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North Adams Holds Reorganization of Government on New Year's Day

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Jennifer Macksey will be sworn into her second term as mayor on New Year's Day. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city's government for the next two years will be sworn in on Monday, Jan. 1, at 11 a.m. 
 
The organization of government is held on the first day of the year following a general election. The swearing in will be held in City Council Chambers and streamed by Northern Berkshire Community Television. 
 
It is open to the public. 
 
The City Council will elect a president and vice president after being sworn in by City Clerk Tina Leonesio, who will open the meeting. The new president will give some remarks, announce committee and liaison assignments and present the rules of order for the council. 
 
The council will also draw for seats for the next year. 
 
The new members of the School Committee and McCann School Committee will also be sworn in and then the mayor will be invited into the chamber to be sworn into a two-year term and give her inaugural speech. 
 
Mayor Jennifer Macksey will be starting her second term in the corner office after winning a landslide re-election in November. 
 
Incumbents councilors returned to office are Lisa Blackmer, Keith Bona, Peter Oleskiewicz, Bryan Sapienza, Ashley Shade and Wayne Wilkinson. 
 
Incumbents Jennifer Barbeau, Marie T. Harpin and Michael Obasohan declined to run for re-election. Barbeau and Obasohan have served one term; Harpin was first elected in 2017, quit briefly in 2021 but was re-elected that same year and served out her term. 
 
New to the council are Peter Breen, Andrew Fitch and Deanna Morrow. The three were among the top nine vote-getters of the 11 candidates running for City Council in November. 
 
Both Fitch and Morrow are newcomers to elected office; Breen will be sworn in to two offices as he has been a member of the McCann School Committee and was re-elected to continue representing the city on the regional vocational committee.
 
Breen's colleagues on the McCann committee, George Canales and William Diamond, both incumbents, will also be sworn in. 
 
The School Committee has two returning faces and one new one. Tara Jacobs was re-elected to a third four-year term; Alyssa Tomkowicz was elected to her first four-year term but ran as an incumbent, as she was elected earlier this year by city and school officials to complete a term ending this year. Cody Chamberlain, who had also applied to fill that vacant seat, was elected to a four-term term in November. Incumbent Karen Bond stepped back after serving two terms. 
 

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Mass MoCA Commission Approves Mental Health Practices as Tenants

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Mass MoCA Commission on Thursday approved three new tenants for Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. 
 
Kimma Stark, project manager at the museum, gave the commission the rundown on each of the new tenants. 
 
Eric Beeman is a licensed mental health counselor who uses art in his therapy. He holds a master's degree in expressive arts and arts therapy from Lesley University, where he's also taught graduate-level practices and principles of expressive art therapy.
 
He integrates creative arts based interventions into his clinical work including drawing painting, poetry, writing, brief drama and roleplay, movement and sound. Beeman works one-on-one and with small groups and said he mostly works with adults. 
 
He will be operating as Berkshires Expressive Arts Therapy on the third floor of Building 1. 
 
Beeman said Stark has been very helpful. "It's different than just renting a space and she's been very helpful and personable and accessible," he said. 
 
Mary Wilkes, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist, works with individuals with severe mental illness, with attachment and relationship issues and needing support navigating major life transitions. She works with teenagers, college and students and adults. 
 
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