PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council has asked the mayor to explore adding Spanish translations to city communications.

 

The council on Tuesday referred a petition from Councilors Patrick Kavey and Helen Moon to the Mayor Linda Tyer asking her to find a way to include Spanish translations for both mailed and online communications.

 

"We should be working toward accessibility for all in Pittsfield," Moon said. 

 

The petition specifically noted that an estimated 7 percent of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latinx and approximately 5 percent of the population use Spanish as their primary language.

 

Moon said she learned after further discussions that closer to 10 percent of the population are Spanish speaking only.

 

Kavey said he felt this consideration was even more important now during the pandemic with so much information being shared via mail and the city website.

 

Moon added that she saw this as a first step and there may be more translations to consider.

 

In other business, the council approved the allocation of $281,025 in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds for eight projects.

 

"We found that many of these projects were not likely to happen if they were not approved in a timely fashion," City Planner CJ Hoss said. 

 

Some of the projects are city projects including $15,000 for the Allen Heights Playground, $69,325 for Burbank Park Beach sand replacement, and $5,000 for a joint city and Historical Commission historic inventory.

 

The package also includes $12,000 to fund the purchase of a new dock at Burbank Park for Berkshire Community Rowing. The public will also have access to this dock.

 

The Community Preservation Committee recommended the use of $110,000 for a Daniels Avenue Habitat for Humanity project and $40,000 to fund engineering for a Christian Center project. 

 

The applications also include $25,300 for Colonial Theatre facade improvements for the Berkshire Theatre Group and $4,000 for Greenagers Invasive Kiwi Removal at Burbank Park.

 

Hoss said originally the committee halted all application presentations in March once City Hall shut down hoping to be able to hold these presentations later in person. 

 

As the pandemic went on and this scenario appeared more unlikely, the committee asked what projects were even still being considered.

 

Hoss said he took inventory and brought forth the projects that were dependent on funding and able to move forward. 

 

The committee then took another look at these applications and scored them accordingly. 

 

"It became clear that several of these projects were time-sensitive and may not happen at all," Hoss said. "The committee decided that there were a number of projects that had complete applications and they felt strongly about these applications."

 

The councilors first voted to waive Rule 27 allowing them to approve the allocation without having to kick it to the subcommittee.

 

Hoss said they asked for this to expedite funding for two projects, specifically the dock project and the Greenagers project. He said without funding in the very near future these projects would not go forward.

 

He said the CPA Committee will meet again to go over another round of applications to be sent before the council next month.