image description — Jake's Java marks one year in Lanesborough with an eye to expansion.

Jake's Java Celebrates One Year

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
11:47AM / Friday, July 11, 2025Print Story | Email Story

Jake's Java services Jake Galliher's favorite coffee -- an iced caramel macchiato.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Jake's Java recently celebrated its one year anniversary.

"It's been really great. It's been incredibly emotional. It feels like a community hug. Being able to talk about the boys and have a legacy and memory for each and every one of them is really an amazing part of Jake's Java world here," owner Kim Krautter said.

Krautter said she wants people to see the coffeeshop as a place of love and fun. It was opened last year in honor of her son, Jacob Galliher, who lost his life during an Air Force exercise in 2023. He'd talked with his family about opening a coffeeshop — similar to the one where he met his wife, Ivy — when he got out of the service.

She opened Jake's Java in his honor last June and the day was a memorial not only the late staff sergeant but also to the seven other crewman on his Osprey, which was operating with the call sign Gundam 22.

"Jake's Java is a place of love and community and positivity. It's a place where I would like to see the growth being everyone comfortable coming here, whether it's a little one running through a sprinkler or a senior playing croquet. Jake was often pulling people together, of all dynamics around the community, and I want to continue that," Krautter said.

"I also have been venturing outside these walls a little bit and doing a little bit of catering. I've done some graduation parties with charcuterie boards providing like a continental breakfast for weddings this summer. And we have other ideas of growth too and to be continued on that part."

The coffeeshop has had some challenges during the winter season but is pulling out of it with the better weather.

"Being in hospitality in the Berkshires, as I've been for over 20 years. I know that winters can be really tough in the Berkshires for any type of hospitality," Krautter said. "We have the drive-through and the picnic tables, but we don't have indoor seating, so the winter was long, and then came May, and everything opened back up. We're seeing the tourists, we're seeing the community come back out, and a lot of familiar faces and people that are connected to Jacob coming."

During its anniversary in June, Jake's Java dedicated a bench painted by a local artist to Marine Capt. Ross Reynolds, a Leominster native.

"He was a Marine who lost his life also in an Osprey mishap in March of 22. Ross' family and I became connected through Military for Friends Foundation, and it felt fitting to celebrate Ross' life and dedicate something to him on our one year anniversary," she said.

Krautter says she wants Jake's Java to have an impact on this community by honoring Jake and other service members because it's important to always speak their names and listen to their stories.

"For me, for people to never forget my son, Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher, there's something to be said about saying their names every day and talking about them every day, that their legacy will continue and their memories will always be here," she said. "Jacob was incredible. He was 24 years old. Accomplished a lot in his lifetime with he was an airborne linguist who spoke Mandarin. He had two children, and I quickly learned that all eight of Gundam 22 have a very similar story, and making sure that we're able to share that and talk about each one of them every day."

Among the coffeeshop's popular drinks are cold brew and auto drip. Krautter said the baristas love to have fun with the drinks.

"Our cold brew is the best. I often hear that you can't go wrong with the auto drip either with Jake's Java. When we go away, we have to bring it with us, because we're spoiled now, our baristas have a lot of fun with making different lattes and different flavored drinks," she said. "We had some Girl Scout drinks that they were doing that was a fan favorite, and Jacob's favorite was a caramel macchiato. So that is right up there as well."

Krautter also says some of their breakfast items are favorites as well, especially the pulled pork.

"Our bagels do come from a New York bakery, so they're baked in New York and delivered every morning. So I really do love our bagels. A highlight that people often come for are our apple fritters and our Cinnabons. Pulled pork is another big one. People love the pulled pork breakfast sandwich."

She hopes to expand the coffee line as well as bring Jake's Java to more communities, including "J-cups," the Jake's version of K-cups.

"I'll wait and give you the name at a later date, but it will honor all eight Gundam 22 heroes, and it's something we're hoping to get going at a large production scale and hopefully go national with it," she said. "I'm also looking into the possibility of a food truck. I would love nothing more than to have a Gundam 22 food truck that we can travel to different bases and get out into broader than Berkshire County."

