iBerkshires was once a weekly posting so our new look back in history column will cover some highlights over the course of a week five, 10, 20 and 25 years ago. 

 

25 Years Ago

 

School Building Committee members in North Adams gave a green light July 25 to the bidding process for the renovation of Drury High School. The project will be advertised in the Central Register on Aug. 2, an on-site pre-bid meeting to answer potential bidders' questions will be held on Aug. 15, sub-bids will be received on Aug. 30, and general bids will be received Sept. 12.   

 

New Williamstown summer resident Elizabeth Winthrop has gotten a warm welcome in the city as she has done research for a children's historical novel set during the Great Depression. (The novel "Dear Mr. President: Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Letters from a Mill Town Girl" was published in 2001. 

 

Downtown Development Inc. is revitalizing its board of directors and will be focusing solely on the planned $3.7 million renovation of the Mohawk Theater on Main Street. One of the major reasons why Downtown Development Inc. is taking over the project is because it has an already established nonprofit status, a great help in fund-raising, said DDI President Jack Dempsey. 

 

These former students at the Jüdischen schule in the Baltic city of Königsberg were among the 16 or so who gathered for a reunion in Williamstown this past weekend. They had either narrowly escaped with their parents and immigrated to America, leaving behind aunts and uncles and grandparents who later perished in the camps, or, if they were caught in a Europe ruled by the genocidal Nazi regime, survived despite harrowing hardships. 

 

 

20 Years Ago

 

Lynne Blake, of RCI Real Estate in Williamstown and North Adams, has been chosen the 2005 Berkshire County Realtor of the Year. Blake is being honored for her commitment to civic-minded leadership in both the Realtor organization and in the Berkshire community. Recipients of this award are nominated and selected by Realtor colleagues throughout Berkshire County.

 

Since acquiring mayoral nomination papers on July 22, Walter L. Smith Jr., 53, of East Main St., has been collecting the necessary 50 voter signatures required to launch his campaign. During an hourlong July 26 interview, Smith said his "number one reason" for challenging Mayor John Barrett III is because "I believe people have a right to a choice." 

 

Boston Magazine has recognized a longtime business staple in the city of Pittsfield, along with the city's Tony Award-winning playhouse in its annual "Best of Boston" list. For the first time, the magazine devoted a section of the list to the Berkshires and gave a nod to Steven Valenti Clothing for Men in downtown Pittsfield as the region's best men's clothing store.

 

Williams College has announced the promotion of six assistant professors to the rank of associate professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2005. They are Jon M. Bakija, economics; William M. Gentry, economics; Shinko Kagaya, Japanese; Peter D. Low, art; Marlene J. Sandstrom, psychology; and Kasumi Yamamoto, Japanese.

 

 

10 Years Ago

 

Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the LaFesta Baseball Exchange that has brought more than 700 players aged 12 to 15 from North Adams and Boston's North End together. The program started in 1990 with George Canales, Tony Abuisi and John Lipa as a way to get youth involved in LaFesta, at the time a local heritage event at the former St. Anthony's Parish that grew into a celebration of the city's ethnic communities. 

 

Nearly a dozen historic stones in the Clarksburg Cemetery are getting some much needed repair. The town hired Monument Conservation Collaborative of Norfolk, Conn., to straighten and repair 10 leaning gravestones and restore that of Laban Clark. Town meeting approved spending $4,900 for this year in what is expected to be a 10-year project to restore the cemetery.

 

Local writer Kristen Demeo of North Adams is releasing her latest book, "The Rails of Northern Berkshire," about how the trains changed the region. The St. Stanislaus Kostka School teacher said she hopes this book will both educate and reconnect people with the past.

 

Terror suspect Alexander Ciccolo of Adams has been indicted by a federal grand jury on a firearms and assault charges. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Adams resident was indicted in U.S. District Court in Springfield on one count of being a convicted felon in possession of firearms and one count of assault with a deadly weapon and causing bodily injury to a person assisting an officer of the United States in the performance of official duties.  

 

 

Five Years Ago

 

It's official: the 65th annual Fall Foliage Parade is off, along with a host of other fall gatherings. The fate of the parade, usually held the first Sunday in October, has been up in the air for some time. The summer events in North Berkshire were canceled because of the pandemic months ago, including the Susan B. Anthony celebration in Adams, the Downtown Celebration in North Adams and Fresh Grass at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. 

 

A city councilor whose comments about COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter raised a firestorm of opposition has resigned from his public offices. Robert Moulton Jr. was to be censured on Tuesday by both the City Council and by the School Committee, to which he was elected last November. His resignation letters were the same one sentence stating he was resigning from both seats is effective immediately. 

 

The Pittsfield Community Development Board has approved the development of new multifamily housing on Tyler Street. The board acted upon an application from Mill Town Capitol to construct 20 residential units near Forest Place. The site is about an acre and the applicant would like to demolish four of the buildings. Harris said some of the buildings have already been demolished. 

 

Kristine Hazzard has joined the Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires as a member of the board of trustees.Hazzard has 30 years of experience leading and managing health and human service organizations. Currently a principal consultant at Katalyst, she specializes in strategic planning, organizational development, executive coaching, community change processes and meeting facilitation. Prior to launching her own firm, Hazzard was president and CEO of Berkshire United Way from 2008 to 2019.