Ecu-Health Care Ready to Aid NARH Employees

Ecu-Health Care will have to move from the closing Doctor's Building, but it will be open this weekend to help laid-off workers from the hospital.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Ecu-Health Care is making the needs of those affected by the impending closure of North Adams Regional Hospital a top priority.

The non-profit program offers access and information for people seeking health coverage — a situation hundreds of employees of Northern Berkshire Healthcare will now need.

"Our immediate concern is that laid-off employees of North Adams Regional Hospital, of getting them in as soon as possible," said Executive Director Charles Joffe-Halpern on Wednesday. "Toward that end, the staff of Ecu-Health Care came up with the idea to remain open all day Saturday and all day Sunday."

All employees of Northern Berkshire Healthcare were emailed encouraging them to make appointments.

Many if not most of the more than 500 employees of the health-care system will lose their health insurance. Some may be able to be carried on their spouse's insurance but for other individuals, or for husbands and wives losing their insurance together, finding coverage will be critical.

Joffe-Halpern estimates that 300 to 400 people may have to purchase health insurance, and Ecu-Health Care will do what it can to guide them through the process.

"We've also had offers from other organization to come and help us," he said. "The response of the state and other organizations to support is greatly appreciated.

"So what we're doing is taking a look at the response the next two days ...  We'll probably take up some offers to help, depending on the need."

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.