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North Adams Cinemas Planning to Reopen

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The North Adams cinemas are expected to reopen this Friday under new management.

The MoviePlex 8 closed abruptly a month ago when its parent company, Cinema North Corp. of Rutland, Vt., went bankrupt.

At the time, Neil Ellis, owner of Steeple City Plaza where the theaters are located, said he was aware of the company's financial issues and had been working on ways to keep the theaters open.

On Tuesday, Mayor John Barrett III said Ellis had informed him that the theaters would reopen under a management agreement with a Greenfield theater company.

Ellis could not be reached for comment but the cinema marquee was quietly changed on Tuesday with recent and opening films, including the much-anticipated "New Moon" from the "Twilight" series.


On the bottom corner of the marquee for Theater 4, the morbid "Final Destination" was replaced by the more optimistic "Opening Friday."

The listings also include "2012," "Planet 51," "Capitalism: A Love Story," "A Christmas Carol," "The Men Who Stare At Goats," "Blind Side" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

Final details were reportedly being ironed out and a more formal announcement is expected on Wednesday.

Some of Cinema North's seven other properties may also reopen. Several franchises are bidding for the lease to the MoviePlex 9 in Rutland, according to the Rutland Herald, and the MoviePlex 8 in Greenport, N.Y., was purchased by a former Cinema North partner who's looking at a second theater as well, said the Catskill Daily Mail.
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North Adams Inauguration Set for New Year's Day

Staff Reports
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city's new government will be sworn in on Thursday, Jan. 1, at 11 a.m. in Council Chambers. 
 
The inauguration and organization of government is open to the public and may be broadcast on Northern Berkshire Community Television. 
 
City Clerk Tina Leonesio will be in charge, calling the council to order and administering the oath of office until the new president is elected and sworn in. Once the council is issued its committee and liaison assignment, the School Committee members and McCann School Committee representatives will be sworn in. 
 
The president will select two councilors to draw seat numbers for the next term and two to escort Mayor Jennifer Macksey to council chambers, where she will be sworn in and will address the city. 
 
This ceremony has become something of a recent New Year's Day tradition, though the adoption in 1965 of the Plan A form of government has the mayor take office on the first Monday in January. However, the council takes office on Jan. 1.
 
As far back as 1913, the swearing in was a Monday in council chambers. The first mayor elected under Plan A, James Cleary, took the oath along with the nine councilors on Monday, Jan. 1, 1968. This continued through Mayors Francis Floriani, Joseph Bianco and Richard Lamb. 
 
The date was shifted for the first inauguration of John Barrett III in 1984. The ceremony was moved to Drury High School on a Sunday night, Jan. 1, to allow for the event to be open to the public. It was the first time it had been broadcast on radio (WMNB) and television (cable Channel 7). (Macksey also held her first inauguration at Drury in 2022 because of expected attendance.)
 
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