North Adams Eyes Sustainability Committee Creation

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The mayor wants a panel that can advise her on sustainability issues — but she's leaving it up to the City Council to figure the best way to do it. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey on Tuesday presented a list of objectives and how she thought a Sustainability Committee could support the administration. 

 

These would include shaping policies and plans, making recommendations to the administration, reviewing projects through a sustainability lens, set goals and benchmarks (such as water conservation and greenhouse gases), track progress and create reports, hold public meetings and workshops, educate the public and take input, and coordinate efforts across departments.  

 

"We already have a group doing some of this work. But do we make them official, or do we fold some of their work into one of our City Council committee?" asked the mayor. "I will leave that up to the council to decide. My biggest concern about forming another committee is, we're having a hard time filling the committees that we do have."

 

She asked that should the council decide to establish a committee, it keep the membership to no more than five because of the difficulty in filling volunteer board seats. She also cautioned that the administration doesn't have the capacity for a sustainability officer, though that could change in the future. 

 

The grassroots group is the North Adams Sustainability Task Force, an offshoot of Green North Adams. 

 

Jennifer Dunning, a member of the task force, spoke at hearing of visitors to evince support for a formal committee.