NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has posted the position for public safety commissioner.
The posting, on BerkshireJobs.com, is asking for a someone with a "strong background in public safety" including a at least a master's degree in a related discipline such as police, fire or management, and be a ranking member of a public safety department with relevant experience.
According to the posting, the commissioner will be oversee the police, fire, wire and alarm, public buidings, weights and measures, and health inspection. He or she will also be responsible for coordinating intermunicipal mutual aid, write grants and do strategic planning and budgeting.
The application deadline is April 16.
There had been some discussion of doing away with the commissioner post, one of the few in the state, but with current commissioner's time coming to an end, the adminstration asked to continue the post. The Public Safety Committee concurred.
Former Drury High Student Admits to Facebook Threats
Staff Reports On: 12:08PM / Wednesday March 07, 2012
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A former Drury High School student admitted on Wednesday to making Facebook threats against his alma mater last November.
Zachary T. Barbeau, 19, of Commercial Street, Adams, pleaded guilty on Wednesday morning in Berkshire Superior Court to single counts of threatening the use of a deadly weapon and causing serious public alarm, threat to commit a crime (to wit: assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon) and disruption of a public assembly.
Barbeau created a Facebook profile with a false identity and posted threats against the North Adams school and its students on Nov. 10, 2011. Police tracked the account to his address and he was arrested later that day.
School officials decided to hold classes, although existing rules on access and student behavior were strictly enforced.
Barbeau was released on personal recognizance by Judge John Agostini, pending sentencing on April 27 at 9 a.m.
The investigation was conducted by state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office, state troopers assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and members of the North Adams and Adams police departments.
Updated at 1:47 p.m. because graduation & date not confirmed.
North Adams Native Murdered by Florida Boyfriend
Staff Reports On: 04:41PM / Tuesday January 31, 2012
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A city native living in the state of Florida was shot and killed by her live-in boyfriend on Saturday, Jan. 21, at their mobile home in St. Petersburg.
Shelley I. Gold, 52, was the victim of a murder-suicide committed by Thomas P. Cappadona, 51. According to reports in the Tampa Bay Times, Cappadona killed Gold before turning the gun on himself. Neighbors described him as frequently drunk and combative. They were together about seven years.
"She was just always helpful and quiet," her landlady Paula Bouseman told the Tampa Bay Times.
Gold was born in North Adams in 1959, daughter of the late Richard Gold and Janice Belouin Gold, and was a 1977 graduate of Drury High School. A Florida resident for more than two decades, she had been employed for 22 years at Cody's Original Roadhouse.
She left a sister, Susan Bonin of Pittsfield, and a niece and nephew, Ashley and Andrew Bonin, and many friends in Florida.
Truck Rollover Closes Church Street
Staff Reports On: 12:47PM / Thursday January 19, 2012
A paving truck rolled over into Southview Cemeter after apparently losing its brakes coming down steep West Shaft Road.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — An asphalt truck plowed into Southview Cemetery at about 10:50 on Thursday morning after apparently losing its brakes coming down steep West Shaft Road.
Church Street was expected to be closed or reduced to one lane during the afternoon for the truck to be removed.
Police Lt. David Sacco said state police are investigating the cause but witnesses told police they heard the Atlantic Paving truck's airhorn as it came down the hill.
The driver took a left at the bottom of West Shaft and the truck, which was filled with cold patch, rolled onto its passenger side on the cemetery's slight incline along Church Street, stopping just a couple feet from a tree. Asphalt spilled onto the ground but no gravestones appeared to damaged.
Dean's Towing was called to remove the vehicle and city crews were dispatched to remove the cold patch. Joseph Dean said the truck's removal was completed by the spilled patch and because the dump body had come off its guides.
It was estimated that the removal would take one to two hours. Both lanes of Church Street were closed at West Shaft Road shortly after noontime.
Updated information, Jan. 19, 9:15 a.m.: The truck was a 1997 Mack 600 registered to Atlantic Paving of Peabody.
Two Men Sentenced To State Prison For 2010 MCLA Robbery
Staff Reports On: 04:32PM / Wednesday January 11, 2012
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Two men were sentenced to state prison for armed robbery at one of the Townhouse dormitories on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts campus in December of 2010.
Joshua Jadusingh, 19, and Charlton Goodson, 29, both of North Adams pleaded guilty in Berkshire Superior Court on Wednesday to two counts of armed robbery and single counts of conspiracy to commit armed home invasion. Judge Daniel Ford sentenced the two men to two to three years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction and placed the men on three years probation.
An additional charge of armed home invasion was dismissed by the state.
At about 6:30 p.m. on December 14, 2010 Jadusingh and Goodson committed the armed robbery at one of the on-campus student apartments. About a month later, North Adams Police, members of the state police Violent Fugitive Apprehension section, Crime Scene Services and the Berkshire County Drug Task Force arrested four suspects for the crime after executing a search warrant at 3 Secor Ave. and 105 West Main Street in North Adams.
Three of those suspects were juveniles whose names were not released and police suggested that more arrests would be on their way.
