Three candidates are in the primary race to succeed outgoing State Representative Smitty Pignatelli, the Democrat who has represented the Southern Berkshires in Boston for over 20 years. They met for a forum held by the League of Women Voters at the Lee Middle and High School on July 27th.
“17 years ago, I was grounded in a Berkshire snowstorm, fell in love with this community, and made it my home," said Leigh Davis is vice chair of the Great Barrington selectboard. "I took a leap of faith, and the community embraced me as a solo parent to three children. I did the Berkshire shuffle, balancing multiple jobs to support my family.”
She responded to a question about the overwhelming infrastructure needs of Southern Berkshire County’s rural communities.
“Our towns are in a crisis mode," Davis said. "We need a strong voice in Boston. We need to be unified. We need a regional approach to our infrastructure problems, to our bridges, to our water, to our roads. We need to reform an outdated and inequitable school choice policy. We need to look at Chapter 90 in reforming our roads and our bridges, where we get our funding from the state, and we need to look at Chapter 70 school funding for our schools. We have a crisis that needs us to come together as leaders and as advocates for towns. We need to support municipal efficiencies. We need better training for our municipal staff. We need better grant writing and tactical assistance and regionalization. We need to support our staff. There's billions of dollars out there that we need to tackle and we need to tap into, but we only need that, and we can only do that if our staff have the tools that they need. We need to regionalize the EMS and support legislation and bring the resources in addressing the EMS issues and the crisis and breaking point that we see ourselves.”
“We need to bring back middle-class jobs and promote the Berkshires for remote work," said Patrick White, who serves on the Stockbridge select board. "We need better childcare and eldercare. How about we do that? For half a century, we've let cell phone companies invest in service in Eastern Massachusetts, while many of us can't get a single bar of service here at home. We rely too much on property taxes and not enough on tourist taxes. How about we fix that? We need housing. Let's prioritize housing for local families and local seniors. Let's prioritize home repairs and energy efficiency for you and your neighbors. Let's take care of the folks who actually live here. How about we do that? We need to recruit more doctors, and we need to hold corporations accountable for substandard water and for the cancer-causing disaster that is the Housatonic River."
He broke down his plan to revive the Southern Berkshire economy in the face of a declining population.
“We need to diversify outside of tourism," said White. "We've done a great job promoting tourism after [General Electric] left, but that's very different from the types of industries we need to focus on now. For example, there's over a billion dollars in the state's economic development bill. How about we subsidize these jobs? How about as we subsidize these jobs with your tax dollars, we include a requirement that they locate those jobs in Massachusetts. We need to reform the state microloan programs that can provide up to $100,000 for an entrepreneur with less than 10 employees if you want to grow or start a small business, such as landscaping, electric, HVAC, and plumbing. That's one of the few ways ordinary folks can now afford to work and stay here.”
Jamie Minacci is also a Stockbridge select board member.
“I am a Stockbridge resident," she said. "I'm the mother of three. I was a single mom, I raised three children. They are all graduated. My son is in the military in Georgia. So, who am I? So, I am a hard-working member of our town. I'm on many committees and boards. I started on the [Berkshire Regional Transit Authority] Advisory Committee, because public transportation is so necessary, and in Stockbridge, we have a really hard time with Route 21 to get people.”
She offered her thoughts on Berkshire County’s ongoing housing crisis.
“We do need housing, and we have aging people," said Minacci. "One of the other things that we need to, could look at, is empty nesters. People that have already raised their children could downsize, but we need housing for them to downsize too, so then families could overtake their homes. We need ADUs, we need zoning changes. So, maybe duplexes, reconvert old buildings, such as in South Hadley and Westfield and Holyoke, they've made apartments out of old brick buildings. Can we change old school buildings into housing?"
A fourth candidate, Marybeth Mitts of the Lenox select board, is running as an independent in the November 5th general election.
The Democratic Primary is September 3rd.
