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The Selectmen are hoping to attract interest in the Adams Memorial Middle School.

Adams Seeking Interest In Memorial Middle School

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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ADAMS, Mass. — There are a ton of ideas about what the town could do with the Adams Memorial Middle School once it takes the building over this fall and officials want to know them all.

The town's Community Development Department will be sending out a request for expressions of interest on the school building next week to find out if there are interested developers and figure out what could be possible with the building. Town officials are also asking for residents and organizations to express their interest and ideas.

The results will be presented at a public hearing with what hopes to be a clearer picture of possible usages.

"A perfect example of the type of stuff that would help for feedback is the Police Athletic League or the church's basketball league wants to use the gym," Town Administrator Jonathan Butler said on Wednesday. "Everything from buying the entire property and turning it into a paper mill to renting a couple rooms and running a youth program [we want to hear]."

The RFEI will be the focus for developers and it outlines the condition and specs of the school, town features and asks for developer ideas and information. The town is accepting any ideas but does stipulate that it wants to retain the Valley Street fields as public space. 

That will help guide the town's future planning to release a request for proposals next spring. 


"I think you can call this an information-gathering mission," Butler said. "The goal is to find out what's real and what's not."

The town hopes to get developer responses back by March 9 and will be hosting a site visit on Feb. 22. Without the RFEI, Butler said only non-profit companies have shown interest in the property.

Selectman Michael Ouellette said townspeople should have all the information in front of them and broken down into what each idea will do for tax rates and services. From there, they should make a decision on which way to prioritize the town's efforts. He also encouraged the department to advertise the building in major cities to help find interested parties. While it can be costly to advertise in those cities, Ouellette said it would be worth it.

The middle school is currently being used while Hoosac Valley High School is being renovated. Once that construction is complete, the town will retain ownership.

Adams Memorial School RFEI
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Adams Clerk, Treasurer & Assessor Ask Request Raises

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen has begun a deep review of the fiscal 2026 budget of $19,548,441, up $717,916, or 3.7 percent over this year.
 
The annual budget workshops started with a preliminary review and presentation of the budget books last week and continued on Tuesday with the Executive, Finance and Technology and General Government sections. 
 
That included the elected town clerk, assessor and treasurer/collector who all asked for a 5 percent raise to start bringing their salaries closer to other department heads and citing increased responsibilities and workloads in their offices.
 
Each began with reading a statement that they had emailed interim Town Administrator Kenneth Walto, Chair John Duval and Finance Director Ashley Satko on Feb. 27 requesting the raises that would amount to $7,000 total in the budget.
 
"This 5 percent increase would help to align these three positions with the salaries of the other department heads throughout the town of Adams. The average of these other department positions is approximately $89,000," said Assessor Paula Grover. "It would bring our salaries to $81,933, which is still well below the average salary."
 
Town Clerk Haley Meczywor said, "this disparity raises questions about fairness and equally, the allocation of resources." 
 
Treasurer Kelly F. Rice noted that raises of between 4 and 10 percent had been given to other departments and positions, above the regular 2 percent cost of living. 
 
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