State Pothole Funds Helpful But Not Enough

Fixing potholes on Eagle Street in North Adams earlier this month.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Local officials are grateful for the state's release of some $30 million toward municipal road repairs — but it's not enough to fill all the potholes caused by this winter.

"The $66,000 won't really put a dent in it," Timothy Lescarbeau, North Adams superintendent of public services, said of the city's share of the extra Chapter 90 funding.

Cities and towns that have applied for the funding Pothole and Winter Recovery Program are receiving an amount determined by the Chapter 90 road funding calculations based on populations and miles of roadways.

The state Department of Transportation is distributing $40 million; $30 million is for towns and cities and the remaining $10 million is for repaving and maintenance of state roads.

Lescarbeau estimated that North Adams has incurred nearly $100,000 worth of road damage over this past winter.

The problematic areas include Union Street, Veterans Drive, Portland Street, Walker Street and Franklin Street.

"We are looking at completely repaving those areas because there are just too many potholes to fix," he said.

Adams interim Department of Public Works Superintendent David Nuvallie estimated that the town has more $70,000 worth of repairs to make this summer to the roads.

He said the state will provide Adams with $43,677 in aid.

"We are working on it now, but I don't know how much the money will help," Nuvallie said. "I have the two foreman working on it now."

Nuvallie said the most problematic areas in Adams are East Road and parts of Route 8, but he expected to have a more complete report soon.

North Adams Hopes to Transform Y Into Community Recreation Center

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Thursday, May 02, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey updates members of the former YMCA on the status of the roof project and plans for reopening. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has plans to keep the former YMCA as a community center.

 

"The city of North Adams is very committed to having a recreation center not only for our youth but our young at heart," Mayor Jennifer Macksey said to the applause of some 50 or more YMCA members on Wednesday. "So we are really working hard and making sure we can have all those touch points."

 

The fate of the facility attached to Brayton School has been in limbo since the closure of the pool last year because of structural issues and the departure of the Berkshire Family YMCA in March.

 

The mayor said the city will run some programming over the summer until an operator can be found to take over the facility. It will also need a new name. 

 

"The YMCA, as you know, has departed from our facilities and will not return to our facility in the form that we had," she said to the crowd in Council Chambers. "And that's been mostly a decision on their part. The city of North Adams wanted to really keep our relationship with the Y, certainly, but they wanted to be a Y without borders, and we're going a different direction."

 

The pool was closed in March 2023 after the roof failed a structural inspection. Kyle Lamb, owner of Geary Builders, the contractor on the roof project, said the condition of the laminated beams was far worse than expected. 

 

"When we first went into the Y to do an inspection, we certainly found a lot more than we anticipated. The beams were actually rotted themselves on the bottom where they have to sit on the walls structurally," he said. "The beams actually, from the weight of snow and other things, actually crushed themselves eight to 11 inches. They were actually falling apart. ...