NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said she sees optimism and potential in the Steeple City after marching in Sunday's Fall Foliage Day Parade. 

 

Driscoll is the first sitting lieutenant governor to appear in the parade since Timothy Murray and his family back in 2007. She and Gov. Maura Healey were elected to four-year terms in 2022. 

 

"Absolutely picturesque to be able to see, you know, this time of year in this region, and then this parade, the history of it, like multiple generations of families on the sidelines, excited to either watch the parade or be in the parade, participate in it," said Driscoll at a fundraiser meetup at Hotel Downstreet hosted by the local town and city Democratic committees. "It's a perfect New England day, and I was glad to be a part of it."

 

Driscoll had traveled to Dalton in the morning to endorse Leigh Davis, the Democratic candidate for the Third Berkshire District. In North Adams, she made some brief remarks then mingled with the dozen or so attendees, including city councilors and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts President Jamie Birge, who hoped to bend her ear on relevant issues.

 

Driscoll said she was hearing "lots of enthusiasm for the work that's already happening here" including opportunities to leverage hospitality and tourism challenges around infrastructure and what the state could to support those efforts. 

 

She touched on the hopes for funding toward a public safety building and the city's two bridges — the closed Brown Street bridge and the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge. The memorial bridge, constructed as part of the Central Artery project in the 1960s, is being studied for reconstruction or removal under a federal grant with the goal of better connecting Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art to the downtown. 

 

"I think generally, people are really optimistic about the possibilities that exist here in leveraging off of the things that are already working well, whether it's a university or a cultural asset like Mass MoCA, or a downtown that's beautiful, that has some some rough patches that need to be prettied up, like, how can we work together to accomplish that?" the lieutenant governor said.