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