NORTH ADAMS, Mass — The SteepleCats will name former state Rep. Dan Bosley as the team's new president Friday.

SteepleCats General Manager Sean McGrath held a press conference at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts Wednesday to make the official announcement.

"We are very excited about his leadership and look forward to Dan's leadership as we celebrate our 10th anniversary," McGrath said in an e-mail.

Bosley said on Sunday that he has had a long friendship with McGrath and the two always talk about baseball. With his connections to the community, Bosley seems to be a right fit for the positions, Bosley said.

Bosley will take over for City Councilor David Bond who led the team since 2009. Bond stepped down and Cats officials previously said the team would be run by committee, but then Bosley accepted McGrath's offer. Bond will serve on the team's Board of Trustees.

The SteepleCats will be welcoming its third president in three years. In 2009, local attorney John B. DeRosa left the presidency for a larger role as the president of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city's kindergarten and preschool programs have been given high marks by the National Association for the Education of Young Children after two years of review for accreditation. The programs were last accredited in 2006.

"It is a boatload of work," said Superintendent James Montepare, pointing to the oversized, filled-to-bursting notebooks stacked along the window at Tuesday's School Committee meeting. "All the kindergarten teachers, the preschool teachers, I can't tell you how many hundreds of hours they spent."

Melodie Goodwin, curriculum coordinator, said the portfolios were created by the teachers in the nine kindergarten and four preschool programs and represented evidence for 10 standards required by the national accrediting organization. The portfolios are very much "a year in the life" of a kindergarten, documented with photographs, newsletters and reports about the children doing various activities.

"Everything from learning how to wash their hands, to lining up for a fire drill ... it's everything that happens throughout their normal day," she said, describing the criteria and the 150-page document the schools worked with as "pretty intense."

Of the 10 standards, the school district was commended on five by attaining scores of "100-plus": teachers, children's assessments, connection with families, community relationships and certification and training.

The programs scored lower on technical areas such as physical environment (classroom size and equipment) and scheduled play time. "It was always worded as 'something to improve on'; it was never something that was negative," said Goodwin, who added that the district portfolio included a reponse to NAEYC's concerns.

The review began two years ago with an application for candidacy; then began a self-study with a survey of parents, the community and staff. The teachers spent a year creating the portfolios. The accreditation is good for five years but the district must do an annual report. Goodwin said Adams-Cheshire Regional School District recently received its accreditation.

Mayor Richard Alcombright, chairman of the School Committee, said the concerns on classroom size should be provided as input to the school building committee. The district is currently developing a feasibility study on options for the middle school grades.

Montepare said the rooms taken over for the expansion of the preschool weren't constructed with kindergarten or preschool in mind.

In other business,

• The board approved the use of Drury High School's gym and auditorum for the John Gaudreau Boys Basketball Tournament and Friends of the North Adams Library, respectively. The Friends will hold a trivia contest on May 7 and the tournament will be on Feb. 19. Cost of using the school is $250 plus other fees.

• The mayor said the budgeting process would begin early. Montepare said some larger line items — grant funding, the number of retirements and a new school transportation contract — had not yet been determined.

• The board met in an executive session related to bargaining.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The mayor will be submitting a eight nominations for various boards to the City Council next week, including two for the Planning Board.

Joanne DeRose and Brian Miksic are being recommended to fill the seats of the late Edna Rudnick and David Babcock, who is retiring after more than two decades on the board. Miksic is president of Develop North Adams, a nonprofit organization created to bring merchants, educators and the community together to enhance the city. DeRose is active in Democratic politics and works for National Grid.

They are the first additions the mayor has made to the nine-member board since taking office last year.

But there has been a bit of mixup: DeRose took her seat on Jan. 11. That caused a couple councilors to check the rules and notify the mayor they hadn't signed off on her nomination.

"I have a matrix [for nominations] that didn't indicate I needed the council's approval," said Mayor Richard Alcombright on Monday.

The city charter doesn't say the council has approval over planning appointments but state law does. Once a community reaches a population of 10,000, it must establish a planning board and "such members shall in cities be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the city council," according to Chapter 41, Section 81A.

DeRose, who will complete Rudnick's unexpired term, voted to continue a permit hearing at her first meeting. That vote won't count but won't change the outcome; DeRose was not required for a quorum and the vote was unanimous with eight other planners in attendance.

"I'll meet the [Feb.] 8th with City Council, that's before the Planning Board meets on the 14th so it will be OK," said the mayor.

The appointments will begin to shape the new mayor's policies toward development and planning. The other planners have served for several or more terms; Wayne Wilkinson was the latest to be appointed, in December 2009, by the former administration but was a veteran of the board who'd been off a few years. Alcombright, who had just been elected, had voted as a city councilor to approve his nomination.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass — The city is inching closer to a master plan.

