Officials Vow to 'Rebuild' Health Care in North County

By Rebecca DravisiBerkshires Staff
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State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing addresses the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition on Friday. Downing and other officials are vowing to return medical services to North County.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The closure of Northern Berkshire Healthcare has led many to draw parallels with the departure of Sprague Electric from the city nearly 30 years ago.

North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright sees one very important difference between then and now.

"When manufacturing left, it left. With health care, we will rebuild it," Alcombright said to applause from a capacity crowd in the basement of First Baptist Church in Friday morning.

The mayor joined fellow elected officials state Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, and state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, at the monthly forum of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition.

The topic of this month's meeting was "How Helping Professionals Can Support Community Members During the North County Community Transition" and the goal was to bring together a panel to address issues surrounding the health-care situation in North County.

Alcombright was not the only speaker to sound a hopeful note. Cariddi updated the crowd on services that have put into place to serve the needs of the community and that House leadership is "very engaged" in the process of finding a solution, and she herself is in regular communication with the governor.

"We need our health system back," she said. "We're not going to take no for an answer."

Downing also said he is working tirelessly on this issue.



"This is not a question of if," he said. "This is a when question."

He did, however, caution the forum several times that the process of restoring services in North County is a long process that has only just begun.

"This is not one step and we're done," he said. "We are in the opening stage."

And that's why it's hard to envision what those services will look like, and what will happen to the hospital campus, and economic development steps to be taken in the future, with the elected officials agreeing that once the "dust settles" and the immediate need for emergency services is filled, there will be many conversations about the future.

"We just don't have that picture yet," Cariddi said.

In the meantime, members of the community need to continue to make their voices heard.

"We need the community to continue to rally," Alcombright said, adding that he did not want to see the large crowds meeting Tuesdays at the American Legion to dwindle. "We can't let the momentum die. This is where we have to be hopeful."


Tags: closure,   NARH,   NBH,   state officials,   

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Clarksburg Sees Race for Select Board Seat

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town will see a three-way race for a seat on the Select Board in May. 
 
Colton Andrews, Seth Alexander and Bryana Malloy returned papers by Wednesday's deadline to run for the three-year term vacated by Jeffrey Levanos. 
 
Andrews ran unsuccessfully for School Committee and is former chairman of the North Adams Housing Authority, on which he was a union representative. He is also president of the Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council.
 
Malloy and Alexander are both newcomers to campaigning. Malloy is manager of industrial relations for the Berkshire Workforce Board and Alexander is a resident of Gates Avenue. 
 
Alexander also returned papers for several other offices, including School Committee, moderator, library trustee and the five-year seat on the Planning Board. He took out papers for War Memorial trustee and tree warden but did not return them and withdrew a run for Board of Health. 
 
He will face off in the three-year School Committee seat against incumbent Cynthia Brule, who is running for her third term, and fellow newcomer Bonnie Cunningham for library trustee. 
 
Incumbent Ronald Boucher took out papers for a one-year term as moderator but did not return them. He was appointed by affirmation in 2021 when no won ran and accepted the post again last year as a write-in.
 
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