NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The inauguration of Jennifer Macksey as the 33rd mayor of the city of North Adams and the biennial reorganization of government will be held Saturday, Jan. 1, beginning at 11:30 a.m.

 

The swearing-in will take place in the Drury High School auditorium for the first time and outside of City Hall for the first time since 2000. The millennial inauguration had been held at the Hunter Center at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

 

Drury had been chosen to accommodate the large number of expected attendees but because of the rise in positive cases of COVID-19, will now allow a smaller audience to socially distance.

 

Attendance is being limited to 175 (with preference to guests of the elected members) but the event will be broadcast on Northern Berkshire Community Television Corp. and iBerkshires.com intends to livestream it on the front page.

 

Macksey will be taking the oath of office as the first woman elected to the corner office, 127 years after North Adams was chartered as a city.

 

Also being sworn in will be the City Council for the coming two-year term. Incumbent Councilors Lisa Blackmer, Keith Bona, Peter Oleskiewicz, Bryan Sapienza, Wayne Wilkinson, and Marie T. Harpin and Michael Obasohan (who both were seated in November), will be joined by newcomers Jennifer Barbeau and Ashley Shade.

 

The City Clerk Cathleen King will preside over the meeting until the new City Council is sworn in. The council will then convene in public meeting, elect a president and vice president, and receive committee assignments. The newly elected president will address the meeting.

 

This will be followed by new School Committee members Richard Alcombright, Emily Daunis, David Sookey and Joshua Vallieres, and McCann School Committee members Gary Rivers and Diane Parsons being sworn in.

 

The new mayor will then be escorted on stage to take her oath and give her inaugural address.

 

There is expected to be a benediction, invocation and musical interludes. There will not, however, be a reception following the event because of pandemic precautions.