Page 18 - BusinessWest December 21, 2020

Community Spotlight
North Adams Remains a Draw on Many Levels
By Joseph Bednar
The last time BusinessWest spoke
with Mayor Thomas Bernard for the Community Spotlight, about a year ago,
he was talking up the city’s Vision 2030 plan, which was hatched in 2011 and is revisited regularly.
At a public information session last year,
city leaders discussed the plan’s seven priori-
ties — economic renewal, investment in aging infrastructure, creation of a thriving and con- nected community, intergenerational thinking, fiscal efficiency, historic preservation, and food access — and some specifics of what’s happening in each.
But 2020 has been about reacting as much as planning — though Bernard says communities need to do both, even during a pandemic.
“I look at my wonderfully organized and beautifully color-coded and phased planning documents from January and February, and I think about our February staff meeting where we discussed this COVID thing — ‘what could this mean for us?’” he recalled. “It’s been such a diffi- cult year, but I can still point to some really great signs of progress.”
That includes continued movement toward adaptive reuse of old mill space, plans to reno- vate 67-year-old Greylock Elementary School,
and a regional housing-production study that uncovered a need for more affordable housing, but more market-rate housing as well.
That said, it’s been a tough year for many businesses, too.
“Everyone has been struggling,” the mayor said. “Our restaurants did a terrific job early on in making the pivot to curbside and delivery, and they did fairly well when the weather was nice, and then a lot of them got really creative in how to expand their outdoor dining. The city and
the licensing board tried to be as friendly and accommodating and make it as easy as possible for people,” Bernard noted, adding, of course, that winter will pose new hardships.
Municipal business continued apace as well, albeit sometimes with a creative, socially dis- tanced flair.
For example, “as part of our property-disposi- tion strategy, we did an auction of city properties, and we did it down at the municipal ballfield. There was plenty of space in the bleachers and stands for bidders, and the auctioneer was out on the field, taking bids. We brought people back to City Hall, one at a time, to do the paperwork.
North Adams
Continued on page 20
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18 DECEMBER 21, 2020
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
BusinessWest
North Adams at a glance
YEAR INCORPORATED: 1878
POPULATION: 13,708
AREA: 20.6 square miles
COUNTY: Berkshire
RESIDENTIAL TAX RATE: $18.64
COMMERCIAL TAX RATE: $39.83
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $35,020
FAMILY HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $57,522
TYPE OF GOVERNMENT: Mayor; City Council
LARGEST EMPLOYERS: Crane & Co.; North Adams Regional Hospital; BFAIR Inc.
* Latest information available