Just months into his term, Pittsfield, Massachusetts Mayor Peter Marchetti is trying to address two of the city’s longstanding issues. With the support of the city council, Marchetti is leading an overhaul of Pittsfield’s trash collection system from an unlimited curbside pickup policy to toters after years of inaction. He’s also pursuing the redevelopment of Wahconah Park. The historic ballpark’s grandstands have been deemed structurally unsound for fans. Marchetti spoke with WAMC at the Berkshire Innovation Center Thursday.
MARCHETTI: So, I think it's important that the rollout and the implementation be done properly so that we have a successful program. The takeaways are, how to use them, how to put them out, what place they need to be, how far apart they need to be. So, it's more of the day-to-day operation that folks are going to need to do to manage their cards.
WAMC: I'm also interested in this idea of the neighborhood-by-neighborhood rollout. At this point, can you talk through your strategy about how Pittsfield has chosen to implement this in a sort of chunk-by-chunk process?
Well, so, if you do one day route per week, if we end up running into dilemmas or problems, we can nip them in the bud quickly without having a whole citywide problem where we can go route by route. So by the time that we have done two out of the five, we should have perfected what we're doing and not have any issues.
And as far as working with Casella in this transition, there's been a lot of emphasis on the cost saving measures inherent to this. Where are we at in that process in actually working with the company contracted to do this work?
So Casella has been working hand in hand with all of the marketing materials that we need. And in the next week or so, you'll see a video from Casella that we'll have out and about, and all of the literature that we're using is coming from Casella as part of the process.
Now, one of the recurring questions, certainly on social media, is about access to multiple toters if need be. Can you unpack that process for us?
Any resident that wants a second recyclable toter can call public services and get a second toter. There's about a three week time frame from the time that you asked and the time that you're going to get it. That recyclable tote is free. If they want additional trash toters, it's the same process, and there's a $40 per quarter charge for that extra toter.
Now, given your long time serving in the Pittsfield municipal government, how far back does this trash conversation, go? I know it's been a recurring theme in our conversations for years at this point. What is the full history of this?
I think it was 2006 that was the very first time that it was put forward. I know that it was put forward, I think, by Mayor Ruberto twice and Mayor Tyer once.
What do you think sort of broke the levy, so to speak on this? Like, how did you manage actually take this this turn?
I think that we just continued having conversations with folks about the process, and we have tried other ideas, and when we ended up talking about pay as your throw, I think people looked at a pay as you throw system, and whoa, that toter system is much better idea than this. And so as we were looking for solutions, we ended up coming back to a solution that had been out there for a number of years.
And I want to turn to Wahconah Park- Can you give us the update looking to 2025 about where we are with this project?
Sure. So, the parks commission, I gave notification the parks commission that we should go into the next phase of doing design, conception design documents. And so we know the price tag, we know what we need to do to get there, and so now it's just time to start the work.
Now, as far as Pittsfield's contribution to this project, we've heard about state and federal grants- What might the city's share look like?
So I've been pretty clear that the city will be, at least from my end, willing to put a forth appropriation of $15 million to make it happen. So, we have to close the gap of funding in order to make the project happen.
And how do you expect to do that?
We'll look for additional grants, and we're working at a potential underwriting process to get some folks to, you know, sponsor some portion at some cost.
Now, as far as selling this financial commitment to the city, what is your argument? How are you going to convince voters and councilors to get on board for this plan?
So the argument is going to be that, if people think I'm building a ballpark just for the Pittsfield Suns to play ball for 12 weeks during the course of year- That's not what we're looking for. I'm looking for a venue that we can use year round, not just for baseball and a baseball team, but for all of our high school athletics. We can provide concerts and open opportunities, and in the wintertime, provide a nice skating rink that will be a portable, outdoor ice skating rink. So if we're going to create a year-long venue for folks to be able to use, it's an asset that the city of Pittsfield can cherish. If it's just for a baseball park, then I wouldn't be going in this direction.
Now, the Suns will not be playing at Wahconah in 2025- What is the status of the city's relationship with the organization?
Right now, the relationship is good. We're waiting for us to decide where we're at. My assumption is they won't be playing ball in '25 since they decided not to play ball in '24, and so when we have a stadium, we will begin the process of trying to lease to a team to use the park.
Now, we're heading back into full council season and the return to full sessions- What are you gearing up for heading into the fall?
So I'm working on some position changes and working on trying to find a full time city solicitor as our outgoing solicitor will retire, and just like today's announcement, we have several more that's coming in the near future, once we nail down the specifics. So, I am working on a whole host of economic development activities.
