Business updates

Berkshire County Arc has been awarded more than $650,000 to help pay for a house in Russell to support individuals with brain injuries.

The house was built to help alleviate the lengthy list of individuals with brain injuries waiting to move out of nursing homes and into residential programs.

The funding comes from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston and the commonwealth’s Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corp.. BCArc also secured a $250,000 mortgage from Pittsfield Cooperative Bank to pay the remainder of the mortgage.

The city of Pittsfield has expanded its online permitting system to include various one-day licenses. The following Licensing Board permit applications include: php.

• One day alcohol.

• One day wine and malt.

• One day entertainment.

• One day special auctioneer.

These permit applications previously required the applicant to visit City Hall and fill out a paper application. Firsttime users of the online permitting system will need to create a username and password to access the portal.

Applications can be accessed at cityofpittsfield.org/online_permitting/index.

Entrepreneurship for All-Berkshire County awarded $13,000 in prizes to the members of its Fall 2022 Business Accelerator Cohort during a recent ceremony at the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield.

Sixteen businesses shared their product or service during the event.

The award winners and the amounts they received were as follows: year-over-year, and 15.9 percent yearto-date. The median sale price rose 2.0 percent year-over-year, but increased 7.8 percent, to $550,000, year to date. for advertising information and to subscribe.

• $3,000 to Michelle Marrocco and Tiffany Boyden of Berkshire Pup People in North Adams.

• $2,000 to Lisa Mendel of Mendel’s Stained Glass Art Studio in Adams.

• $2,000 to Julie Haagenson of New Pathways Coaching and Consulting in Pittsfield.

• $2,000 to Tiffany Wilding-White of Mind Over Motion in Lee.

• $1,000 to Molly Racette of Herbellion/ Molly and Herbs in North Adams.

• $500 to Dana Grieb of Bumblebee Pet Care in Pittsfield. Grieb received the Paula Buxbaum Award, established in honor of a member of the fall 2021 cohort who died during the program.

The Lee Bank Foundation sponsored a $2,500 award that went to Christina Meucci of The Recovery Room in Pittsfield.

Boyden and Marrocco are planning to use their award to expand their growing business and are currently looking for places to lease.

Pittsfield Community Television has launched its revamped website at pittsfieldtv.org.

The site features a fresh, modern look and many design improvements, and delivers easy access to all of the local video content provided by PCTV, according to a statement from the station. The site also makes it easier to become a member of the organization, quickly find popular PCTV programming on demand, and access the organization’s live streaming programming.

In April 2020, Pittsfield Community Television launched its PCTV Select App, which provides access to thousands of hours of video content on popular streaming hardware such as Roku, FireTV, AppleTV, and also on iOS and Android mobile devices. The new pittsfieldtv.org website now offers a consistent level of access to this programming.

The website was designed by Gemini Creative, a local branding, website design, and digital marketing agency in Stockbridge. Matthew Tucker, PCTV’s engagement and experience coordinator, coordinated the yearlong redesign efforts and transition for the organization.

Sales of condominiums in the Berkshire dropped 54.5 percent in December year-to-year, and 32.9 percent year-todate. The year-to-date median sale price for condos in the Berkshire jumped 26.6 percent to $293,100.

The M&T Bank Charitable Foundation has donated $25,000 to the Southwestern Vermont Health Care Foundation.

The donation will help fund the agency’s “Vision 2020, A Decade of Transformation Capital Campaign,” Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s largest project in 30 years. The funds will help enhance the emergency and cancer care services available to residents regionwide.

The new Kendall Emergency Department and Hoyt-Hunter Regional Cancer Center will impact care for residents of southern Vermont, northern Berkshire County, and eastern New York. Information on the project is available at svhealthcare.org/vision2020.

Pittsfield Cooperative Bank marked the holiday season by allowing employees to support local nonprofit partners of their choice.

The bank-funded campaign, “Holiday Cheer,” allowed each employee to provide support to an organization of their choice. Seventeen organizations were recipients of donations.

The beneficiaries of the Holiday Cheer campaign included 18 Degrees; Berkshire County Kids’ Place; Berkshire Environmental Action Team; Berkshire Humane Society; Berkshire United Way; Carter Strong; Dalton CRA; Dalton Fire Department; and Eleanor Sonsini Animal Shelter.

A one-time grant award has allowed 1Berkshire to accept applications for a second year of the Best Foot Forward Facade Improvement Micro-Grant program.

NEWS DEPARTMENT

TONY DOBROWOLSKI, Editor 413-496-6224 tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT

KATE TEUTSCH, Director of Ad Services 413-496-6324 kteutsch@berkshireeagle.com

CHERYL GAJEWSKI, Director of Ad Sales 413-841-6789, 413-496-6330 cmcclusky@berkshireeagle.com

Share your news with the Berkshire Business Journal. If you have a company promotion, a new business or a new venture, let the Berkshires know about it. Remember the 5 W’s and that briefer is better. Email text and photos to BBJ@newenglandnewspapers.com.

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Berkshire Business Journal is published monthly by New England Newspapers Inc., 75 S. Church St., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Periodicals postage paid at Pittsfield, MA 01201.

Berkshire Business Journal is delivered free to businesses in Berkshire County via third class mail. Additional distribution is made via dropoff at select area newsstands. The publisher reserves the right to edit, reject or cancel any advertisement at any time. Only publication of an advertisement shall constitute final acceptance of an advertiser’s order. All contents are copyrighted by New England Newspapers Inc.

Adams Community Bank ended 2022 by providing $75,000 in donations to local food pantries, food banks and fuel assistance programs. Maureen Baran, the bank’s senior vice president of communications and community engagement, presented donations to several Berkshire County nonprofits.

