North Adams Councilors Bring 2026 Goals Into Focus
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city councilors this week took the unusual step of outlining their goals and focuses for the new term.
The request was made by new City Councilor Lillian Zavatsky, who said it came from her own experience as an audience member at council meetings.
"It's hard for councilors to talk about the good work that they are doing in these different committee meetings, because the public might not necessarily be there," she said. "I think it's just really helpful, or I hope it will be really helpful, to kind of ground ourselves in, what are our priorities for the year? What are the things that we've been talking about in our various committees? What are the things we anticipate talking about in our various committees ... ."
Zavastky said she was going to focus on the committees she was assigned to at the Organization of Government on Jan.1: Finance and Public Service. She was also appointed to the Affordable Housing Trust, a new entity established by ordinance last year.
- Community Development: Andrew Fitch, Lisa Blackmer, Alexa Macdonald
- General Government: Keith Bona, Bryan Sapienza, Ashley Shade
- Finance: Lisa Blackmer, Lillian Zavatsky, Andrew Fitch
- Public Safety: Bryan Sapienza, Peter Breen, Marie McCarron
- Public Services: Peter Breen, Marie McCarron, Lillian Zavatsky
"My goals in this year will be develop an understanding of what is the full scope of projects that an affordable housing trust can do, and prioritize those in what we want to do," she said, and to establish connections with the Lenox and Williamstown housing trust to develop a network and share resources and knowledge.
Picking up on comments by Virginia Riehl, a strong supportor for housing, to commit funds toward the trust, Zavatsky said she would "advocate for a substantial and reoccurring, steady source of funding."
Riehl, speaking at both hearing of visitors and open forum, challenged the council and administration to find $100,000 to get the trust up and running. She pointed to monies found for the recreation center, Brown Street bridge and other projects.
"We know how to find money. We just need to work at it," she said. "It demonstrates to the state and to private funders that North Adam is committed to addressing housing. And if you go for a grant and you say you have matching money, you are in better shape to get the funding than if you don't."
Zavatsky's also looking forward to learning about the budget and especially capital planning as a member of Finance, and getting a better understanding of city's infrastructure on Public Services.
Councilor Lisa Blackmer said, as chair of Finance and member of Community Development and the Planning Board, she wants to analyze the city's Vision 2030 master plan.
"We have four years left. Where are we? What have we done? What's changed? Some things that made sense then might not make sense now," she said. "Is our budget and our capital plan aligned with the document."
She also wants to start budget discussions earlier and have more and shorter meetings, rather than spending two hours or more at time.
"The mayor and I talked about starting them in March," Blackmer said. "We're going to plan to have more meetings for budget discussions covering fewer topics per meeting. ... It's hard to absorb that much information and have a really productive conversation."
It's a little scary to sign up to do specific things, Councilor Andrew Fitch said, thanking Zavatsky for putting it on the agenda. "If we don't meet those specific things, we might look bad. I think this is an opportunity to share, as you two already have, things that we want to focus on, and I think that that is safe and open to do."
He said he's focusing on the budget as a member of Finance, and said he will only vote for "a budget which I feel is responsible, not dipping into funds that we should be saving for emergency use, progressive, and invests in our future."
That includes continued investing in the Community Development Office, where he has pushed for a city planner, and as chair of the Community Development Committee, he wants to have at least quarterly meetings at different public access buildings.
I'd like to shine a spotlight on key projects that I think need a spotlight shown on them that is just basically reminding the community, what about this project?" Fitch said. As liaison to the Airport Commission, he plans to attend as many meetings as possible to make sure it's setup for success after a very rocky year or so.
Councilor Peter Breen, as chair of Public Services, said the committee has started formulating its goals, such as doing workshops to determine departments' statuses and needs and come up with ideas and solutions.
The committee's purview is all-encompassing, he said, "it's the highways, the cemeteries, the library, it's every public building ... I think that'll help us out, looking not just inward, but outward. What are other places doing? What makes sense?"
