State Officials Scrambling to Keep Emergency Services Open

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — State and local officials are scrambling to find a solution to the financial woes of Northern Berkshire Healthcare.

"My understanding is that Gov. Patrick basically told his secretaries two words: 'Fix it,'" Mayor Richard Alcombright told a meeting of local clergy on Wednesday. "Hopefully things will be able to be restored to some level."

On Beacon Hill, Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, and Rep. Gailanne Cariddi have been brainstorming options with legislative leaders as Friday's deadline approaches for the closure of North Adams Regional Hospital.

More than 500 people are expected to lose their jobs after years-long talks with Berkshire Health Systems to take over the operation faltered earlier this week. There is concern that once the doors close it will be difficult to reopen them because the facility's accreditations would lapse.

A community event is being held Wednesday night from 5 to 7 at the American Legion Hall to discuss possibilities.

Earlier in the day, Cariddi had reportedly hoped to push through an emergency bill for $3 million but by the afternoon could only say that things were fluid and she remained hopeful.

"The way I see it is there is some light at the end of the tunnel," the North Adams Democrat said. "But it's a bumpy tunnel."

Cariddi has been working with the speaker's office and said the atmosphere on the Hill has been supportive.

"Senator Downing has been right there with ideas and making sure we're talking to the right people," she said.

Downing has been working with the Public Health Secretary John Polanowicz among others and was expected to meet with Polanowicz later in the afternoon.

Mohican People Honored with Display in South Williamstown

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
08:23AM / Sunday, June 21, 2026

The idea for the installation was inspired by a sculpture installation at Field Farm.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A granite installation in Bloedel Park next to the town's new traffic rotary honors the area's first residents and caps an effort that began five years ago.

 

The large granite wall across from the Store at Five Corners is adorned with emblems inspired by the symbols that decorate baskets of the Mohican people. It provides a testament to the presence of the ancestors of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, who, thousands of years ago, lived in the land now known as Berkshire County.

 

The black and red images of a leaf and bear claw are accompanied by an interpretive panel telling part of the story of the native people who fought with the Americans in their Revolutionary War and later were forcibly removed from the area in the late 18th century. 

 

Today, the Mohican people persist with nearly 1,600 enrolled members on or near a reservation in Wisconsin.

 

But the Stockbridge-Munsee Community has never lost its connection to its ancestral home, and, in the last decade, more of the area's contemporary residents have worked to recognize that link.

 

Bette Craig thought the then-planned roundabout would offer an opportunity to highlight that historic link.

 

"It all started in 2021 when MassDOT was having a Zoom meeting to tell the local community about it and get feedback and so forth," Craig said on Thursday. "At the time, I was the president of the South Williamstown Community Association. I was saying things about [the proposed project], and one of the community people listening was Polly Macpherson, who I knew from the League of Women Voters.