Deadline Approaching for North Adams Election

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The deadline is fast approaching to get nomination papers in for the city election in November. 
 
Papers with the signatures of 50 registered voters for mayor, City Council and city and McCann school committees are due by Tuesday, July 29, by 5 p.m. The city clerk's office will be open until 5 p.m. that day. 
 
As of Wednesday, there are two candidates for the two-year term for mayor. Incumbent Jennifer Macksey, running for a third term, is being challenged by newcomer Scott Berglund. Both have submitted their papers and had their signatures certified. A third candidate, Richard Greene, took out papers but has not returned them.
 
Seven of the nine City Council incumbents are running for two-year terms: Lisa Blackmer, Keith Bona, Peter Breen, Andrew Fitch, Peter Oleskiewicz, Bryan Sapienza and Ashley Shade. All have been certified except Fitch, who has not yet returned his papers.
 
Eight potential challengers have taken out papers for council and Aprilyn Carsno, Virginia Riehl and Lillian Zavatsky have had their signatures certified. CarrieAnn Crews, Alexa MacDonald, Ronald Sheldon, Joshua Vallieres and Thomas Wallace have not yet returned papers. 
 
The council seats are at large and the nine highest vote-getters will be seated for the 2026-28 term. 
 
School Committee incumbents Emily Daunis, David Sookey and Richard Alcombright have taken out papers running for re-election; so far only Sookey has returned his for certification. Also taking out papers are Chelsey Lyn Ciolkowski and Eric Wilson, who has had his signatures certified.
 
Incumbents Gary F. Rivers and Tyler Gibeau have returned papers for the two seats on the McCann School Committee.

Tags: election 2025,   municipal election,   


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Q&A with State Representative Challenger Andrew Fitch

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On Sept. 1, voters in the First Berkshire District will decide whether they want to send a new representative to Beacon Hill in Boston.
 
Andrew Fitch, currently a city councilor in the district's largest municipality — and the commonwealth's smallest city — is challenging former North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, who won the First Berkshire seat in a 2017 special election, in the Democratic Party primary.
 
There is no Republican on the primary ballot for the First Berkshire seat so the primary will effectively be the election for the seat. 
 
The two candidates met for their only debate on Aug. 13 at Williams College. iBerkshires.com reached out to both candidates to follow up on some of the points raised in the debate and get their thoughts on some other issues facing the district.
 
Below are excerpts from a conversation with challenger Andrew Fitch:
 
Question: From the very beginning, you talked about the campaign as a listening experience, and this week you're continuing that with the bike tour …
 
Andrew Fitch: Knocking on doors that have never been knocked on before. … I was riding through, I believe it was Hinsdale coming into Windsor, and they started to yell at me, 'No!' And then the guy was like, 'Wait a second. That's Andrew Fitch.' They actually knew who I was, and they were actually wanting to chat with me.
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