Cesan Appointed as Interim Adams Town Administrator

The town is taking the owner of 50 Commercial St. to housing court for not complying with an order to demolish the building.

ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen have appointed Director of Community Development Donna Cesan as the interim town administrator.

After officially accepting Tony Mazzucco's letter of resignation Wednesday, the board unanimously voted to again have Cesan fill in until a new administrator can be hired.

"She has done this in the past for us and we have been very grateful as a board and as a town that she has done this when she already has a full-time job," Chairman John Duval said. "We thank her for stepping up and helping us out through this transition."

This is not Cesan's first run as interim town administrator; she served for about six months during the search that found Mazzucco after former Town Administrator Jonathan Butler left in 2014.

Cesan said she always enjoys stepping into the role.

"I always enjoy working directly with the board so I look forward to these next several months," she said. 

Mazzucco, who was hired in 2014 after a lengthy search process, announced last month that he would be leaving at the end of his three-year contract with the town after being hired as general manager of Norwood, closer to his hometown in eastern Massachusetts. Mazzucco officially left the job Dec. 4.

The Selectmen have yet to solidify a plan to hire a new town administrator.  

In Cesan's town administrator report, she said the Route 8 design project is at 25 percent design completion and is currently being reviewed by the state Department of Transportation.

"Typically, 90 percent of the effort in getting a project through to the Department of Transportation is to get it to 25 percent design," she said. "We feel really good about that."  

Cesan said the project is estimated to cost $4.46 million and will span 6,800 linear feet from Duke's Sand and Gravel to McDonald's. She said it will include milling and overlay of existing pavement, new sidewalks, bike lanes, new signage and improved drainage.

She said the state is expediting the process and has already chosen a project manager. Cesan added that the project is on the state's Transportation Improvement Program for 2020 but is to be accelerated and could be funded and executed a year earlier.

A public hearing is expected to be held in the early spring.

Town Counsel Edmund St. John III reported that Charles Ransford has not followed the town's order to demolish his property at 50 Commercial St.

Because of the of the dire condition of the building, the town ordered Ransford to raze it within 30 days because it was a public safety concern.

St. John said he has failed to do this and he is preparing a housing court complaint to obtain a demolition order and seek permission to demolish the building.

Selectman Joseph Nowak asked how soon the building can come down.

"I'd like to get that down before winter snow," he said. "If we get a heavy snow I am worried that building is going to collapse."

St. John said he wants to get it into court in the next couple of weeks but if the building's condition worsens and is an imminent danger, he can ask for an emergency demolition order.

Because the town is footing the bill for the demolition, a lien will be placed on the property. 

Adams Welcomes New Officer; Appoints Housing Authority Board Member

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:44AM / Friday, April 19, 2024

Officer Cole Desroches recently graduated from the Police Academy. 

ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen welcomed the newest member of the Adams Police Department, Officer Cole Desroches, on Wednesday evening. 

 

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. He attended Hoosac Valley High School and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 

 

"He's going to serve and protect the town of Adams very well," said Crane, who with Sgts. Matthew Wright and Gregory Onorato stepped in to introduce the new officer while Chief R. Scott Kelley was on vacation. 

 

"We don't often get an opportunity to kind of talk about, frankly, some of the positive things that are happening in town and one of the many things that I feel are positive with are the Adams Police Department," said Town Administrator Jay Green. "We are right now at full staff. We have a full complement of officers. We have a chief who just resigned a three-year contract. ... We have four very capable sergeants (including Donna Malloy)."

 

The force consists of the chief, the four sergeants, a full-time detective and 11 patrol officers. It also has a new position in Cpl. Joshua Baker who is responsible for training and keeping staff equipped. 

 

"We're on the cutting edge of ensuring that we have proper training in a very changing environment with law enforcement," continued Green. "And we have a nice complement of officers and we have a well-respected detective who handles some very complicated cases."

 

He called out the half-dozen officers who attended the meeting for the work they're doing as well as the K9 unit.