NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city will hold another community forum on the elementary school building project on Thursday, April 28, at 6 p.m. in the Sullivan Elementary School cafeteria.

Presenters will include Carl Weber of Strategic Building Solutions, hired as project manager, and architects from Margo Jones Architects. Mayor Richard  Alcombright, Superintendent of Schools James E. Montepare, Public Safety Commissioner E. John Morocco and members from the School Building Committee, North Adams School Committee and City Council will also be on hand.

City officials strongly encourage all citizens to attend the meeting in order to have questions answered and to offer input on this project. 

Residents will be updated on the project, including the options being presented to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The MSBA, which is reimbursing 80 percent of eligible costs, was to have made a decision in March but has delayed a final review. School and project officials are pushing for a "two-school" solution for 620 pupils and believe that may be why the MSBA is taking longer to finalize construction. The state agency will make the final decision.

The preferred option is a renovation of Conte Middle School for Grades kindergarten through 8 and a new, or at least renovated, Greylock School. Some, however, are objecting to the closure of Sullivan School and the relocation of youngsters to the downtown area.

The statement of interest for Sullivan can be read here; the Greylock one here. The options can be reviewed below and are linked in the side panel.

North Adams School Building Project Options

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city is looking for a new face — someone who will promote North Adams' cultural and recreational assets and partner with regional organizations with similar goals.

The position for a director of tourism and community events was posted on BerkshireJobs.com last week. The job appears to expand on what had been the director of the Mayor's Office of Tourism and Cultural Development.

According to the job posting, "This position will create an atmosphere that attracts, welcomes and supports existing and new cultural institutions and creative businesses, as well as artists and creative individuals of all disciplines into the city of North Adams."

The goal is to increase the number of visitors (and the amount of their spending) in the city by coordinating events with other entities and towns and promoting marketing intiatives. The director will also coordinate all city-sponsored activities, such as the Mayor's Downtown Celebration, the Northern Berkshire Food Festival, and sporting events among others. The person selected will also be expected to grow a volunteer corps and work with existing organizations.

The post requires a bachelor's degree in marketing or communications and several years experience in related marketing. The new director will also have to be able to handle the website, email marketing, social media and online strategies.

The tourism position had been filled for the past decade by Rod Bunt, a former WNAW radio host hired by the former administration. Bunt quit March 3 saying he was looking for opportunities in the private sector, but there had been speculation for months that he and Mayor Richard Alcombright weren't seeing eye to eye on the position's responsibilities. "I've been canned, sacked, terminated, booted, ...," he wrote on his "The Unemployment Diary," but later told the Transcript that it was a writing exercise for an obscure literary magazine.

Alcombright said the city would take the opportunity to expand and "carefully craft" the director's job description to incorporate more marketing skills. Within a couple weeks of Bunt's departure and before any job vacancy was posted, the city had received nearly three dozen resumes.

The director's post is currently an S-35, with a starting pay of $33,009. The advertisement does not give a wage estimate nor is it clear the position will be the same classification. Alcombright last year raised eyebrows when he pushed for a new classification for an administrative assistant that jumped the job's starting wage up several steps from the secretarial classification.

The city's also looking for a seasonal park security officer for Windsor Lake and the campground. The Parks & Recreation Commission discussed the post at its last meeting.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A presentation by Margo Jones Architects and Strategic Building Solutions on the proposed school building project to the City Council on Tuesday veered little from recent ones to the public and School Committee, and many of the questions covered similar ground.

City councilors and residents quizzed representatives on the costs, efficiency and process. The four options presented stem from a $680,000 feasibility study approved in 2008 that was required for any project approval and reimbursement by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

The city is hoping the MSBA will allow a two-school project to fulfill the state's charge of finding educational solutions to 620 students. Of those options, the preferred one is the construction of a new Greylock School and the renovation of Conte Middle School, both to serve kindergarten through Grade 7.

But the proposed resurrection of the old Drury High School as an elementary school hasn't been welcomed by everyone.

"A fifth option does exist," said John Bedard of Meadow Street. "The same exact solution of the Greylock School by putting a new school at the Sullivan site."

