Letter: Thanks for a Successful North Adams Library Book Sale

To the Editor:

On Sept. 16 and 17, Friends of the North Adams Public Library held our annual book and bake sale. This sale not only raised money to improve the library and provide programming for children and adults, but was a great community event for the citizens of North Adams and our neighboring communities.

At this time, we would like to thank the City of North Adams, especially Mike Cirullo and his crew, as well as the Trial Court Community Service program supervised by Shawn Wright for their commitment to transport boxes of books to St. Elizabeth's Center.

Dedicated workers and volunteers cleaned, sorted, packed, moved, set up and dismantled the sale. A special thanks to
those who donated books, shopped and helped at the sale.

Although it is a tremendous yearlong job to coordinate and put this event together, the results speak for themselves. Books of every genre found new homes and our library patrons continue to enjoy ongoing benefits from robust sales.

We look forward to seeing all of you next year and hope you consider donating books starting in the spring of 2023.

Many thanks,

Friends of the North Adams Public Library

Submitted by Stephen Smachetti
Stamford, Vt.

Clarksburg Looking to AG's Receivership Program to Help With Distressed Properties

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:34AM / Tuesday, July 21, 2026

 

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town is looking to move two properties into receivership to get them cleaned up and back on the tax rolls. 

 

Health Agent Valerie Bird has raised the idea last month when a Daniels Road property was ordered vacated for multiple code violations. Bird and the Select Board didn't believe the owner had the capacity to address the myriad issues. 

 

Bird recommended the Attorney General's receivership program, which takes blighted property and, through the court system, gets it into the hands of a developer who can rejuvenate it. 

 

Maja Kazmierczak, assistant attorney general with the Neighborhood Renewal Division, offered a virtual presentation to the board on Monday, explaining the program and how it might be able to help Clarksburg. 

 

"We've partnered with over 170 municipalities, and we definitely have over probably about 215 active properties that we're working on," she said. "We've had just about $715,000 in back taxes returned to municipalities through our program."

 

The program has been around for 30 years in various forms, with the goal to turn abandoned and blighted properties that have code violations into safe housing. 

 

The state's receivership statute allows the court to appoint a receiver to a property if there are code violations and there is no one to repair them.