Letter: Support Lynette Bond for the Future of North Adams

To the Editor:

I moved to North Adams in 2014. I fell in love with its community spirit, its welcoming attitude, and its impressive collection of cultural venues, from Mass MoCA to small local music shows. I have stayed for those reasons and many more — I owe a lot to North Adams and the Berkshires. I have a beautiful community of friends and colleagues here. My daughter, born in May, will get to grow up surrounded by and supported by that beautiful community. She'll go to North Adams schools, run around with her friends at North Adams summer camps, learn about art and science and history at North Adams and Berkshire cultural outposts.

In 2014, the city looked a little different — Colegrove's renovation was underway, the downtown was a little quieter. As a professional adult in my late 20s, I got to enjoy the opening of Bright Ideas, the Mohawk bar renovation, eating at new restaurants like Grazie and A-OK. In my early 30s, I had the opportunity to watch projects like Greylock Works and the UNO Center and the skate park develop, then fill with people excited to have new things to do and new community spaces to enjoy. What an exciting time for our community, no matter who we are or where we come from!

Francesca Olsen
North Adams, Mass. 

North Adams Updated on Schools, Council President Honored With 'Distinction'

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
12:31PM / Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Superintendent Timothy Callahan gives a presentation on the school system at Tuesday's City Council meeting. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council got an update on what's up in the school system and its president was inducted into the mayor's Women's Leadership Hall of Fame.

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, as the city's first woman mayor, established the Hall of Fame in 2022, during March, Women's History Month, to recognize local women who have had a positive impact on the city. Past inductees have included the council's first woman president Fran Buckley, Gov. Jane Swift and boxing pioneer Gail Grandchamp. 

 

She described President Ashley Shade as a colleague and a friend and a former student. 

 

"Ashley is known not just for her leadership, but for her compassion, her ability to listen, to understand and to stand up for those whose voices are often gone unheard," the mayor said. "She has been a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ plus community and marginalized communities at both the local and national level here in North Adams."

 

Elected in 2021, Shade is the first openly transgender person to hold the role of council president in Massachusetts. She also leads the first-ever woman majority council in the city's history. 

 

The McCann Technical School graduate also has served on boards and commissions, "always working to make our city more inclusive, equitable and welcoming," said the mayor. "Ashley not leads not only with strength, but with a heart, and our community is a much stronger place because of it."

 

Shade, wearing her signature pink suit, was presented with a plaque from the mayor designating her a "woman of distinction."