image description — Members of the Board of Selectmen, Parks Commission and Community Development gather at Russell Field on Friday to accept a donation from the Lions Club for scoreboard and lighting repairs.

Adams Lions Club Donates $7,750 for Russell Field

By Brian RhodesiBerkshires Staff
06:23PM / Friday, June 24, 2022Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — The town has accepted a $7,750 donation from the Adams Lions Club to fund the scoreboard and lighting repairs at Russell Field.

Members of the Board of Selectmen, Parks Commission and Community Development gathered at Russell Field on Friday to accept the donation. Town Administrator Jay Green said this work would not have been possible without the Lions Club's financial help.

"We've worked hard to keep these facilities in great shape and modernizing them. And sometimes costs certainly gets in our way ... That's why these partnerships and collaborations are very important. These are public facilities, and we're grateful to the Lions Club for their willingness to step in and help us out with it," Green said.

Lions Club President Art McConnell said he is happy that the club could help the town with Russell Field. He said the group tries to help the community when and where it is able to.

"I appreciate that you reached out to us. I know there's going to be projects in the future, and we're going to love to be able to help out where we can," McConnell said. "A project like this for the kids; that's one of our priorities ... My goal this year was to raise $13,000 and we exceeded that. So we were able to help other places beyond what we were expected to pay this year."

Community Development Director Eammon Coughlin said work on Russell Field, which began in 2017, predates his employment in Adams. Renovations have been ongoing for several years, with the town receiving nearly $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for field renovations.

"This allowed the town to regrade the field entirely, install new drainage, new fences, a new infield, layout electrical conduits all the lights, build new tennis courts, put in an adult fitness area and install new ADA accessible paths throughout," he said. "Because of the generous donation from the Adams Lions Club, we were able to install the new scoreboard and repair and replace light bulbs in the field lights to allow for night games."

Selectmen Chair John Duval thanked the Lions Club, the Parks Commission and town employees for everything they have done to get the field renovated.

"We were fortunate to be able to have some good people that could come together as a team, as we always have in Adams, to complete this wonderful project," he said.

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Notre Dame Church Closed Indefinitely as Diocese Assesses Structural Damage

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:43AM / Wednesday, September 30, 2026

ADAMS, Mass. — What began as concerns over peeling paint inside Notre Dame Church turned out to be a much larger issue, as the church is now closed indefinitely after inspections revealed structural damage, particularly in the steeple.

Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur Catholic Church, located at 21 Maple St., has been taped off and closed since last week as the Diocese of Springfield assesses water damage affecting several areas of the building.

"There are multiple issues ... but the long and short of it is that there's been a water breach in a number of locations at the church, [compromising] some of the structures. The steeple clearly has been negatively impacted by this water breach, and so they're looking at the steeple as one potential major issue," said Mark Dupont, Diocese of Springfield's director of communications.

"A lot of the other ones are not to that level, but taken as a whole, they might be problematic in the long run. This church is well over 100 years old and has served that community with great distinction over the years, but unfortunately, sometimes our past history with these churches is that they quickly become very costly when they start having issues."

The church was built around 1882 to serve the area's French-speaking residents and is one of the three churches part of the Saint John Paul II Parish, which also includes St. Mary's in Cheshire and St. Stanislaus in Adams, Dupont said.

Parish staff first noticed peeling paint inside the Notre Dame church, which can be an indication of water intrusion, and hired a structural mason to inspect the steeple and possibly do some repairs, he said.

However, the inspection revealed more extensive damage to the steeple than initially anticipated, prompting parish staff to immediately contact the Diocese of Springfield and close the church, Dupont said.

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