Bedard said the West End has gotten new fields and lighting, and now would get a new school so its property values would go up. But the Kemp Avenue area would lose its neighborhood school and see its the property values go down. And he's argued that downtown Conte isn't safe or appropriate for younger children.

"I see this feasibility study as a last-ditch effort to save that building on Main Street," he said. "... this should be about the children ... anyone who says the children would be better off downtown is either an idiot or a liar."

Councilor Keith Bona, a member of the School Building Committee, said there was no expectation the feasibility study would find a solution in Conte, which was closed as a middle school in 2008.

"Clearly, we thought Conte was off the board," said Bona. "At no point was anyone given any instructions to save Conte ... We thought it was going to be too costly."

Kristian Whitsett of Margo Jones Architects also said Conte wasn't really considered an option but the architects were surprised to find it worked well with the "clustering" configuration for teaching and also offered a way to be "green" in terms of reuse.

The Sullivan site, too, had been studied extensively, he said, in terms of additions and building a new structure but the steep terrain around the site limited location, parking, bus drop-offs and "we couldn't figure out where to put the ballfield."

The SBA will only cover site work up to 8 percent of the construction

Renovating and adding on to the current school would mean five levels that would require children and residents going up and down stairs to get from one end of the school to the other, making it difficult for the gym to be used by the community.

Diane Parsons said she was "biased" against using Conte and council President Ronald Boucher, "a fan of neighborhood schools," asked if there was an option to build a new Greylock and fix up Sullivan if the SBA rejected a two-school project.

Wittseg said they couldn't "spend a little bit" on Sullivan because it would trigger more expensive renovations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Bedard was not convinced of the argument against Sullivan and was getting signatures on a petition to keep the school open.

Mayor Richard Alcombright said another public session on the project would be held on Tuesday, April 28, at 7 p.m. at Sullivan School.  "We need people, we need people to give their input."

In other business,

• The council approved a tax incentive agreement that would allow Scarafoni & Associates to purchase the North Adams Transcript building on American Legion Drive and renovate and lease it to the nonprofit Brien Center.

The agreement sets the property's assessment at $767,200, guaranteeing about $21,000 a year for the next 10 years. Abstaining from the discussion and vote were Councilors David Bond (who works for Scarafoni) and Keith Bona (who rents from Scarafoni).

• The council approved a transfer of $83,000 from the technology account to upgrade the city's aging servers, particularly for the Department of Public Safety. The transfer will leave $50,000 in the account, which is replenished through a percentage of the contract with Time Warner Cable.

Information technology officer Kathy Wall said last week that the funds would be used to replace equipment more than a decade old.

"It's hardware that's going to position us so we can handle all of the infrastructure we have now and in the future," Wall told the Finance Committee last week, including the coming installation of fiber optic in the region. "It's a smart purchase because it's going to let us look at our hardware ... it's looking at all of the infrastructure we have, all of the servers that we have. It is going to give us flexibility for technology coming down the road."

• Set a joint public hearing of the City Council and Planning Board on a proposed zoning change on Curran Highway for Monday, May 9, at 6 p.m.

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A man trying to an open art gallery found himself in the midst of an ongoing dispute Monday night over how businesses should be permitted in the city.

The Planning Board has been accepting letters of intent for conforming businesses opening in the appropriate zones but some planners and councilors think those businesses should be required to go through a more extensive site plan review. And if businesses don't need Planning Board approval, then why, asked others, is the board even getting letters?

Timothy Tague, son of the late photographer Bill Tague, who wants to open an art gallery at 16 Eagle St., became the case in point when Planners Joseph Gniadek and Wayne Wilkinson complained that his letter was skimpy on facts and "more like a memo."

"We have two letters tonight, both of who give very little in content whatsoever," said Wilkinson. "At least when we were doing site plan reviews, we would get specific information on signage, specifics on other items that were necessary — hours of operation, what they were going to be doing. 

"We're really getting, 'Hi, I'm opening for business.'"

Building Inspector William Meranti said the determination of who requires a site plan review was made through his office and in consultation with the Office of Community Development. With the administrative officer position still vacant, Meranti said he's been left to decide whether there's a change of use that the Planning Board should review.

