Letter: MCLA Homeless Shelter Should Have Had Public Input

To the Editor:

I question MCLA's President Birge's commitment to education and to our North Berkshire community.

"… the historic public purpose of American higher education is to respond to the needs and demands of society." President Jamie Birge, WAMC 5/10/2023

The problem of the poor and unhoused is a symptom of a decline in democratic values and income inequality. A simple change in the earned income tax credit was able to cut child poverty by about 46 percent in just a few months.

Massachusetts needs more than 200,000 new homes in order to start addressing the housing crisis. What is stopping Massachusetts from building these homes? Powerful interests who do not have a modicum of decency prevent democratic actions to address our problems. Democracy means participation and engagement. It requires leaders to inspire open and respectful dialogue to address the needs of the people.

In 2014, North Adams Regional Hospital was closed with three days notice with no public hearing. Shortly after the hospital closing, the state closed our North Adams welfare office and our North Adams employment office with no public hearing.

Richard Dassatti
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."