Letter: Blackmer Will Be Dedicated, Passionate Public Servant

To the Editor:

My wife, Lisa Blackmer, is the most loving, hard-working, passionate person I know and she should be the
next representative for Northern Berkshire.

When we were married 30 years ago, our family included my children from a previous marriage. Lisa loved them and raised them as her own. I watched her take care of them when they were sick, shuttle them to football games, band and numerous other activities, and teach them all that she knows. She never once complained when I had to work long shifts or spent 15 months guarding the governor.

Working as a state trooper covering the whole region, I worked hard to keep the people of Northern Berkshire safe and meet their needs through some very demanding times. I've watched Lisa work just as hard and care just as much about the Northern Berkshires. I've never seen someone with more dedication and love for this region and our community.

She has worked hard and effectively on the City Council and in Boston advocating for our region. She has balanced work and family, always in the service of others. I have no doubt that as a state representative she will work just as hard, listen just as carefully, and love just as fully as she has as a mother, grandmother, wife, and public servant.

I will be proud to cast my vote for my wife, Lisa Blackmer, for state representative on Tuesday. I hope you will join me.

Bill Blackmer
North Adams, Mass.

Blackmer is the retired commander of the State Police's Cheshire Barracks and the husband of candidate Lisa Blackmer

North Adams to Begin Study of Veterans Memorial Bridge Alternatives

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:21AM / Monday, April 15, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey says the requests for qualifications for the planning grant should be available this month. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Connecting the city's massive museum and its struggling downtown has been a challenge for 25 years. 

 

A major impediment, all agree, is the decades old Central Artery project that sent a four-lane highway through the heart of the city. 

 

Backed by a $750,000 federal grant for a planning study, North Adams and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art are looking to undo some of that damage.

 

"As you know, the overpass was built in 1959 during a time when highways were being built, and it was expanded to accommodate more cars, which had little regard to the impacts of the people and the neighborhoods that it surrounded," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey on Friday. "It was named again and again over the last 30 years by Mass MoCA in their master plan and in the city in their vision 2030 plan ... as a barrier to connectivity."

 

The Reconnecting Communities grant was awarded a year ago and Macksey said a request for qualifications for will be available April 24.

 

She was joined in celebrating the grant at the Berkshire Innovation Center's office at Mass MoCA by museum Director Kristy Edmunds, state Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, District 1 Director Francesca Hemming and Joi Singh, Massachusetts administrator for the Federal Highway Administration.

 

The speakers also thanked the efforts of the state's U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, U.S. Rep. Richie Neal, Gov. Maura Healey and state Sen Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III, both of whom were in attendance.