North Adams Overpass Study Holding Community Event

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The North Adams Route 2 Overpass Study will host its third community engagement event on Thursday, July 10, from 5 to 7 p.m. 
 
This event, referred to as a Community Visioning Session, will take place in person under the tent in Courtyard A on the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art campus. 
 
The study is funded through a federal grant under the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Project. It has been looking at options to repair, replace or restore the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge that carries Route 2 over the Hoosac River. The favored option is to eliminate the massive overpass, redirect traffic up West Main and recreate a semblance of 1960s North Adams.
 
The goal is to "reconnect" the downtown to the north side, including the museum and its thousands of visitors, and to create more pedestrian friendly movement, green space and areas for development. 
 
The community is invited to join the study team for a presentation of project updates and design concepts, and to share their thoughts and questions. This is the final opportunity for the public to give comments before the study team provides recommendations. 
 
Participants are encouraged to visit the online project platform here further information.
 
For those unable to attend the community visioning session, interactive activities and opportunities for input can be found on the project website.

Tags: downtown,   feasibility study,   mass moca,   overpass,   

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Clarksburg Looking to AG's Receivership Program to Help With Distressed Properties

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

 
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town is looking to move two properties into receivership to get them cleaned up and back on the tax rolls. 
 
Health Agent Valerie Bird has raised the idea last month when a Daniels Road property was ordered vacated for multiple code violations. Bird and the Select Board didn't believe the owner had the capacity to address the myriad issues. 
 
Bird recommended the Attorney General's receivership program, which takes blighted property and, through the court system, gets it into the hands of a developer who can rejuvenate it. 
 
Maja Kazmierczak, assistant attorney general with the Neighborhood Renewal Division, offered a virtual presentation to the board on Monday, explaining the program and how it might be able to help Clarksburg. 
 
"We've partnered with over 170 municipalities, and we definitely have over probably about 215 active properties that we're working on," she said. "We've had just about $715,000 in back taxes returned to municipalities through our program."
 
The program has been around for 30 years in various forms, with the goal to turn abandoned and blighted properties that have code violations into safe housing. 
 
The state's receivership statute allows the court to appoint a receiver to a property if there are code violations and there is no one to repair them.
 
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