Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Thomas Matuszko says the metric he’s proudest of in the group’s 2025 annual report is the number 32.

“We’ve worked in all 32 of the Berkshire County communities over this past year, and some communities have used our program areas. We have eight different program areas, and they’ve used all eight,” Matuszko says. “It really feels good to provide those services to our communities.”

The most direct example of BRPC’s work is helping channel valuable resources to Berkshire communities for a variety of needs.

“For instance, our brownfield programs bring in millions of dollars for cleanup of contaminated sites,” Matuszko says. “Our housing rehab program brings in dollars to rehabilitate substandard housing.”

This year’s installment of the planning commission’s analysis of the county comes, as usual, with both promising and challenging takeaways.

“We have data showing that we have come out of the COVID era in terms of measurements of distress like unemployment rate or per capita income and median household income, where those numbers have improved, and we’ve seen many communities look healthier in those regards,” says Assistant Director Laura Brennan. “But we’re also seeing other statistics that remain challenging. For one, income inequality in our region has grown in the last five years, and that’s a concerning trend.

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