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Adams is holding its annual community cleanup day on Saturday at 10 locations around town. Those wishing to volunteer should meet at the Visitors Center at 9 a.m.

Adams Earth Day Clean-Up Saturday

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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ADAMS, Mass. — Earth Day has come and gone but community members are continuing to make strides to clean up their neighborhoods in recognition of it.
 
The Northern Berkshire Events Committee has partnered with the Adams Beautification Group to host the fourth annual community cleanup day, during which residents will clean up 10 locations throughout town.
 
The event will take place this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, with participants meeting at the Adams Visitor Center. A rain date is scheduled for Saturday, May 2. Refresh from a day of cleaning with pizza provided by Dough Boys Pizza. 
 
Locations slated for cleanup are Sail Park by AJ's Restaurant, Veterans Park on Columbia Street, the train station, Hoosac Street Gardens, the Adams Hometown Market parking lot, Fisk Road and Fisk Street, and Edmunds Street, and the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail beginning at the Visitor Center to Grove Street, and Siara Street Park. 
 
"We are encouraging many volunteers to bring any tools that they may have, such as gloves, rakes, shovels, brooms, dust pans, hand snips, shears — anything that they can bring to help make the cleanup even more effective," said Jessica Girard, events committee chair. 
 
"The beautification group will have safety vests for those working closer to traffic."
 
The event will include a friendly competition with prizes and Second Chance Composting will also be on-site to promote sustainable waste practices. The town's Department of Public Works is supplying bags and a truck to help the day run smoothly. 
 
Picking up trash benefits everyone — from children playing outside to dog walkers and local wildlife —helping create a healthier environment for all, Girard said. 
 
"It aligns with the mission of Earth Week because we should all be helping to promote the beautification and health of our planet," she said. 
 
The Adams Beautification Group surveyed various areas around town to identify the locations most in need of attention, including sites requiring cleanup, raking, composting, and trash removal, she said. 
 
They also prioritized areas close to the Adams Visitor Center so volunteers can easily walk or quickly travel to sites on clean-up day.
 
The community service activity is a great way for the community to come together and take pride in the town you live, visit, or work in by making a visible impact as we all head into the spring season, she said. 
 
"After a few years of consistent effort, many of the areas we previously focused on no longer need the same level of attention and clean up effort, which really speaks to the power of showing up year after year," Girard said. 
 
Ten locations is an ambitious amount, said Selectman Jay T. Meczywor, who serves on the NBEC. 
 
"We can do it though," Girard said, explaining they have planned out what needs to get done and how many people each location requires. 

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North Berkshire School Study Encouraging Stakeholders to Take Survey

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The consultants behind the education study for North Berkshire are hoping for solid responses to its recently released survey. 
 
The survey, released last week, can be found here. 
 
"Our goal is somewhere between 5 and 10 percent overall survey responses, which is somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 responses," project manager Jake Eberwein told the steering committee for the North Berkshire Educational Sustainability Study at Wednesday's meeting at Hoosac Valley High School. 
 
This is the next phase of the study of secondary education in North County being undertaken through state funding and conducted by Berkshire Educational Consulting Group, Berk12.
 
"Our first phase was project awareness, and that was really our you know attempt to meet the school committees, select boards, and we wrapped that up this past Monday in Williamstown," Berk12 researcher Brendan Sheran said. "And certainly, we'll be doing more of that going back out probably in the midyear or springtime. But in terms of info gathering, really, the data collection — that's where we are now."
 
The community survey was launched through sharing on social media, the group's stakeholder list, the press, and the district partners, which are distributing it to educators, parents and students. The window is expected to close on Friday, Oct. 9, but Sheran said they can be flexible with the date. 
 
The survey takes about seven to 10 minutes and is open to those in the Hoosac Valley Regional and Mount Greylock Regional school districts and in North Adams, Clarksburg, Florida and Savoy.
 
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