North Adams Seeing Races for Mayor, City Council

Staff Reports03:50PM / Wednesday, July 02, 2025Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — It looks like the city may avoid a preliminary election, based on the number of candidates as of last week.

There are two candidates certified for the November ballot: Jennifer Macksey is running for her third term in the corner office and Scott Berglund, a sales representative, is challenging her. Richard David Greene, who has taken out papers in the past for office, has not returned papers for mayor.

Fourteen people have taken out papers for City Council, including seven incumbents. Of those, Peter Breen, Bryan Sapienza and Ashley Shade have had their signatures certified. Wayne Wilkinson and Deanna Morrow have not taken papers out.

Newcomers Aprilyn Carsno, Virginia Riehl, Joshua Vallieres, Thomas Wallace and Lillian Zavatsky have not returned papers.

Carsno twice unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Macksey; Riehl has become involved in local housing efforts and was recently appointed to the Planning Board; Zavatsky is also a housing advocate and works at the Brien Center; and Vallieres was briefly city clerk and served on the School Committee.

School Committee incumbents Emily Daunis and David Sookey are running for re-election; Richard Alcombright has not taken out papers. They are being challenged for one of the three seats by Eric Wilson, who ran unsuccessfully in 2023. Wilson has had his signatures certified.

Incumbents Gary F. Rivers and Tyler Gibeau have returned papers for the two seats on the McCann School Committee.

A preliminary election would be required if at least one of the positions had twice the number of candidates as seats plus one. Should Greene return papers for mayor, an election would be held to narrow the field to two.

The last day to submit nomination papers is July 29; all papers must be certified by Aug. 12. Mayor, City Council and both school committee require 50 signatures of registered voters. Aug. 14 is the last day to withdraw or file objections.

Tags: election 2025, municipal election,

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North Adams City Council Hears Housing Authority Grievances

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:28PM / Wednesday, October 14, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Unhealthy odors, drugs, mold, peeling paint, unsecured doors, lack of security and frightened residents.

That was the list of grievances that current and former tenants of the North Adams Housing Authority's high rise on Ashland Street laid before the City Council on Tuesday.

"I've stayed quiet long enough. I've been professional long enough. Somebody needs to do something. Damn it! It's getting too bad over there. It's worse than it's ever been. There's more drug people there. There's more dealers there. There's drunks rolling around in there, drinking out front, doing drugs out front," said Tenants Association President Cory Fortin.

"Everybody's pointing fingers at everybody. Let's all get together and do this damn thing. Get it done. I'm sick of it."

Tenants have been speaking out at council meetings about security issues and Councilor Lillian Zavatsky, liaison to the authority, requested time for Fortin to speak. The authority has been in some upheaval lately with the loss of commissioner and the abrupt resignation of the executive director last week.

The association had called for a formal grievance hearing against Jennifer Hohn after she locked their offices. Hohn has not publicly spoken about her resignation. The Housing Authority is meeting on Thursday for "acknowledgement" of the vacancy.

"My paperwork that I put in for my maintenance request, ah, disappeared. We have nothing on record. There's a lot of things that this board, this council, the mayor, everybody needs to look at the big picture," Fortin said, adding that some tenants were worried about attending the meeting because of fears of retaliation. "All I'm asking for is the right support and for this this council, this mayor, and everybody to do what's right."

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