PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A heated election stole most of the headlines in 2015, when City Clerk Linda Tyer ousted incumbent Daniel Bianchi to become the city's first four-year mayor. 

 

Tyer launched her campaign in March and then spent the rest of the summer in debates and press events highlighting her focuses on crime, blight, and education. Bianchi meanwhile focused his campaign on continuing the city's efforts focused on youth initiatives and crafting an economy around the advanced manufacturing and life sciences.

 

But it was Tyer who came out on top with a decisive win over the incumbent in November. Tyer won with a 6,661 votes to 4,502 margin. Voters also chose three new councilors - Donna Todd Rivers for Ward 5 where Jonathan Lothrop chose not to run again and former Councilors Peter White and Peter Marchetti, who both won at-large seats. River's election was so close that it forced a recount.

 

Tyer's focus on crime hit the spot for many residents as the city had just gone through a particularly violent summer.

 

On July 4, a shooting on Linden Street left one dead and four injured. Police still to this day have not made an arrest in the crime and at one point District Attorney David Capeless issued a release saying witnesses were not cooperating and hoped for information from the public. 

 

Later that month, on July 31, Keenan S. Pellot Jr., 18, was shot dead in a daytime shooting on Tyler Street. Another 17-year-old man was injured and the following day police arrested 18-year-old Thomas Lee Newman for the shooting. Newman has not gone to trial in the case.

 

Just a few days later, Police discovered the bodies of Anthony Nazareth, 47, and his daughter Hannah Nazareth, 11, inside of a Plunkett Street apartment. The incident was initially feared to be a murder/suicide but preliminary autopsy results showed the father may have died from a drug overdose and there were no signs of trauma on the daughter. A medical examiner has yet to release the results of the autopsy on Hannah Nazareth.

 

In December, Police discovered the body of Halena Irene Gill. The following week they arrested her husband Timothy Gill on a charge of murder and ruled Halena Irene Gill was strangled to death. 

 

Twice this year guns were found at city schools. In January a .22 caliber pistol was found in a bag that appeared to be trash outside of Reid Middle School. In October, a Herberg Middle School Student was found with a gun inside of his locker. There was also a stabbing incident at the skate park across the street from Pittsfield High School in December.

 

Two city bar owners found themselves at odds with the Licensing Commission over shooting incidents. A gun allegedly went off and injured a man at Johnny's Beach Club and an altercation at Lach's Lounge later led to a shooting on Lincoln Street. The bar owners both promised to beef up security, which includes installing metal detectors at Johnny's Beach Club and purchasing metal detection wands for doormen at Lach's Lounge.

 

But the city hasn't stood by helplessly in what appears to be a growing issue of youth violence. The Pittsfield Community Connection grew its efforts with $133,000 in grant funding. The initiative includes a massive mentoring program, connecting at-risk youth with role models, job placement, and working with families to provide resources. Outreach workers and a professional social worker were brought on board to move the organization's mission forward.

 

The program was headed by Adam Hinds but he left in late July to take a job with the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. Scott Murray has taken over as the interim head of the program and the city moved the director position from a contractual position to a city staff position - with a clause that it is funded through grants.

 

The efforts attracted the attention of state officials who in December announced nearly $5 million in funding over 10 years through the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative for the city. That funding is eyed to grow the program even further and bring in agencies such as the Police Department, Berkshire Works, the Brien Center, the Sheriff's Office, courts, schools, the Fenn Street Development Corporation and the Goodwill.

 

The Police Department, however, found themselves fighting more than just crime. Sgt. Mark Lenihan and Officer Chris Kennedy both filed lawsuits against the city and the department after being denied promotions. And Officer Jeffrey Coco was fired after an internal affairs report found he had stolen some $150,000 in funds from union accounts.

 

Meanwhile, the city has moved forward with a $120.6 million project to build a new Taconic High School. The project will receive somewhere in the 65 percent range reimbursement from the state School Building Authority. Gilbane Building  was awarded the construction manager at-risk contract for the project which expects to see construction start in earnest in 2016.

 

The project is expected to be completed in 2018. The current school will then be torn down and the students will be moved into the new building. The 246,520 square-feet is eyes to accommodate 920 students. The project had been in the works for about a decade before receiving funding from the MSBA and the City Council's approval to fund the city's portion.

