State Legislature Passes FY15 Budget; Includes 750K for North Adams

• $15 Million for the Massachusetts Emergency Food Program.
• $12 Million for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, $7.5 Million for the Regional Tourism Councils and $350,000 to support the operation of 11 Visitor Information Centers statewide between the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays.
• $400,000 for the Bridges to College grant program, which funds adult college transition courses that provide short-term, intensive training courses that ensure students have the minimum requirements necessary for college-level services.
• $300,000 for Buy Local programs in western, northwestern and central Massachusetts, such as Berkshire Grown and CISA.
• $250,000 for the Mass In Motion programming.
• $150,000 to support local emergency housing shelter services.
• $100,000 for the Franklin County Opiate Education & Awareness Task Force.
• $25,000 for a one-time grant to the Town of Huntington for the purchase of snow removal equipment, to ensure student/pedestrian safety on the rural roads near school zones.
• Language granting Berkshire Medical Center access to the Community Hospital Acceleration, Revitalization, and Transformation Investment Program. CHART provides funds to hospitals around the state to help to enhance the delivery of efficient, effective care.
• Language authorizing the Franklin County Regional Retirement System to transfer into the state retirement system.

North Adams to Begin Study of Veterans Memorial Bridge Alternatives

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:21AM / Monday, April 15, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey says the requests for qualifications for the planning grant should be available this month. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Connecting the city's massive museum and its struggling downtown has been a challenge for 25 years. 

 

A major impediment, all agree, is the decades old Central Artery project that sent a four-lane highway through the heart of the city. 

 

Backed by a $750,000 federal grant for a planning study, North Adams and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art are looking to undo some of that damage.

 

"As you know, the overpass was built in 1959 during a time when highways were being built, and it was expanded to accommodate more cars, which had little regard to the impacts of the people and the neighborhoods that it surrounded," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey on Friday. "It was named again and again over the last 30 years by Mass MoCA in their master plan and in the city in their vision 2030 plan ... as a barrier to connectivity."

 

The Reconnecting Communities grant was awarded a year ago and Macksey said a request for qualifications for will be available April 24.

 

She was joined in celebrating the grant at the Berkshire Innovation Center's office at Mass MoCA by museum Director Kristy Edmunds, state Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, District 1 Director Francesca Hemming and Joi Singh, Massachusetts administrator for the Federal Highway Administration.

 

The speakers also thanked the efforts of the state's U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, U.S. Rep. Richie Neal, Gov. Maura Healey and state Sen Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III, both of whom were in attendance.