their thumbprint on something. We went through this with Deval Patrick. Obviously, Governor [Mitt] Romney was a little bit more veto friendly or veto active than Governor Patrick, but every governor wants to put their fingerprints on something and make a statement and maybe tee up the conversation for the next fiscal year. So, I'm anticipating a few things, maybe not as dramatic as Charlie Baker or Mitt Romney, but I do anticipate some videos.
And just looking into the last few weeks of your term here as the state rep, what's on your mind? What's on your docket? Anything left to accomplish before the end of the year?
Well, our formal work has, we have a housing bond bill in play, economic development, I have some earmarks in the state budget that are critically important for our district. Our formal work ends July 31st but my official day is actually noon on New Year's Day, so I have really six more months to go. And I take pride in my constituent work, which will continue on. I got great staff, and we're going to keep plugging away to make life better and let the voters decide who the next state rep is going to be.
