Letter: North Adams Recovery Rally

To the Editor: 

This Saturday, all are welcome to attend a Rally for Recovery taking place in North Adams at Colegrove Park, from 1-3 p.m. This event, sponsored by the North Adams HEAL Coalition, is held as part of Recovery Month, a national observance held every September to promote and support proven treatment and recovery practices, our strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and communities who make recovery in all its forms possible.

It is a fitting time to celebrate recovery in North Berkshire — we have seen a tremendous expansion of services in our region including residential treatment at Keenan House North, over 50 beds of sober housing and a new day treatment at the Alternative Living Center, expanded access to harm reduction services and naloxone through Berkshire Harm Reduction, increased access to medication, and perhaps most exciting, the announcement that a peer-led recovery center is coming to North Adams this fall!

The Rally for Recovery is a time to lift up and celebrate ALL pathways to recovery, and all community members impacted by addiction who are working to take that next brave step in their recovery journey. There will be resource tables from many local organizations including Learn To Cope (family support), Berkshire AHEC, medication treatment providers Spectrum Health Systems and SaVida Health, Narcotics Anonymous (NA), the Brien Center, Berkshire Harm Reduction, Alternative Living Center, Berkshire Overdose Addiction Prevention Collaborative, the North Adams HEAL Coalition, and the Northern Berkshire Post Overdose Program (Northern Berkshire EMS).

There will be music, games, raffle items, free T-shirts, and a walk to City Hall to make recovery visible. There will also be speakers with lived experience who will talk about recovery in our region.

If you or someone you love is impacted by substance use, if you are wondering how to help those whose lives are impacted by substance use disorder, or just want to better understand the issue of substance use and addiction, I encourage you to come and meet the truly amazing individuals who are building a thriving recovery community in our region. Please join in this gathering and rally to celebrate recovery!

Wendy Penner
Williamstown, Mass. 

Penner is a member of the North Adams HEAL Coalition

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. ...