North Adams Panel Rejects Medical Marijuana Moratorium

The Community Development Committee declined to support Mayor Richard Alcombright's request for moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The request for a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries was shot down on Thursday by the Community Development Committee.

"There is no potential of it moving forward at all," said Chairman David Bond.

Mayor Richard Alcombright, who had advocated for the moratorium, said he would withdraw the order at Monday's City Council meeting.

"This is a brand-new thing. I'm not against it, not against it all," said the mayor. "I just wanted to be certain the community has time or had some input to weigh in on the site-specific issues."

The Community Development Committee, however, did not see the point of a moratorium since the public would be able to weigh in during the permitting process. The dispensing of medical marijuana is also heavily regulated by the state, including where such facilities can open, so it was unclear, members said, why the city needed to review the issue.

The City Council had shown little interest at its meeting last week in enacting a moratorium, but sent the matter to the Community Development Committee. The mayor had originally requested a referral to General Government but that committee has had trouble in making a quorum.

Alcombright said a moratorium would allow the council and Planning Board time to review the issues and deal with any questions that might be raised.

"This would give city government and the Planning Board time to ask questions, look at siting and determine the best thing," he said. "All I'm really asking for here is for the City Council and the Planning Board to jointly look at this."

The mayor had submitted a letter last week from Planning Board Chairman Michael Leary asking for the six-month moratorium, at the mayor's request, for the "opportunity to study potential impacts of such a facility" on adjacent use and the public's safety, health and welfare, among other issues.

"I am not opposed to a medical marijuana dispensary in any way, but I always feel a discussion is a worthy thing on such a complex issue," Leary said later Thursday night. He did not attend the meeting.

Councilor Lisa Blackmer, who attended the meeting, said a moratorium now was like locking the barn door after the horse was already out.

"I understand all the planning and zoning issues but we've known about this since November 2012," she said, questioning why a moratorium hadn't been asked for then, as some towns had done while they clarified issues. Most of the questions about dispensaries have already been raised and answered elsewhere, Blackmer said.

There was concern that a moratorium would affect the application to the state of Total Health and Wellness Inc., which is currently in Phase 2 of the state application process. The company is also applying for a dispensary in Pittsfield and received the support of that city's Community Development Board on Tuesday night. Another company is also applying for Pittsfield and two others for South County sites.

There are 100 applicants for 35 licenses across the state; the state Department of Public Health is expected name those meeting the Phase 2 application qualifications at the end of January. Any applicant must have the support — or at least the non-opposition — of the community.

Sullivan-Bol also argued that moratorium would not be considered if a pharmacy was seeking an application, even though pharmacies also dispense prescription medication that can be addictive or abused.

Planning Board member Wayne Wilkinson, who was elected to the City Council in November, said the city already had "the tools in the toolbox now" to set conditions on any facility.

"The Planning Board can put whatever restrictions on the business and it can be controlled by the laws we have now," he said, adding that zoning would have to be changed to restrict use. "Unless you want to change the zoning ordinances, there's absolutely no reason to change anything. ... The site plan review is there to regulate present legal use."

He objected to Leary's letter, calling it "very misleading" because the Planning Board had never discussed the issue. "If Mr. Leary wants to say that he wants a moratorium, that's fine, but this is not from the Planning Board," he said.

Leary said on Thursday night that "the intent of the letter was to initiate discussion by the council, which is the legislative body that can decide whether a moratorium is needed, and I only felt my letter was a way to open that discussion. If it was viewed otherwise, that's unfortunate."

The mayor had approached him after the board's December meeting and Leary said he had planned to place it on the agenda for the January meeting so it could be discussed openly and testimony taken without a having an applicant. He objected to claims made by Wilkinson at the meeting that other members were "all outraged" at the letter and did not understand why Wilkinson had not contacted him.

"He is welcome to his opinion, but he is not welcome to make claims about how other board members feel on any issue when it is clear from my own discussions tonight that no other members of the board were concerned about this," he said.

Alcombright said he would send a packet on the state's regulations on medical marijuana to the Planning Board.

"I see some issues coming down the road ... only because of the nature of the beast, only because it's an illegal substance that's legal for certain reasons," said Alcombright. "I think folks need time to ask questions."

New Eagle Street Shop Has the Perfect Toppers

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
11:14AM / Saturday, August 01, 2026

Tip Top Hats sells Patricia Welch's handmade designs and more commercial products at lower prices. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has a millinery for the first time in more than 40 years. 

Patricia Welch, who has more than 60 years of hatmaking experience, recently opened Tip Top Hats at 16 Eagle St.

Welch said she has always been fascinated by hats and has seen many fashion trends. She's particularly interested in the mod movement.

"It's just something that I have a facility for and have been doing for so long, it's kind of second nature," she said. "It's over 60 years since I’ve been making hats, not all the time, but on and off for a long, long time. So I had a lot of life experience to draw from. I've seen many, many fashions come and go. Being a child of the '60s, I was heavily influenced by the mod movement, fashion movement, and it has stuck with me all these years."

Welch previously owned a shop in Gloucester before moving to New York in the late 1990s. Her work has been featured in juried shows and she's done design consulting.

While she worked in engineering and exhibiting designs, she always made her hats. It all started when she was 13 years old and had to solve a problem.

"I used to go riding on motorcycles with no hat on, no helmet, and your hair would get terribly knotted up," Welch said. "So the first time I made a hat, it was kind of a little bonnet of cotton that just tied under my chin, and it was just to keep my hair from getting tied in knots by the wind."

She came across the "for rent" sign on storefront in May and made a decision she would like to occupy it. She opened on July 1 during First Friday.  She said it was a great way for her to get out of retirement.

"Kind of impulsive, but you know I'm not young, and tired of being retired, basically," Welch said. "So this is a wonderful, fun experience, and I think it'll bring more to Eagle Street."

Millinery shops were a mainstay of women's and men's fashion well into the 1960s. At one time, North Adams had three or four independent millinery shops plus departments in some of its stores, like Roberts Co. and the Boston Store.

They began closing down in the 1960s because of owners' retirements or deaths, dislocation because of urban renewal, and changing fashions. The last ones were the Style Shoppe and Hollywood Millinery (then Hollywood Fashions) in the early 1980s. 

Welch has hats made from straw, fake fur, wool, leather, and more. Her designs can take hours to complete.

"I start by having an idea in mind for the style that I want to work on, and then I'll pull from my textiles and make a selection that would all work nicely together, so that I can I can make a particular style using various textiles from the same group, so it becomes a collection rather than just a random bunch of hats," she said.

She wants to have something for everyone, and since her one-of-a-kind hats can be pricey, she has  commercially hats that are moderately priced.

"Typically in finishing a hat, there's handwork, which is why they become more expensive. Because some hats I spend well, literally hours on," she said.