The bank donated $50,000 to the Berkshire Community Action Council’s Fuel Assistance program. This program is part of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federally funded program to help low-income households with their energy costs. LIHEAP runs from Nov. 1 to April 30 each year and covers the cost of various heating methods. This donation will help many families in the Berkshires stay warm this winter.

The other donations included $15,000 to local food pantries from Williamstown to Great Barrington; and $10,000 to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts’ Mobile Food Pantry, which visits four towns in Berkshire County — Adams, Great Barrington, North Adams and Pittsfield.

Single-family home sales in the Berkshires dropped in both December and for all of 2022, according to The Warren Group, which tracks state real estate transactions.

The number of sales in December dropped 23 percent from the same month in 2021, which left year-to-date sales through December down 12.5 percent. A total of 1,539 single family homes were sold in the Berkshires in 2022, compared to 1,759 in 2021.

The median sales price for single-family homes remained unchanged at $300,000 in December year-over-year, but increased 9.1 percent, to $300,000, yearto-date.

Statewide, sales of single family homes were down 31.7 percent in December

In 2022, this program provided 31 small businesses and organizations across the Berkshires with facade improvement grants of up to $1,000. The funding not only helped to improve individual storefronts, but also the aesthetics of downtown commercial districts in the region.

A minimum of 47 grants of between $500 and $1,000 will be made available on a rolling basis this year to small businesses and organizations with first-floor storefronts. A maximum of $7,000 in awards will be made within any specific municipality. Priority will be given to businesses that did not receive facade improvement grants in 2022.

Grants will be awarded until the funding is exhausted. All grants must be fully utilized and the associated work completed by June 30. Applications: form. jotform.com/230045434240139.

Lee Bank Foundation awarded $45,670 to 10 Berkshire area organizations during its fourth and final round of 2022 community funding.

Recipients were awarded grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 to support their local programming. Included in the awards are a series of Arts Access Grants for arts and culture organizations to expand access to programming for underserved audiences.

The organizations that received funding included: 18 Degrees; Berkshire Community Action Council; Berkshire County Head Start; Berkshire Grown; Berkshire Immigrant Center; Berkshire Pulse; Business Professionals of America, Massachusetts Association; Extra Special Teas; Latinas 413; and Literacy Network of South Berkshire.

2nd Street Second Chances, a program that helps formerly incarcerated people readjust to society, has partnered with Community Legal Aid to open additional office space at 33 Main St. in North Adams. The office suite will be shared with CLA, which currently uses the space as a satellite office.

Expanding to North Adams allows the program to bring services closer to where its clients live, according to Executive Director Jason Cuyler. To schedule an appointment call 413-443-7220, ext. 1275.

The city of Pittsfield’s Commission on Disabilities has provided funding to Pittsfield Community Television to add closed captions on many local programs broadcast on PCTV’s channels.

PCTV has received funding from the city of Pittsfield to place closed captioning on a number of programs. The service will allow hearing-impaired viewers to follow along with the content of the programming by reading text on the screen.

In January, the commission voted to allocate $1,850 to help PCTV provide closed captioning for all city meetings for the year. The captions can currently be viewed on certain programs on the PCTV website, www.pittsfieldtv.org, and the PCTV Select app. Many more programs will be captioned in the coming weeks and months. The money from the Pittsfield Commission on Disabilities comes from the city’s parking violations fund.

PCTV is hoping to expand closed captioning to programming on the Access Pittsfield and ETV channels, but that will require funding for additional hardware. The organization is seeking grants and other local funding to expand the captioning service to additional channels.

Salisbury Bank has donated food and funding raised during its 15th annual “Fill-the-Basket” food drive that took place at its 14 branches during November and December to several local food pantries in the bank’s three-state coverage area.

Locally, those food pantries included People’s Pantry in Great Barrington; Sheffield Food Assistance in Sheffield and South Egremont; The Corner Food Pantry in Lakeville and Salisbury, Conn.; and Fish and Loaves in Canaan, Conn.

Together, the bank’s 14 branches collected and donated over 1,424 nonperishable food and household items, and $524 in cash donations. Salisbury Bank also donated a total of $12,000 amongst the food pantries serving each area.

Salisbury Bank operates Berkshire County branches in Great Barrington, Sheffield and South Egremont.

Price Chopper/Market 32, which operates three markets in the Berkshires, raised $70,400 to benefit the Disabled American Veterans organization during a recent fundraising campaign.

Customers were encouraged to round up their totals at the register. The funding will directly benefit veterans and their families. The regional supermarket chain operates Berkshire markets in Great Barrington, Lee and Pittsfield.

Berkshire Health Systems, Community Health Programs, and other members of the Health Collaborative of the Berkshires PHO have renewed their partnership with Fallon Health of Worcester to provide high-quality, lower-cost health care to members and communities under the state’s Medicaid program, which is called MassHealth.

The PHO and Fallon MassHealth Accountable Care Organization partnership, known as the Berkshire Fallon Health Collaborative, will be available to eligible Medicaid members in the Berkshires. It supports the state’s continuation of the successful Medicaid ACO program.

Effective April 1, MassHealth members identified by the Executive Office of Health & Human Services as having a Berkshire Health Systems, Community Health Programs, or other PHO Primary Care Provider will be enrolled in BFHC. MassHealth is a state-administered Medicaid program that provides health care coverage to eligible individuals.

To enroll in BFHC, participants must live in the service area, which includes all of Berkshire County. For information, visit fallonhealth.org/Berkshires.