NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Four Berkshire County emergency medical services providers are being recognized Tuesday as Massachusetts Stars of Life by the Massachusetts Ambulance Association.
The MAA will hosts its second annual Convoy of Champions ambulance parade from Worcester's University of Massachusetts Medical Science Park to the the Boston MedFlight hangar in Bedford for a Stars of Life Medallion and Pin Ceremony at 1:10 on Tuesday afternoon.
Twenty-two professionals are being honored statewide. Among them are Chris Bargmann and George Beckwith of Northern Berkshire EMS and Erica Bulshey and Shannon Regan of County Ambulance.
Bargmann, a paramedic, joined North Adams-based Northern Berkshire EMS last year after a four-year career in the field in Massachusetts. His service has included time with Action Ambulance, the Hadley Fire Department and the Northampton Fire Department.
Beckwith has been with Northern Berkshire EMS, formerly North Adams Ambulance, since 1989 as an emergency medical technician. "The war stories George has accumulated over the years are unmatched," according to a testimonial on the MAA's Facebook page. "You can always find him in the bay sharing a tale from back in the day when paramedics didn't exist and you had to improvise with what you had on the rig."
Bulshey came to Pittsfield's County Ambulance as an EMT in 2008 after serving as volunteer first-responder with the Florida Fire Department since 2001. In 2011, she earned certification as an advanced EMT. "She was one of the original members of the County Ambulance COVID response team," her testimonial reads. "Erica has taken a lead role on the team helping coordinate the many testing operations and most recently assisting with our vaccination site efforts."
Regan, a paramedic and field training officer at County Ambulance, began her career with the service in 2009 as a basic EMT. "Shannon is tenacious in her review and knowledge of the statewide treatment protocols and company policies," according to her testimonial. "She is known for clinical excellence and ability to keep teamwork at the forefront when dealing with complicated calls."
The Massachusetts Ambulance Association includes more than 30 ambulance service providers with 6,000 employees.
Tuesday's parade and ceremony are being held in conjunction with the 46th annual National EMS Week.
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North Adams Hopes to Transform Y Into Community Recreation Center
By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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 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. ...
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.
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