State Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, is leading a 'Commonwealth Conversation Tour' across the state as he begin his leadership term. The town hall forums kicked off in Great Barrington.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Patricia Begrowicz received a $2.4 million electric bill in 2014 for her business, Onyx Specialty Papers Inc. 

 

"The cost of electricity puts us at a competitive disadvantage," she told eight state senators Wednesday morning at the Berkshire South Community Center.

 

Onyx exports half its paper products produced in Lee overseas and its competing with companies around the world — with lower electric rates. Contributing to those high electric rates in Massachusetts are efficiency programs the Legislature put in place to reduce energy usage.

 

But Onyx is such a high user of electricity that none of those programs fits its business. Begrowicz says the company has contributed $750,000 toward efficiency programs and received less than $150,000 back in incentives. It has been paying in and then doing efficiency projects on its own — like converting to natural gas.

 

Energy is an issue that makes it more difficult for Begrowicz and her 155 employees to keep the business in the Berkshires.

 

She was one of more than a dozen to detail issues facing Western Massachusetts to the collection of senators.

 

The town hall forum in South Berkshire was the first under the new leadership of Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D- Amherst. Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, hosted the event, which attracted about 100; the senators left by bus after the two-hour forum to an event in Springfield.

 

"This is all part of a new beginning for us. We really need to reach out and give people the opportunity to communicate with us and really help us set the priorities going forward," Rosenberg said. 

 

Similar events are being held across the state in what the senators have dubbed the "Commonwealth Conversation Tour." Great Barrington kicked off the tour and featured Sens. Downing, John Keenan, Eric Lesser, Michael Rodrigues, Rosenberg, James Welch, William Brownsberger and Donald Humason.

 

"We wanted to get off of Beacon Street and onto Main Street in communities all across the commonwealth," Rosenberg said.

 

They heard Begrowicz's request for an energy policy that both helps businesses stay competitive while still providing incentives to protect the environment. But they also heard some of the things business leaders in the Berkshires are doing to build a post-industrial economy. 

 

David Curtis, economic development specialist with 1Berkshire, told the senators that local businesses need every type of support. They need help with getting access to capital through loan programs, they need the right space, and they need mentoring programs. 1Berkshire has been active in helping open collaborative space in North Adams and Pittsfield and in building a "world class" internship program," Curtis said.

 

That is all part of an effort to grow small business. 1Berkshire is only a few years old and is a collaboration between the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, Berkshire Visitors Bureau, and Berkshire Creative. Joining together under one roof in Pittsfield was eyed primarily as a "one-stop shop" for businesses to access resources but has grown to much more than that, according to Berkshire Chamber President Jonathan Butler.

 

"Collaboration and being unified is the best opportunity we have," Butler said.

 

They have built teams spanning across the three agencies to tackle larger issues. Butler said the biggest issue facing the county is population. The demographics show a tremendous drop off in the age brackets of 22 to 40.

 

"We have a significant gap between the ages of 22 and 40 that have formed over the last number of years," Butler said. "Population is something we took at as a threat to the Berkshires."

 

One way to grow population is to turn visitors into residents. Berkshire Visitors Bureau President Lauri Klefos said the bureau if focused on branding the county in a way to accomplish that goal.

 

David Christopolis from the Hilltown Community Development Corp. said artists are attracted to the rural environment of the Berkshires. He said there are eight cities in Western Massachusetts housing half of the population in Berkshire, Franklin and Hamden Counties. There are 67 towns with less than 2,000 people each. 

 

Eight senators and nearly 100 residents, business leaders and officials attended the event.

"We're an urban state and most people in the state wouldn't consider Massachusetts has having any rural areas. But we know," he said.

 

The rural character is an attraction but the rural towns face different challenges than the cities and and more densely populated towns. He advocated for the passage of a bill that will open a state office for rural affairs.

 

Sarah Stevens is the prime example of what 1Berkshire's efforts are aimed to do. Stevens is now the vice president of marketing for Iredale Cosmetics, a large local manufacturing company with a national reach. Stevens moved to the Berkshires not for the job, but for the community.

 

"I came here after being a weekender for five or six years in Becket. We chose it as a contrast to Manhattan," Stevens told the senators. "The reason why we lived here is a personal, lifestyle choice and not for the job."

 

In her 30s she uprooted and came to the Berkshires - finding her place with a high ranking position with Iredale. She says the Berkshires has the things that "millennials" like but there needs to be more of it.

 

Stevens said millennials need activity like Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art's Wilco or Beck concerts. Or similar shows at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. 

 

Joseph Thompson, director of Mass MoCA, said cultural venues are more than just an attraction for tourists — though the institutions certainly do that. But they are also educating and creating jobs in an array of fields.

 

It starts with visitors, according Mahaiwe Executive Director Beryl Jolly, and grows from there. The Berkshire attracts people through the arts who then decide to stay. Part of the attraction is the mix of old history and the modern cultural scene.

 

"It is visitors who become second-home owners and then become residents," she said. "It is a good system. We are very vibrant."

 

For those who do live here, Pittsfield Mayor Daniel Bianchi and North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright sent the senators the same message — the municipalities need more state aid.

 

"My ask of you is that you push and push really hard for an increase in local and school aid," Alcombright said.

 

He says the city is "alive and well" but struggling financially. In 2010, percent 54 of the city's budget was state aid but because of cuts it has dropped to 46 percent, he said. He says the city has a "staggering" number of capital needs so Chapter 90 funds for municipal highway projects are critical.

 

Bianchi has a major issue in the failing Columbus Avenue municipal parking garage. That is right in the heart of downtown and is needed to provide critical access to cultural venues, shops and restaurants. But Pittsfield doesn't have the money to fix it, he said, that has to be done by the state.

 

"We've had a rebirth downtown and we are currently working with the developers of a 45-room hotel right in the center of our downtown," he said. "At the same time, we had a failure of one of our parking garages, which is adjacent to one of our cultural facilities."

 

Pittsfield also needs $3.5 million in road repairs each year but Chapter 90 comes no where close to that.

 

But both cities have been able to do some things well. Bianchi pointed to the new high school project as an economic development initiative to provide skilled workers for applied materials and injection molding companies. And he touted the Berkshire Innovation Center, which is eyed to be an incubator-type space for small science-based businesses to grow.

 

Alcombright said North Adams is working on privatizing Western Gateway Heritage State Park, developing scenic rail rides with Adams, installing a 3.3 megawatt solar project at the covered landfill, the new elementary school under construction and a strong relationship with the Massachusetts Collect of Liberal Arts.

 

Interim MCLA President Cynthia Brown agreed with that relationship and said the institution brings a lot to the county. But, a key aspect of the school is its affordability.

 

"We have a very needy student population financially," she said, but the strength is that, "we are considered a value for what we offer.

 

She advocated for enough higher education funding for tuition and fee increases. Berkshire Community College President Ellen Kennedy advocated for the same, saying in the last decade public higher education has been treated more like a luxury like private schools.

 

"We ask you, our state senators, to continue to work with us to keep higher education affordable," Kennedy said.

 

Berkshire Community College is eyed to play a collaborative role with Pittsfield, and with local businesses, as they try to provide the skilled work force needed for companies to stay here.

 

For Rosenberg, the collaboration among all of the various entities stood out in the Berkshires meeting.

 

"What stood out for me is the level of collaboration that is going on in the county and how organizations are creating synergies," Rosenberg said.

 

Downing already knows that as the senator who represents the most cities and towns in the state.

 

"Maybe the solution out here is a little bit different from some of our urban areas. It is a rural area and we know that the only way to solve these problems are that we work together first and then we look to the state as a partner," Downing said.