Letter: Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

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To the Editor:

The Board of Directors of the Al Nelson Friendship Center Food Pantry in North Adams wishes to thank the North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida Mountain community for their generation donations to the May 11 Letter Carrier Food Drive.

We received a total of 3,595 pounds of food and personal care items.

We equally want to thank our Letter Carriers who work out of the North Adams Post Office. They again went above and beyond in collecting the donations and bringing them to the collection and sorting site. They are always a pleasure to work with.

We also want to thank the Northern Berkshire United Way, the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, and the Berkshire United Way for their support, as well all of the volunteers who helped on the day of the Food Drive.

Lois Daunis
North Adams, Mass. 

Daunis is the board president of the Friendship Center.

 

 

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North Adams Finance Recommends Public Safety, Administration Draft Budgets

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Finance Committee in the last two weeks reviewed Public Safety, auditor, Zoning Board of Appeals, City Council, election and registration, Office of Community Development, city solicitor, License Commission, information technology, Planning Board, and vital statistics.
 
The committee consists of Chair Lisa Blackmer and Councilors Andrew Fitch and Lillian Zavatsky. 
 
The City Council budget includes a 3 percent cost of living increase, in line with the across the board COLA for all departments.
 
Mayor Jennifer Macksey said she included a codification administration line of $6,000 to cover the extra meeting the city clerk is doing as the council reviews the city's codes.
 
The elections budget is up about $10,500, largely for worker salaries to accommodate two state elections this year, the primary and the general. City Clerk Tina Leonesio said the extra poll workers are needed because state elections tend to draw a higher number of voters. The cost of the ballots, however, are covered by the state.
 
Leonesio explained how her office was able to save money on the city census and mailings by printing and folding the documents in house, as well as purchasing the supplies and training to maintain the vital statistics rather than sending them out.  
 
"The cost is in the supplies, because we have to put so many things in the census now, it would be a very large expense to have it done by a vendor outside," she said, estimating it would cost three times as much "because we have to pay for every piece of paper they have to print and fold, plus the mailing."
 
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