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The Airport Commission was updated about the progress of multiple ongoing improvement projects.

North Adams Hangar Project To Be Extended

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Shamrock Hangar renovation project, although moving along, will be completed later than expected.
 
Peter Enzien of Stantec, the engineering firm overseeing the airport improvement projects, told the Airport Commission Tuesday that instead of completing the Shamrock Hangar by December 4, as agreed upon, the project will be pushed out towards the end of the month.
 
"They are hoping by the end of this week to have the windows in and do some of the electrical work," Enzien said.
 
"The ultimate goal here is to get the space wrapped up by Christmas to a point where there may be a few miscellaneous things that need to be addressed but the space is mostly complete."
 
The city purchased the hangar this summer and through Non-Primary Entitlement Funds from the Federal Aviation Authority, the city is renovating the space.
 
Enzien said the project is being held up by materials that have not yet arrived such as the windows. He said much of the plumbing is complete and the interior walls have been framed.
 
Enzien said while removing old sheetrock, they found that a portion of the lower wall was rotting but they were able to correct the issue.
 
"The bottom portion of the wall was rotted right out about 8 inches from the floor so water coming in from the outside over the years had caused a lot of the wood to rot," he said. 
 
Enzien said although the hangar is anticipated to be largely complete by Christmas, the hangar door installation will likely be complete sometime in the early new year because the contractor must work in tandem with the door manufacturers. 
 
Chairman Jeff Naughton asked that the contractor submit an official request for an extension.
 
Enzien said not much work has been done on the administrative building project, which is also planned to be renovated, however, the gate improvements are mostly complete.
 
Enzien said gate eight and gate ten have been motorized and although both gates seem to be functioning, there is a slight issue with the remote-control operation of gate ten. The remote should be able to operate within a 500-foot radius of the gate.
 
"They don’t know if it is the plantings that are causing a line of sight issue, but I spoke with Berkshire Fence and they are looking at other options," he said. "Hopefully in the next week or so we will have a solution and then we can close out the project." 

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2024 Year in Review: North Adams' Year of New Life to Old Institutions

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz poses in one of the new patient rooms on 2 North at North Adams Regional Hospital.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On March 28, 2014, the last of the 500 employees at North Adams Regional Hospital walked out the doors with little hope it would reopen. 
 
But in 2024, exactly 10 years to the day, North Adams Regional was revived through the efforts of local officials, BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who was able to get the U.S. Health and Human Services to tweak regulations that had prevented NARH from gaining "rural critical access" status.
 
It was something of a miracle for North Adams and the North Berkshire region.
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed in 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC had renovated the building and added in other services, including an emergency satellite facility, over the decade. But it took one small revision to allow the hospital — and its name — to be restored: the federal government's new definition of a connecting highway made Route 7 a "secondary road" and dropped the distance maximum between hospitals for "mountainous" roads to 15 miles. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," Rodowicz said. "It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated countywide system of care." 
 
The public got to tour the fully refurbished 2 North, which had been sectioned off for nearly a decade in hopes of restoring patient beds; the official critical hospital designation came in August. 
 
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