AccessPlus Awarded Grant to Bring Fiber to Affordable Housing Units

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
03:15PM / Friday, April 18, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Internet provider AccessPlus was recently awarded the Massachusetts Broadband Institute Retrofit program grant.

"We are committed to delivering high-quality, high-speed internet to the Pittsfield community," said Kevin Alward, CEO of AccessPlus in a recent press release. "This grant allows us to further our mission of ensuring that everyone has access to the fast and reliable internet they need."

The grant was a part of the Healey-Driscoll administration's $10.4 million initiative to modernize the public housing internet in Massachusetts.

This grant will be used to bring high speed fiber internet to 13 multi-unit dwelling properties. This serves 587 housing units in Pittsfield, helping those who work from home.

"Some of the major benefits are the work from home we’ve seen so much of that through the years with covid but really became the standard is that work from and before COVID, if you had one person at home, it was not a big deal to work off the connection that was there," Chief Operating Officer Jason Cummins said. "With fiber broadband you got the symmetrical, that's the big key to that it’s symmetrical internet so you can have the entire household work from home."

AccessPlus has been with the community for more than 20 years and is the only second round award winner to provide a minimum starting speed of 500 Mbps (megabits per second0 internet connectivity to all its housing units, with options for residents to upgrade to multi-gig fiber internet for even greater speeds.

Just about a year ago AcessPlus' Fiber Broadband Network went online with the first business customers in Pittsfield.

"We’ve been focused on business users up to about a year and a half ago when we really identified that the market here in Western Mass really could use fiber you know a fiber to the play," Cummins said.

AccessPlus has also applied for a third round of funding with MBI to help expand their fiber internet access to more affordable housing units.

Their goal is to expand access to the rest of the Berkshires as well. For those interested in applying, visit www.getaccessplus.com.

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Pittsfield Council Revisiting DEI Office Rename

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
04:11PM / Tuesday, October 13, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The conversation about the DEI office renaming that was halted by a charter objection will resume on Tuesday.

The City Council will discuss a request from Mayor Peter Marchetti to rename the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

It proposes to rename the DEI office to the Office of Equity, Access, and Opportunity and merge the Human Rights Commission and Affirmative Action Committee into an Equity, Access and Opportunity Commission.

The Ordinance and Rules Subcommittee supported the changes in August, and in September, Ward 2 Councilor Cameron Cunningham delayed the vote with a charter objection.

Pittsfield's City Code prohibits charter states that "if a single member present objects to the taking of the vote, the vote shall be postponed until the next meeting of the city council." It also stipulates that at least four members must object if it is an emergency measure.

Cunningham also submitted a petition, which was referred to O&R under Rule 27, to replace the DEI Office and the Human Rights Commission with an equity, access, and opportunity coordinator in the Department of Community Development, with formal complaints and Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action functions assigned to Human Resources.

At the last meeting, he spent more than an hour querying the mayor and chief diversity officer about functions and effectiveness of the department, wanting more quantitative data. Cunningham proposed an ordinance that he says keeps Pittsfield's commitment to equity, access, and opportunity, "refocuses it on measurable results for our residents, and delivers it at a fraction of the current cost."

Under this petition, the equity, access, and opportunity coordinator would be a $60,000 to $80,000 per year position.

The DEI Office's fiscal year 2027 budget was about $200,000 after cuts during budget season; $106,700 for the chief diversity officer and $58,000 for the administrative assistant. The coordinator would be appointed by the director of community development and the mayor.

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