He's also looking to have meetings earlier in the evening to encourage more participation and, as an appointed member of the Northern Berkshire secondary education task force, said he will need guidance from the mayor and the City Council as the study moves forward.
"I'm really excited about it. That's going to be months, year kind of thing and but I think it's a great thing because it's the children that are in our community," Breen said.
Councilor Bryan Sapienza is on the Public Safety and General Government committees, a member of the Traffic Commission and liaison to the Hoosac Water Quality District.
His focus will be keeping up with ordinances, including discussion on a proposed nip bottle ban, and facilitating the recodification process of the city's ordinances.
"A lot of the stuff that happens in Traffic Commission and Public Safety go hand in hand, and it's nice to be able to bring something from the Traffic Commission right to Public Safety, and there's no loss of communication there," he said. But it will be his first time with the water quality district, "I've got a lot of learning in that particular process. I've heard from some members of the community. I'm not going to get into details tonight, but some things to look at in the future, hopefully, good, positive changes with that."
Councilor Alexa Macdonald is on Community Development and co-chair of the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Commission, and liaison to the Youth Commission, and said her focus will be on community development and youth and family.
"For the IDEA Commission specifically, we've already met and are very excited," she said. "It sounds like it's a lot working from the ground up, a bit of restarting and looking for new members, as well as helping to do some more policy work, training for city staff as well as City Council."
She is looking forward to helping develop strong, successful commissions, and figuring out how the Youth Commission in particular can be sustained as people transition to college and graduate from high school.
"I'm focused on helping North Adams be a safe and thriving community and connected community," said Councilor Marie McCarron. "That's my biggest thing, I just want everything to be connected. I am prioritizing strong policing, strong fire and EMS to keep our community safe."
As a new member of both Public Services and Public Safety, she wants to learn how everything works, support sustainable city services and "dig more into infrastructure." A teacher, she's also liaison to the North Adams Public School and the Berkshire Arts & Technology Public Charter School.
"I have a strong connection between the schools, and I want to keep that strong connection between the school and the community, to let the City Council know what's going on in our schools. Bring back the positive things that are happening in our schools," McCarron said. "More broadly, I see my priorities as fostering ... economic development, downtown revitalization, affordable housing ... I just want to help our city grow.
Neighborhood blight is a top issue for Councilor Keith Bona, who said his focus and goals aren't tied to any particular committee but rather to issues and agenda items.
"My primary concerns are focusing on neighborhood blight, reducing the city's property inventory and enhancing the city's appeal to attract new business and jobs," he said. "I hope the Affordable Housing Trust will explore new initiatives that could provide financial incentives to investors to renovate blighted properties, particularly along our main corridors.
"Additionally, I would like the council to be updated by the administration on the most problematic properties and the city's current effort to address those conditions as these are often brought to our attention, and yet we have little current information on them."
Bona's also pushing for a mobile parking app and implementing a community camera program, both of which he's advocated for in the past. He said he's committed to collaborating with the administration and council members, and that he may jump all in on a good idea that someone brings forward. Plus, he said, there's things that can be done outside of council to build community.
President Ashley Shade also thanked Zavatsky for putting this on the agenda and said it was great to hear from all the councilors on the work they want to do and what they want to achieve. A top goal for her is getting the city code updated because it's difficult to navigate and often conflicting.
"I think the average person should be able to look at your city ordinances, your city laws, find what they're looking for, but also understand it without needing an attorney to help them," she said. "In the immediate term, I personally plan to introduce some ordinances that I've been working on with the administration, I'm going to bring back to the council, one of which will make Virginia very happy and will have consequences that will help slowly start to fund the Affordable Housing Trust."
She also plans to work with city clerk on modernizing her office, and as liaison to the North Adams Chamber, foster a better relationship between local businesses and city government.
"My first and top priority is the people of North Adams. It's listening to you. It's hearing what you need. It's working with the people and getting them more involved," Shade said. "I want more public engagement. I want to see people here. I want to hear from you. I want to know what you need us to do for you."
