PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The new BJ's Wholesale is set to be fully constructed by the end of the September and the store will open shortly after.

According Robert MacPherson, founder of Cape Breton Corp., the company that is building the store, construction and utilities are on pace to be completed and the store can be turned over to BJ's management for an October opening.

"The BJ's is looking, hopefully, to open in the middle or end of September," MacPherson said Tuesday. "Certainly before the first of October is our hope."

The construction, located on Hubbard Avenue behind Price Chopper, is expecting to

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Qualprint, a division of Quality Printing Co., will be accepting two Benjamin Franklin Awards in Chicago on Sept. 11, awards akin to the Oscars for the graphic arts industry.

The "Benny" is the highest honor in the 2011 Premier Print Awards, the industry's largest and most prestigious worldwide printing competition that recognizes outstanding achievement in print production. (Benjamin Franklin, of course, being one of the nation's foremost printers back in the day.)

The award-winning Qualprint is getting two for the categories of Magazine Series and Cross Media Promotion for its work in Briefings on Talent & Leadership, a quarterly publication

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — North Adams Regional Hospital has been denied its application as a critical access hospital that would have given it cost-based reimbursements from Medicare. 

According to a report in the North Adams Transcript on Tuesday, the hospital's application was denied by the federal government because of its proximity to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield. President and CEO William Frado told the newspaper that the government looked at Route 7 as a major highway, which puts the two hospitals closer than the cut off of 35 miles.

The hospital's parent company, Northern Berkshire Healthcare, had sought the designation to aid its financial picture as it

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The latest state jobless rates show Berkshire County falling within the state average for the month of June with a seasonally unadjusted rate of 7.3 percent.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development is reporting a seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for June of  7.8 percent, up 0.4 of a percentage point from the revised May rate of 7.4 percent.  A statement from the office says that reflects seasonal increases in the number of residents entering and re-entering the labor force.

Berkshire County overall added more than 2,000 jobs over the month of May, and has 1,300 fewer jobless claims than January of this year. The county also is

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The merger of Berkshire Bank and Legacy Banks was completed Thursday.

Announced in December, Berkshire Bank purchased Legacy for $108 million, which created the biggest financial institution in the region with more than $4 billion in assets.

The Berkshire Bank name will remain the same and more than 40 of the two banks' 850 workers are expected to lose their job because of the merger.

According to a press release, the bank now has more than 60 branches reaching from Massachusetts to New York to Vermont. The merger is effective immediately.

"This acquisition results in improved market share and an expanded footprint in our attractive northeastern

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