North Adams Sees Races for Mayor, School Committee & City Council

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city will see races for mayor, City Council and School Committee in November. 
 
There will be no preliminary election. 
 
Tuesday was the deadline to submit nomination papers with signatures of at minimum 50 registered voters. Candidates do have until Aug. 14 to withdraw before the ballot is set. 
 
Jennifer Macksey is being challenged for a third term in the corner office by Scott Berglund. Both candidates took out papers in April; Macksey had hers back in 19 days while Berglund submitted his June 12. 
 
Richard David Greene took out papers on June 5 but did not return them. 
 
The seven incumbents running for City Council have had their signatures certified: Lisa Blackmer, Keith Bona, Peter Breen, Andrew Fitch, Peter Oleskiewicz, Bryan Sapienza, and Ashley Shade. 
 
Sapienza and Shade were the first to take out papers on March 18; Fitch was the last to submit his on Tuesday at noon. 
 
Incumbents Deanna Morrow and Wayne Wilkinson are not running for re-election. Morrow is finishing up her first term and Wilkinson has served five terms on the council and has also served on the Planning Board and as chair of the Mobile Home Rent Control board. 
 
Newcomers for council are Aprilyn Carsno (a two-time mayoral candidate), CarrieAnne Crews, Alexa MacDonald, Marie McCarron, Virginia Riehl (a member of the Planning Board) and Lillian Zavatsky. 
 
At least two will be seated, and if one more makes it into the top nine vote-getters, the council could have a majority of women for the first time. This would, of course, depend on incumbents Blackmer and Shade retaining their seats.  
 
The last highest number of women on the council was the 2014-2016 term when Blackmer, Jennifer Breen, Kate Merrigan and Nancy Bullett served. 
 
Ronald Sheldon, who has run for office before, did not take out papers until July 17 and did not have enough certified signatures to make the ballot. Joshua Vallieres and Thomas Wallace did not return papers. 
 
The School Committee will see at least one new member as Richard Alcombright did not return his papers. The former mayor was elected to a four-year term in 2021 and also serves on the School Building Committee. 
 
Incumbents Emily Daunis and David Sookey are both running for their second terms. Chelsey Lyn Ciolkowski and Eric Wilson, who ran in the last election, are vying for one of the three seats. 
 
Incumbents Taylor Gibeau and Gary Rivers are running for re-election to the McCann School Committee. Christopher Tremblay, a former councilor, took out papers on July 24 but did not return them.
 
They are currently one incumbent and one challenger for mayor; seven incumbents and six challengers for the nine City Council seats; two incumbents and two challengers for three School Committee seats; and two incumbents for two McCann School Committee seats. 

Tags: election 2025,   municipal election,   

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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.

Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.

"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.

The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.

The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar. 

Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.

She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.

"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."

The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.

"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."

They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.

"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.

As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen. 

Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.

"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."

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