Krautter would love to see Jake's grow and to educate about military sacrfice and Gundam 22's legacy, pointing how it grew the connection with Reynolds and his family.

Jake's Java is located 20 Williamstown Road with summer hours from 7 to 2 daily. Breakfast is served all day.

Tags: anniversary, coffeeshop,

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BRTA Focuses on a New Run Schedule

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
01:26PM / Wednesday, April 29, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is still working on maintaining its run schedules after dropping the route realignment proposal.

Last Thursday's meeting was Administrator Kathleen Lambert's first official meeting taking over the reins; retiring director Robert Malnati stayed during a transition period that ended last month.

Lambert is trying to create a schedule that will lessen cancellations. There was a two-hour meeting the week before with the drivers union to negotiate run bids and Lambert is working with the new operating company Keolis, which is taking over from Transdev.

The board spoke about anonymous emails from drivers, which Lambert said she has not seen. iBerkshires was not able to see those letters, but has received some.

"They were lengthy emails from someone describing themselves as concerning BRTA employee, and there was a signed letter from a whole group of employees basically stating their concerns. So, you know, to me, it was a set of whistleblowers, and that, what my understanding is that this really triggers a need for some type of process to review the merits of these whistleblowers, not going to call them accusations, but basically expressions of concern," said member Stephen Bannon.

A letter iBerkshires received spoke of unhappy drivers who were considering quitting because of decisions being made without "input from frontline staff," frustration and falling morale, and the removal of the former general manager shortly after Lambert came in.

Lambert said it's difficult to navigate a new change. She also noted many drivers don't want to do Saturday runs and it has been hard negotiating with drivers on the new runs.

"I would like you all to keep in mind that the process of change is super difficult. Transdev has been here for 20 years, and some of these drivers have never known any other operating company, the way some of the operations have been handled has been archaic," she said. "So getting folks up to speed on how a modern transit system works is going to be painful for them. So I don't want to say that I'm unsympathetic, because I am sympathetic, but I am trying to coax people along with a system that's going to seem very strange to them."

The board spoke about better communication between them and Lambert, citing cooperation will be best moving forward.

"There's just a lot of stuff in the air right now, and there are a lot of fires to put out to make this a coordinated effort. And if we don't keep our communications open and be straightforward, then you get blindsided about how you know the input that you could get from us about your position, and how you know what's going on in your direction, and we get blindsided. And I think that we have to make sure that this is a collaboration," said member Sherry Youngkin.

"Both sides have responsibilities, because in the long run, this advisory board is going to have to make decisions as to how we brought forward and if we've gone forward in a fair and helpful way. And I think that's hopefully what everybody is looking for also."

Transdev and Keolis held a three-day recruiting event interviewing almost 40 candidates and offering jobs to eight, but only three stayed on to start training. Lambert said it was disappointing but she will keep trying to retain more people.

In her first report to the board, she noted that ridership dipped a little over 10 percent, but still remains higher than last year, adding that was because of cancellations of services because of the lack of drivers.

Like the last meeting, some of the advisory board members were torn over the start of the Link413 service, worried that the start of the service took drivers away and the numbers of riders are low.

Lambert, however, said the ridership has doubled from last month.

"As I've spoken before, we have, generally, a six-month adoption for brand-new service before you can really go in and evaluate, are you being successful based on the grant that my predecessor wrote along with the team for PBTA and RTA, we are ahead of schedule, which is pretty good, so I'm hoping that will continue to improve," she said.

Member Renee Wood said the board never approved the service, adding the only thing she could find in the minutes was a vote to accept the equipment. She said it was supposed to be put on the agenda to discuss.

"The Link413 service has been three years in the making. It's been a grant that was accepted and has been working with our partners, PVTA and FRTA, to put into place. So I don't have the entire history of how that process worked, but it's been three years in the making, and did we not understand that once we accept that grant that we were going to put in new service?" Lambert said.

The board discussed if Title VI, the Civil Rights Act, was followed with an accurate review and accurate amount of time for public comment period on the service changes and if its attorney should review if the grant conditions were properly followed.

Lambert said changes had the 60-day comment period included in the proposed route realignment packet, giving the opportunity for the community to respond to that as well but will look into the legality of the situation with their attorney.

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