NBCC to Host 'Back-Packed for Success'

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Northern Berkshire Community Coalition is hosting its 12th annual back-to-school event for kids entering kindergarten through 12th grade for Northern Berkshire students. 
 
This includes homeschooled students. 
 
Students will receive a free backpack to fill with school supplies. The deadline for families to register has been extended to Wednesday, Aug. 7, at 5 p.m.
 
The event for families living in Florida and Savoy will be located at Gabriel Abbott Memorial School, 56 North County Road, Florida on Tuesday, Aug. 13, from 5 to 6 p.m. Families picking up from Florida and Savoy will receive pre-packed backpacks and be given a choice of backpack color upon registration. 
 
The event for families living in Williamstown, North Adams, Clarksburg, Adams and Cheshire will be located at Terra Nova community space, 85 Main St., North Adams on Thursday, Aug. 15, from 1 to 3 p.m. Families picking up at this location will choose their backpacks and school supplies at the event.
 
This event requires registration as supplies are limited. Families can register at https://bit.ly/2024backpacked or by contacting NBCC's Family Resource Center at 413-663-7588 through Wednesday, Aug.7.
 
For more information, contact Nancy Kennedy, Northern Berkshire Community Coalition at 413-663-7588 or nkennedy@nbccoalition.org

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Study Recommends 'Removal' for North Adams' Veterans Bridge

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nearly a year of study and community input about the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge has resulted in one recommendation: Take it down. 
 
The results of the feasibility study by Stoss Landscape Urbanism weren't really a surprise. The options of "repair, replace and remove" kept pointing to the same conclusion as early as last April
 
"I was the biggest skeptic on the team going into this project," said Commissioner of Public Services Timothy Lescarbeau. "And in our very last meeting, I got up and said, 'I think we should tear this damn bridge down.'"
 
Lescarbeau's statement was greeted with loud applause on Friday afternoon as dozens of residents and officials gathered at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art to hear the final recommendations of the study, funded through a $750,000 federal Reconnecting Communities grant
 
The Central Artery Project had slashed through the heart of the city back in the 1960s, with the promise of an "urban renewal" that never came. It left North Adams with an aging four-lane highway that bisected the city and created a physical and psychological barrier.
 
How to connect Mass MoCA with the downtown has been an ongoing debate since its opening in 1999. Once thousands of Sprague Electric workers had spilled out of the mills toward Main Street; now it was a question of how to get day-trippers to walk through the parking lots and daunting traffic lanes. 
 
The grant application was the joint effort of Mass MoCA and the city; Mayor Jennifer Macksey pointed to Carrie Burnett, the city's grants officer, and Jennifer Wright, now executive director of the North Adams Partnership, for shepherding the grant through. 
 
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