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Pittsfield Reaffirms 2014 $200,000 Donation To BCC Turf Field

The Pittsfield city seal
The City of Pittsfield, Massachusetts
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City of Pittsfield

A 5-year-old decision was re-examined at this week’s Pittsfield City Council meeting.

In 2014, the Pittsfield city council decided to help fund Berkshire Community College’s turf field project to the tune of $200,000. After its groundbreaking in July 2018, the field found its way back in front of the council again Tuesday night. 

The field is named after Gene Dellea, the president of Fairview Hospital and Berkshire Medical Center’s Hillcrest campus, as well as a past member of BCC’s board of trustees.

“A report from the finance committee on an order rescinding the $200,000 bond authorization in support of the turf field at Berkshire Community College, recommending approval 4 to 1,” read Pittsfield city clerk Michele Benjamin.

At the recommendation of the city’s Director of Finance Matt Kerwood – who cited a legal concern – the council was to vote on moving the spending from a capital bond authorization to the city’s free cash funds.

“I’m comfortable with approving the money if we have a guarantee that the youth of Pittsfield can use this field as long as it’s there," said Councilor At-Large Earl Persip. “We’ve put now with the grant and this $200,000 – we’re at $275,000 towards the field. I think we shouldn’t be paying the same hourly rate or field usage rate as a team from, say, Greylock. Williamstown. They come in and use the field and they’re paying the same rate as our kids are paying – I just don’t think… they didn’t contribute to this.”

“We have been in conversation with the city and working toward intergovernmental agreements," responded BCC President Ellen Kennedy. “It would take into consideration that the major donors, of which the city would be on that list, would have a different – would have a lower – would be, say, tier one, then there would be a higher tier for other nonprofits and then finally for commercial uses of the field.”

She noted that the city currently uses the field around 60 percent of the time, and says the college schedules around the city’s priorities.

Persip asked her to think of the field's future.

“Twenty years from now there’ll have had to have been another major infusion into the field at that time," said Kennedy, "because the top of the field will probably at year 12 will have to be replaced and will have gone through another major funding effort that – hopefully, we would not need to be coming back to the city to talk about that.”

“I would like to see this maybe tabled until the agreement is worked out," said Persip. "I don’t think giving $200,000 in free cash without an agreement first is a smart way to do business.”

Councilors Kevin Morandi and Anthony Simonelli joined Persip in voicing the need to establish a preferable rate for city use.

“We are on the verge of putting the bids out on the bleachers and the press box and the concession stand, of which we’ve raised some additional funds to cover," said Kennedy. "So we’re anxious to put that on the streets because this is the time when the prices would probably be the most conducive to what we’re trying to do.”

She found support from Councilor Melissa Mazzeo.

“If the money had gone through the way it was supposed to, we wouldn’t even be having the conversation, we would never really would have this," said Mazzeo. "So maybe it was a good thing that we can have a conversation, but I don’t think it’s enough of a dilemma that we actually hold this up any farther.”

Councilor Pete White also backed Kennedy.

“I don’t have to go out on a limb at all to say that I trust anything President Kennedy says," said White. "I’ve worked with her since she came here. So if she’s saying there’s a contract in the works, there’s going to be a tiered plan, I totally believe her.”

With that, a 9-1 vote – with Persip in opposition and Council Vice President John Krol absent – carried the motion forward.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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