"In this case, the determination is that it does not," he said of Tague's gallery. "This letter is simply for your information. Everyone that I've requested to send us something has sent us something at various stages."

How much information is provided varies, he said. "Typically, what I ask for are the bullet points on our checklist."

Planner Brian Miksic asked if something could be put together to elicit more information, even if only as a courtesy.

"If they are a by-right use and are not required by law to come before the Planning Board, what right do we have to tell them what information to bring to us," said Chairman Michael Leary. "That's the queston I would have."

It's also a question of money. Business owners submitting site plans are charged about $120 and must provide a package of parking, interior layouts, signage, hours, number of employees, and other information that once recorded can only be changed by petition to the board.

A confused Tague said he'd submitted what he thought was needed — he wasn't sure what his hours would be and he hadn't decided on a name yet. "Call it the Tague Gallery, if that's the name you want to give it," he said.

"I'm rehabbing the space ... it's time-consuming so I don't expect I'll be ready to open before June, maybe in May," he said. "That's as close as I can get for hours, probably later morning to early evening and closed on a weekday."

Planners said their complaints weren't specific to Tague but about the process.

Councilor Marie Harpin, liasion to the Planning Board who was sitting in the audience with Councilor Alan Marden, objected that the city was violating proper procedures by not following the site plan review process.

Harpin, who raised the issue at a City Council meeting two weeks ago, said the site plan review is supposed to be required at all times. Meranti said they'd discussed the issue before and "that's not the way it is."

Miksic noted the matter is before the city solicitor at the City Council. Harpin responded, "We should be going on the ordinances that are on the books until we get a ruling from the solicitor."

Chairman Michael Leary cut off discussion, saying the issue was already in the appropriate forum.

"We have been going by the recommendations of the city's Community Development Office, which issued recommendations when Mr. [Jay] Green was here based on his legal expertise in the area," he said.

In the end, the board voted 6-2 to accept Tague's letter and that from Sara Stefanik to open a social media and Internet consulting office at 47 Eagle St., with Wilkinson and Gniadek voting no. The vote had no bearing on either business's opening. Planner Donald Keagan was absent.

In other business:

• The board voted to approve 30 parking spots for customer vehicles for Berkshire Transmissions Inc. on condition owner Mark Piechowski remove a dozen unregistered vehicles parked behind a fence on the 758 Massachusetts Ave. property within the next 120 days.

Piechowski had requested more parking spots last month. A spike in customers had led to an overflowing lot of up to 40 vehicles, he said. "It's the most I've had in five years."

Planners had visited the site shortly before Monday's meeting. While they did not want to make it difficult for him to do business, they said the number of unregistered vehicles set aside for parts plus the trailers being used for parts storage were in violation of city ordinance.

The vehicles would have to be "completely hidden from public view," said Meranti. "Where you are it would be very difficult unless they were in a garage."

• The board signed a previously approved Form A mylar plan from Fred Thompson for American Financial Resources Inc. for property located on the westerly side of Brown Street, southerly side of Massachusetts Avenue and River Street, northerly of the Boston & Maine Railroad right of way that describes the existing parcels.

• The proliferation of businesses at the Beaver Street Mill that have not appeared before the board and the condition of the car wash behind Monroe Muffler were referred to the compliance committee.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — We know everybody is tired of street construction after last year, but it's not over yet.

A message from Albert Brighenti, project manager for Gagliarducci Construction Inc., says street work will start on April 25 along Eagle Street.

The work will include removing street lights, bases and sidewalks and installing new bases and conduits followed by sidewalk replacement.

Finishing work from last year will be continued, including relocating the fire hydrant at American Legion Drive and Main Street and, running counterclockwise through the city, removing bituminous patches and installing concrete sidewalk panels as required.

The process is expected to take three weeks. Pavement milling and overlay will begin in June.

The $2.2 million refurbishment of lighting, roads and sidewalks in the downtown began last spring. The bulk of the work was done through last fall and is considered 75 percent complete by state Department of Transportation.