The region's planning commission gave the city another small grant to work toward developing a long-term vision for the city.

A new Community Development Advisory Board, to be appointed by Mayor Richard Alcombright, will tackle the details of planning the city's future.

The city has not had a long-term master plan in more than 40 years but began creating one with a similar grant last year.

"We hadn't done any formal long-term planning in years," Alcombright said on Monday. "The next piece will be much more involved with the public."

The master plan will set goals and decided the types of land use throughout the city.

The group will be picking up where the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission left off. Last year, the planning commission gave the city a similar grant, which the city used to hired BRPC to create a long-range planning strategy. The draft version of that strategy was completed in November.

After failing to reel in a federal grant to complete a master plan, the city once again asked and received the smaller BRPC grant.

The community development board will now take the planning strategy and engage the public to develop actual planning strategies. Residents will have chances to chime in as early as April, Alcombright said.

"We're hoping this will continue where we left off," Alcombright said. "They're relatively small grants but BRPC does a lot with them. We have no money but we found a way to bring in someone from BRPC once a week."

The regional planner will help the advisory board bring the plan to the public. Next fall, the city will apply for the federal grant to finish the job again.

The advisory board members and the final draft of the long-range plan will be revealed to the public and city boards on Feb. 22. Alcombright said the long-range strategy is mostly a series of broadly defined goals including rebranding, creating a diverse economy, combating poverty and examining the geographical impacts on business.

"This is a jumping off point," Alcombright said.

The mayor did not know the exact amount of the grant but estimated it to be around $20,000.

“BRPC is very pleased that we can continue to provide this modicum of support to the City of North Adams in development of a new comprehensive plan and we continue to look forward to working with the city. We are fortunate that we have municipal leaders across the Berkshires, including Mayor Alcombright, who understand the need for comprehensive planning, followed by aggressive implementation, in order to continue to rebuild our communities and continue to build jobs for the future, while protecting our environment,”  said Executive Director Nathaniel Karns in a statement.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously welcomed David Lamarre to complete the unexpired term of Gailanne Cariddi.

Cariddi resigned two weeks ago after being sworn in as the new state representative for the 1st Berkshire District.

Lamarre, chairman of the License Commission, had missed being elected to the council in 2009 by a recount that boosted Keith Bona ahead of him by a handful of votes.

"It was just a year ago I stood right there at that gate and got the bad news," said Lamarre afterward of the recount. "It feels good though."

Traditionally, the nine-member council has seated the so-called "10th councilor" to fill any vacancies. However, Council President Ronald Boucher had solicited letters of interest from citizens this time.

Boucher said four letters had been submitted: Lamarre's; one from former Councilor Robert M. Moulton Jr. indicating he was no longer interested in being considered; from Ronald Sheldon, who did not provide contact information; and one from Robert Cardimino, who has faithfully attended - and spoken at - council meetings for more than a year.

"I regard this council vacancy as an opportunity to fulfill an obligation to the 2,446 voters who supported my election bid," said Lamarre in his remarks to the council. "I can promise diligence, thoughtfulness, and a steadfast determination to see North Adams progress and our citizens prosper."

Cardimino, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor and council some years ago, urged the councilors to select someone with a different perspective.

"This electon should not be a popularity contest," he told the councilors, "it should be someone who has, and has had, an interest in city government and I have proven over many years and many mayors that I have had that interest.

"It also should be someone who is willing to ask the hard questions, no matter how unpopular."

Lamarre, however, was swiftly nominated and unanimously elected. Cardimino congratulated him but said he planned to ask voters to place him on the council in the coming November election.

The new councilor said he'd adjusted to his loss and had begun pursuing interests of a personal nature outside of his community activity. But when it became apparent Cariddi would be leaving a year into her term to go to the State House, "I really had to think about it; I didn't want to jump the gun," said Lamarre. "Actually, for awhile, I was torn - I had started down this other road but I decided on this and I'm glad I did."

Lamarre said he wants to "get his feet wet" before making any announcements if he'll run to keep the seat: "By the time it comes to take out nomination papers I'll know."

In other business, the council continued into February a change in waste transfer fees and renaming a street for Lue Gim Gong because the subcommittees reviewing them have not been able to meet. It also continued an application from Edward Tripodes to drive a taxi for Cindy Tripodes because he was not in attendance.

Boucher referred to the General Government Committee a change for Rules of Order that would limit audience participation to an open microphone session at the beginning of council meetings. Cardimino, who frequently comments on items during meetings, objected to the change as did Councilor Alan Marden. While the councilors said they were willing to support Boucher's changes, they were concerned that the language was too ambiguous for the council to vote on Tuesday.