Good Week for North Berkshire

This week we were able to spread a little good news for the First Berkshire District. First, the city of North Adams was awarded over $3 million under federal stimulus money in order to upgrade the roadways in and around the city. Most of the work will happen on the major paths into the city. This is great news and I hope we are able to do more in other towns in the district.. Thanks goes to Peter Niles, the District One chief for his help on this. He does a great job. This coupled with broadband planning and pushing for the new science building at M.C.L.A. dramatically enhances our efforts to rebuild our economy.

The other good news was that the list of Registry of Motor Vehicles, first listed as twelve closings became eleven as we worked with the Patrick administration to keep our North Berkshire Registry open. At the end of the day, we were not only successful, but we will have enhanced the office by adding District One highway engineers as a satellite office at the Registry. I had opportunities to lobby the Governor on this issue and expressed the objection that any measurement that just takes use into account doesn't help us in the Berkshires because of our smaller population. I told him that under that measurement alone, the Berkshires always lose. However, we are part of the state and should get the same services as elsewhere. To his credit the Governor agreed and Transportation Secretary Aloisi came up with this plan. Thanks to them, Lt. Gov. Murray, Registrar Kaprelian, Sen. Ben Downing, and Mayor Barrett for their advocacy and help. This was a collaborative effort and was innovative.