North Adams Man Charged with Murder

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NORTH ADAMS — A city man has been charged with murder after his young wife died early this morning at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, where she had been hospitalized since being assaulted last week.

Eugene A. Shade Jr., 34, of Edgewood Avenue, pleaded not guilty to one count of murder when he was arraigned this afternoon in Northern Berkshire District Court before Judge Michael Ripps, according to the district attorney's office.
  
Julie Shade, 22, was taken to BMC on Tuesday, July 22, after Shade allegedly tried to strangle her at their Edgewood home. She had remained in critical condition since being admitted.

Eugene Shade was arraigned last week on one count of attempted murder and one count of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and one count of assault and battery. He pleaded not guilty and was being held on $250,000 bail in the Berkshire County House of Correction.


Ripps ordered Shade continue to be held at the jail without bail. A pretrial conference has been scheduled for Sept. 8. The case is likely to be moved to Berkshire Superior Court in Pittsfield.

The Shades have two daughters, ages 1 and 3; they are reportedly in the custody of the Department of Social Services.

The investigation is being conducted by members of the North Adams Police Department and state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office. 
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North Adams School Finance Panel Reviews Fiscal 2026 Spending Plan

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Finance & Facilities Committee took a deeper dive this week into next year's school spending plan.
 
The draft proposal for fiscal 2026 is $21,636,220, up 3.36 percent that will be offset with $940,008 in school choice funds, bringing the total to $20,696,212, or a 2.17 percent increase. 
 
Business and Finance Director Nancy Rauscher said the district's school choice account would be in relatively good shape at the end of fiscal 2026. 
 
As a practice, the district has been to trying not to exceed the prior year's revenue and to maintain a 5 percent surplus for unexpected special education expenses. However, this year's revenue would be about $500,000 so the amount used would be significantly more. 
 
"But given our current balance, we could absorb that in the net result of what we're anticipating in the way of revenue next year," Rauscher said. "Relative to committing $940,000 to school choice spending next year, that would leave us with a projected balance at the end of FY 26 of a little over $1.2 million, and that's about 6 percent of our operating budget."
 
But committee members expressed concerns about drawing down school choice funds that are projected to decrease in coming years. 
 
"I think mostly we're going to go through this and we're going to see things that this just can't be cut, right? It's just, it is what it is, and if we want to provide, what we can provide," said Richard Alcombright. "How do we prepare for this, this revenue shortfall?"
 
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