MCLA Awarded Funds For Early Education Center

03:37PM / Monday, June 01, 2026Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Congressman Richard E. Neal joined Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) President James F. Birge, North Adams Mayor Jennifer Macksey, MCLA students, faculty, and staff, and state and local officials to announce $1,200,000 in federal funding for the MCLA Early Education Center.

"I am delighted to join with President Birge and the MCLA community to announce funding for the establishment of a new early education center. This investment will deliver tangible results across the board: allowing parents to go to work, ensuring our children have access to a strong educational foundation, and providing hands-on training for our future workforce," said Congressman Neal. "Access to affordable, high-quality child care is essential to working families and strengthening our workforce. That is why, as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, I helped enact the largest investment in child care in our nation’s history. With announcements like the one today, we are continuing to build on our progress in removing barriers to workforce participation, while giving our children the tools they need to achieve their potential."

These funds will allow MCLA to renovate its Church Street Center into a facility that provides a dedicated space for early education partners throughout North County. This space will provide a learning lab for students and child care services for the campus and local community, benefiting a minimum of thirty families and reinstating 12-15 early childhood educator/staff positions.

"For the families who depend on these programs and the educators who make them possible, this is a meaningful and lasting commitment, said James F. Birge, president of MCLA. "MCLA is proud to be the home for this work, and we are grateful to Congressman Neal for making it happen."

This allocation was made possible through Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Congressman Neal included funding for this project in the Fiscal Year 2026 spending bill.

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Berkshires Remember First Responders, Military Personnel Lost at 9/11 and Aftermath

By Jack Guerino & Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
02:30PM / Friday, September 11, 2026

North Adams Mayor Jennifer Macksey, with Fire Chief Brent Lefebvre speaks at Friday's memorial.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The county's two cities held memorials on Friday morning to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Great Barrington was scheduled to hold a dedication of piece of steel from the World Trade Center at 6 p.m.

North Adams held its ceremony in the fire station's side garden starting at exactly 8:46 a.m., the time Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower.

The small square of grass was packed with police officers, firefighters, wire and alarm personnel, dispatchers, and Northern Berkshire EMS employees, and city employees, officials and community members.

After the ceremonial tolling of the bell, an honor guard presented the colors.

Mayor Jennifer Macksey said it felt odd welcoming people to a very solemn event.

"What happened 25 years ago put a mark on emergency services. It put additional pressure on police, fire, EMS, and dispatchers," Macksey said. "While we remember those who lost their lives during 9/11, and those who ran to help as many as they could during 9/11, we have to pause and appreciate those who continue to serve despite that awful threat that occurred 25 years ago."

She said it was a direct attack on the United States and all of its people.

"It was a question of our freedoms and our ability to be safe in our communities," the mayor said. "I can say today that here in North Adams, it could happen to us, but I know with the professionalism of our Fire Department, Police Department, EMS, and our dispatch team, we are a better community; we are a safer community than we were 25 years ago."

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