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North Adams Holds Preliminary Mayoral Election Tuesday

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Voters will decide Tuesday which of the four candidates for mayor will move on to the general election. 
 
Voting will take place for all five wards at St. Elizabeth's Parish Center from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The mayoral preliminary is the only question on the ballot. 
 
This election is historic for North Adams in that all four candidates are women, the first time this has happened in the city's 126-year history. It assures that the first woman mayor of North Adams will be elected on Nov. 2.
 
The four candidates are Lynette Bond, a member of the Planning Board and director of development for grants and research at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; Rachel Branch, a local activist and former member of the McCann School Committee; Aprilyn Carsno, who describes herself as an independent who has largely run on infrastructure; and Jennifer Macksey, assistant superintendent of operations and finance for the Northern Berkshire School Union and former finance director for the city.
 
Three of the candidates — Bond, Carsno and Macksey — are running for office for the first time while Branch is on her third try for the corner office. 
 
The preliminary election will narrow the field to the two highest vote-getters.
 
Mayor Thomas Bernard announced earlier this year that he would not run for a third term. This will only be the second time since 1983 that no incumbent is running for re-election. 
 
This is the first preliminary since 2017, when five candidates vied for the corner office being left vacant by incumbent Richard Alcombright. In 2015, there were three candidates but only incumbent Thomas Bernard and Branch vied in the 2019 election.

Tags: election 2021,   municipal election,   


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Macksey Updates on Eagle Street Demo and Myriad City Projects

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

The back of Moderne Studio in late January. The mayor said the city had begun planning for its removal if the owner could not address the problems. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Moderne Studio building is coming down brick by brick on Eagle Street on the city's dime. 
 
Concerns over the failing structure's proximity to its neighbor — just a few feet — means the demolition underway is taking far longer than usual. It's also been delayed somewhat because of recent high winds and weather. 
 
The city had been making plans for the demolition a month ago because of the deterioration of the building, Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the City Council on Tuesday. The project was accelerated after the back of the 150-year-old structure collapsed on March 5
 
Initial estimates for demolition had been $190,000 to $210,000 and included asbestos removal. Those concerns have since been set aside after testing and the mayor believes that the demolition will be lower because it is not a hazardous site.
 
"We also had a lot of contractors who came to look at it for us to not want to touch it because of the proximity to the next building," she said. "Unfortunately time ran out on that property and we did have the building failure. 
 
"And it's an unfortunate situation. I think most of us who have lived here our whole lives and had our pictures taken there and remember being in the window so, you know, we were really hoping the building could be safe."
 
Macksey said the city had tried working with the owner, who could not find a contractor to demolish the building, "so we found one for him."
 
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