 

Another project eyed for construction in 2016 is the Berkshire Innovation Center. That, however, was expected to be break ground in the fall of 2015 but the bids came in too high. The city received a $9.75 million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to build the research and development building. An array of advanced manufacturing companies and educational institution signed on to be members of the Berkshire Innovation Center Inc.

 

The hope is that the building will allow the city's small and medium sized buildings to grow through access to high-tech equipment and the top minds from the research institution. The building will be constructed on the William Stanley Business Park. But a timetable is still uncertain because of the rough $600,000 gap in funding.

 

Another hitch in the plan is the departure of SABIC, which was supposed to be part of the organization. But, in October the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp. announced it would be closing its Pittsfield headquarters and then later announced it was closing its Pittsfield Polymer Processing Development Center as well. In total, that signals the lose of some 300 jobs. 

 

The lose is a major blow the city's economy and triggered a response from both city and state officials, the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board and the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce. The focus of these organizations is to find jobs for those who will not be relocated.

 

The chamber recognizes the impact and hopes to turn the story around to be about Pittsfield's resilience in placing those employees in local companies to strengthen the economy in the long run.

 

While SABIC's departure is a blow to the manufacturing economy, Chamber members continued to emphasize many projects the county has seen including Interprint investing $4 million in energy efficiency and Unistress hitting record high employment numbers. A commissioned study showed that nonprofits were still thriving in the county and generating some $2.4 billion in economic activity, which Chamber officials believe is a sign that the rest of the economy will follow in the coming years.

 

Pittsfield saw a $14 million investment in the renovation of a retail space on North Street into a boutique hotel, Hotel on North. The hotel's opening happened just months before construction on the final phase of the decade-long streetscape program began. The final phase spans from Columbus Avenue to Madison Avenue and is expected to be completed in 2016.

 

From there, city officials are looking at Tyler Street to become the next focus of redevelopment. The city was welcomed into a new state program, the Transformative Development Initiative, which will bring a state staff member to town to focus solely on redeveloping properties in the Morningside neighborhood. The effort started with the hiring of the planning, design, and architecture firm Elan, which in in the process of crafting a plan and vision for Tyler Street and the surrounding areas.

 

Another hotel, a Hilton Garden Inn, also opened on Pittsfield/Lenox Road. That was a $10 million project.

 

While the tourism industry may have seen a strong year, there is concern about the number of people living and working in the Berkshires. In 2014, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission issued a report showing the county is losing the 20 to 30 year olds while a separate report showed the county will soon have more people over the age of 65 than under living in the county. 

 

The Berkshire Chamber of Commerce launched a subcommittee to research the issue and expects to present findings and possible solutions next year for the younger generation. Berkshire Regional Planning Commission performed a survey of both young and old to find out the desires of each to help focus development efforts. And a task force of agencies are focusing on how to make the county more age friendly.

 

On the political front, there was some controversy over some projects. A proposed turf field project triggered outrage from some saying the material is hazardous and the City Council passed a ban on polystyrene food containers despite opposition from some businesses. 

 

The City Council also raised significant concerns over the snow plowing in the early part of the year, which left many city roads in icy conditions. Staff members said the particularly tough winter led to a shortage of magic salt, which works better in subzero temperatures, and that was why the roads were not as clean as in other areas of the county. The City Council, however, called for improvements to the system including purchasing more ahead of time.

 

The deficit in the snow and ice budget at the end of the year led to the City Council lambasting the department head for not filing other bills on time when closing the fiscal books at the end of the year. 

 

The year concluded with the City Council in a heated debate over how to choose a council vice president at inauguration. 

 

What didn't raise controversy was a community effort to rename Pitt Park after Rev. Willard Durant and his wife Rosemary. The effort headed by the Man Up initiative was fully supported by the city council. 

 

At iBerkshires.com we celebrated our 15th year of operation in 2015; we opened a Pittsfield office; and we launched yet another redesign of the site. We have continued to see growth in readership and advertisers.  We've been able to take what began as a hobby stemming from hometown pride and turn it into a business. We are locally-owned and staffed by people who grew up here and care about this community. But we wouldn't be able to do any of it with you. We here at iBerkshires thank you all for supporting us through another year and we hope you have a great 2016.