image description — Mark Blaisdell has been hired as the town of Adams' new code enforcement officer. He was previously in Pittsfield.

Adams Welcomes New Code Enforcement Officer

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
01:35AM / Thursday, November 07, 2019Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Health has welcomed newly hired Code Enforcement Officer Mark Blaisdell. He is the town's third code enforcement officer in as many years.

"We would like to welcome Mark as our new code enforcement officer and we appreciate you helping us out," Chairman Peter Hoyt said Wednesday. "We appreciate your willingness to help us out and educate us a little bit."

Former Code Enforcement Officer Thomas Romaniak announced his retirement in August.

Romaniak replaced Scott Koczela, who left the position in 2016 after the town briefly eliminated the position in 2015.

Town Administrator Jay Green attended the meeting said Blaisdell worked for the Pittsfield Health Department prior to coming to Adams.

Green, who once served as the chairman of the Pittsfield Board of Health, said he has worked with Blaisdell in the past.

"I was always impressed by his research and organizational skills and ability to work with the general public on what is not always a pleasant topic," Green said. "He brings eight years of experience with the Pittsfield Health Department."

He added that Blaisdell also served in the Air Force and as a North Adams police officer.

Green said Blaisdell plans to take more proactive action with blight in the community and will be a resource for the board.

"The town of Adams is lucky to have him and I think he will be able to serve quite well as a resource to the board of health," the town administrator said.

In other business, the board agreed to a meeting with real estate developer Stephen Stenson to discuss the proposed Adams Food Innovation Project at the Mausert Block.

"Given the public health implications, I think for us to know what he has going on there would be important," board member David Rhoads said. "Maybe there is a place we could plug in or help him promote."

The project includes a co-working industrial kitchen and a space for community food programs and pop-up restaurants.

The building project itself includes apartments on the upper levels and has gone through multiple iterations. Much of the work has been delayed with just the apartments nearing completion after six years.

Rhoads said he was under the impression that the kitchen would be completed in the spring, however, Green said he was not even sure if Stenson received the grant needed to install this kitchen.

The original plan was to meet with Stenson in January but board member Peter Hoyt thought it may be prudent to schedule a meeting only after they know the project's status.

"Maybe we should wait until we know what the plan is," Hoyt said. "If he does not have the grant funds, I don't think there is really a point to meet and report on anything. Maybe we can revisit this next meeting."

Editor's note: the wrong person named in this article has been corrected.

Tags: board of health, code enforcement,

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Letter: Progress Means Moving on Paper Mill Cleanup

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Wednesday, February 11, 2026

To the Editor:

Our town is facing a clear choice: move a long-abandoned industrial site toward cleanup and productive use or allow it to remain a deteriorating symbol of inaction.

The Community Development team has applied for a $4 million EPA grant to remediate the former Curtis Mill property, a site that has sat idle for more than two decades. The purpose of this funding is straightforward: address environmental concerns and prepare the property for safe commercial redevelopment that can contribute to our tax base and economic vitality.

Yet opposition has emerged based on arguments that miss the point of what this project is designed to do. We are hearing that basement vats should be preserved, that demolition might create dust, and that the plan is somehow "unimaginative" because it prioritizes cleanup and feasibility over wishful reuse of a contaminated, aging structure.

These objections ignore both the environmental realities of the site and the strict federal requirements tied to this grant funding. Given the condition of most of the site's existing buildings, our engineering firm determined it was not cost-effective to renovate. Without cleanup, no private interest will risk investment in this site now or in the future.

This is not a blank check renovation project. It is an environmental remediation effort governed by safety standards, engineering assessments, and financial constraints. Adding speculative preservation ideas or delaying action risks derailing the very funding that makes cleanup possible in the first place. Without this grant, the likely outcome is not a charming restoration, it is continued vacancy, ongoing deterioration, and zero economic benefit.

For more than 20 years, the property has remained unused. Now, when real funding is within reach to finally address the problem, we should be rallying behind a practical path forward not creating obstacles based on narrow or unrealistic preferences.

I encourage residents to review the proposal materials and understand what is truly at stake. The Adams Board of Selectmen and Community Development staff have done the hard work to put our town in position for this opportunity. That effort deserves support.

Progress sometimes requires letting go of what a building used to be so that the community can gain what it needs to become.

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