ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Health is concerned with its lack of involvement in the town's emergency planning.
After bulldozing through current violations Wednesday and closing most of them, board member David Rhoads asked the board if it would be beneficial to hold a meeting with Richard Kleiner, the town's emergency management director.
"I think it would be worth it to meet with him because we do have responsibilities during emergencies," Rhoads said.
The rest of the board agreed and member Bruce Shepley said the board in the past has had little contact with emergency management.
"I think there is a need to have the door open and have some very frank discussions about emergency management in Adams and what our role is," he said. "This is going on my third year on the board and it has been nonexistent."
He said the Board of Health ran into issues with emergency planning last winter with the Memorial Building that the town wanted to use as an emergency shelter. The Board of Health was never brought into the conversation.
"They want to open up the shelter and we had zero contact with emergency management," he said. "I was not putting myself in a situation where there has been no orientation and I am not sure of the coincident of the emergency shelter."
Code Enforcement Officer Tom Romaniak said the building is full of mold and cannot house people.
Shepley added that he wished local emergency management was more involved with the Northern Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee.
"It is a well-structured committee and has been nationally recognized for its work over the past few years," he said. "I am not sure why the town doesn't have more representation at their monthly meetings."
In other business, the board discussed allowing the disposal of medical syringes and sharps at the new transfer station. Currently, residents are asked to take their sharps to the Tapestry Health office on West Main Street in North Adams but the board was concerned about having a local option just in case Tapestry ever closed.
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Adams Community Bank Holds Annual Meeting, Announce Growth
ADAMS, Mass. — The annual meeting of the Community Bancorp of the Berkshires, MHC, the parent company of Adams Community Bank, was held on April 10, 2024, at Charles H. McCann Technical School in North Adams.
The meeting included reviewing the 2023 financial statements for the Bank, electing directors and corporators, and highlighting upcoming executive personnel changes.
"In 2023, the Bank experienced another year of growth in assets, loans, and deposits, noting the Pittsfield branch reached $26 million in customer deposits from its opening in December of 2022," President and CEO of Adams Community Bank Charles O'Brien said. "Those deposits were loaned out locally during 2023 and helped drive our #1 ranking in both mortgage and commercial real estate lending, according to Banker and Tradesman."
At year-end 2023, total assets were $995 million, and O'Brien noted the Bank crossed the $1 billion threshold during the first quarter of 2024.
Board chair Jeffrey Grandchamp noted with O'Brien's upcoming retirement, this will be the final annual meeting of the CEO's tenure since he joined the Bank in 1997. He thanked him for his 27 years of dedication to the Bank. He acknowledged the evolution of the Bank as it became the premier community bank in the Berkshires, noting that branches grew from 3 to 10, that employees grew from 40 to 135, and that assets grew from $127 million to $1 billion.
An executive search is underway for O'Brien's replacement.
The Adams Beautification group, which has been quietly sprucing up the town since 2022, hopes to bring in more members of the community during a community cleanup day scheduled for Saturday, April 27. click for more
Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School history teacher Alla Chelukhova has been selected as the April Teacher of the Month. click for more
Desroches graduated from the Police Academy on March 22 in the top tier in his class. He's currently in the field training program and assigned to Sgt. Curtis Crane.
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Michael Wynn, who was selected in January to run the center, submitted a level operating budget of $57,500 but said he could pull funding from different lines to ensure there was money for advertising this fall.
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