Pittsfield Rotary Club Honors John F. McLaughlin III with Paul Harris Award

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PITTSFIELD — The Pittsfield Rotary Club has announced John F. McLaughlin, III as the recipient of the Paul Harris Award.

Established in 1976, the annual award recognizes a club member for notable achievements and contributions.

McLaughlin became a member of the Rotary Club in January 1998. He is currently serving his second three-year term on the Board of Directors and held the position of President from 2019 to 2020. Additionally, he is the current Vice President of the Pittsfield Rotary Club Foundation and is scheduled to become President in July 2025.

His involvement includes serving as Chair of the Fellowship Committee and volunteering for various community service initiatives over the past 27 years, such as collecting donations during the food drive, pancake breakfasts, passing out books for the Dictionary Project, distributing backpacks for children in need, Ringing the Bell for the Salvation Army.

He has also served multiple times as Sergeant-At-Arms and has been involved in fundraising for the Benevolence Fund through fines.

McLaughlin holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Northeastern University and works as a Wealth Management Advisor at Northwestern Mutual, where he has been employed since 1997. He resides in Dalton with two of his four children and is married to Jacqueline Duquette.

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Dalton Considers Updating its Municipal Code

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — The town is considering updating its original 18-year municipal code to 2026 standards. 
 
During a recent Select Board meeting, General Code New England account manager Zach Dumont outlined the 18- to-24 month process. 
 
General Code New England is a division of the International Code Council, which writes all the statewide building codes across the United States. For the last 18 years, the organization has been the codifier for municipalities. 
 
"We work with communities to build, maintain, and update your local municipal code. That is your collection of bylaws, ordinances, regulations, and any other legislation you've ever adopted," Dumont said. 
 
Once the project is complete, the town would have a fully updated set of books and an improved eCode360 site, he said. 
 
"The way the process would work is we would put together a scope of work, a timeline, a price point, and everything that we would want to touch or do as a part of the code project," Dumont said. 
 
When a municipal code is built, it has a general lifespan of about 15 to 20 years, and although that is a long time, it goes by very quickly, he said. 
 
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