WiredWest board of directors creates negotiating team
Northampton — At its meeting on Saturday, December 19, the board of directors of WiredWest voted unanimously to appoint a select group of representatives from its member towns to negotiate with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) in order to resolve differences between the organizations’ plans for last-mile broadband deployment in WiredWest towns.
MBI issued a statement on Tuesday, December 1, saying it would deny funding to the WiredWest project of making high-speed internet available to those in western Massachusetts currently lacking it. WiredWest responded with a rebuttal, and MBI’s board of directors directed its staff to work with WiredWest to seek to bridge the differences.
Last week, WiredWest Executive Committee members met with MBI in Westborough, and the two organizations have agreed to meet in the near future to discuss finance and governance. WiredWest has also requested a committee on technology to work closely with MBI on network design and ensure that operational efficiencies are taken into account.
WiredWest Executive Committee Chair Monica Webb said “I am confident that with genuine, open-minded collaboration, the two groups can resolve our differences in planning for last-mile deployment and get the process of bringing desperately-needed broadband to the unserved back on track. We are all vested in the expeditious achievement of that goal.”
–E.E.
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‘Beethoven and a bed’ at the Old Inn
New Marlborough — In honor the recent December 16 anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, the Old Inn on the Green has composed an overnight package designed especially for music lovers.
“Beethoven and a Bed” grants overnight guests exclusive access to a German-made, upright piano that was owned and played regularly by innkeeper Peter Platt’s great grandfather and was recently maintained by a Tanglewood-affiliated piano-tuner. Platt also inherited a treasure trove of antique sheet music that he hopes to have catalogued this year.
The package includes one night in a deluxe room with a wood-burning fireplace and Jacuzzi; an attached, furnished music parlor that can comfortable seat eight people should guests care to give an impromptu concert; a packet of selected sheet music; and afternoon port with local cheeses.
The cost of the package is $295 on weeknights and $395 on weekends. Call the Old Inn on the Green for more information at (413) 229-7924.
–E.E.
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Senior downsizing, relocation, and estate sale service
Pittsfield — Kendra MacLeod has opened Caring Transitions of Berkshires and Hudson Valley, a business that specializes in managing senior relocations as well as downsizing and estate liquidations. In addition to organizing, packing, decluttering, moving, and resettling, Caring Transitions can handle estate sales, liquidations, and preparing homes for market.
Caring Transitions’ services are for seniors moving in with family or into a safer living situation, busy families, and for people clearing out the home of a loved one who has passed. All of Caring Transitions’ services are customizable and clients pay only for the services they need. MacLeod is a certified Relocation and Transition Specialist and Caring Transitions of Berkshires and Hudson Valley is bonded and insured and all employees are background-checked.
For more information about Caring Transitions, call (413) 429-4288 or email kmacleod@caringtransitions.com
–E.E.
