NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council has selected a former Drury High teacher to be its new city clerk.
The unanimous decision to offer the post to Cathleen King was made on Monday night.
King was a founder of the high school's alternative education program, the E3 Academy, in 2012. She's spent the last few years in Salem when her husband took a position of Salem State University.
"We are just trying to work our way back to getting to the North Adams area, we have a home in Clarksburg. And I was interested in the position because I have had a great interest in North Adams ever since I came to the area," she said.
"The people there have always been exceptionally friendly. I've always participated in the social events and things. I just think there's a wonderful vibe there."
King was one of 50 applicants for the post. The search committee initially spoke with eight candidates, three withdrew, and the field was narrowed down to King and Angela Brothers of Stamford, Vt., both of whom were publicly interviewed on Monday night.
The council commended the experiences of both candidates but felt that King had the skill set and demeanor to take on the difficult role overseeing the city's elections and vital records, and assisting the City Council.
King will replace Deborah Pedercini, who has taken a position as executive director of the Lee Housing Authority.
Several questions to King related to how her educational skills would translate to the clerk's office. She has been an educator in the humanities for 25 years, and holds a master's degree from Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She worked in New York State schools until joining the North Adams Public Schools in 2012. She is currently assistant to the head of school at Epstein Hillel School in Salem.
City Council President Paul Hopkins said only a few of the dozens of applicants had any experience as a municipal clerk.
"I've mentioned a few times I have a learning curve for this job," King said. "I've not worked as a city clerk, I've not had that kind of experience but I have worked in the office-style environment. I worked in business before I was a teacher so I was a teacher convert. I'm very organized and very solid at time management, and detail oriented."
King said she's responsible for a lot of organization in her current position and isn't afraid to take on new technology, noting she built a website for her side jewelry business.
"I find that intimidating as technology seems to be, sometimes I do pretty well with it once I get in there," she said.
The city clerk's job is a public service, King said, and the public should expect her to get them the information they need. If she doesn't know, she said she'd find it and get back to them.
"I'm really comfortable working with all different types of people I've had easygoing people, tough people, angry people, very happy people, all different types, come through the door for all different reasons to talk about parent-teacher conferences and you get different reactions there when you're talking about academic progress," King said, adding, "I have no problem being a neutral party politically. ... As for strong personalities, I deal with those on the daily, where I am now."
She said she's had to reinvent herself a few times over her career depending on the opportunities available and that she was looking for a place where she could fit in and contribute.
"That's why I said when I saw the opportunity opened up in North Adams, that North Adams was a place that just has really excited me since I got there and to be a bigger part of it was pretty interesting," King said.
The councilors (Councilors Jason LaForest and Jessica Sweeney were absent) did not spend much time in debating the candidates, both of whom had been interviewed previously by some councilors as part of the screening committee. Brothers' experience working in the municipal offices in Stamford were cited as a clear positive, along with her positive and friendly attitude, but King's background in office management and education won out, along with her cool tone and concise answers.
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North Adams' Route 2 Study Looks at 'Repair, Replace and Remove'
By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
Attendees make comments and use stickers to indicate their thoughts on the priorities for each design.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nearly 70 residents attended a presentation on Saturday morning on how to stitch back together the asphalt desert created by the Central Artery project.
Of the three options proposed — repair, replace or restore — the favored option was to eliminating the massive overpass, redirect traffic up West Main and recreate a semblance of 1960s North Adams.
"How do we right size North Adams, perhaps recapture a sense of what was lost here with urban renewal, and use that as a guide as we begin to look forward?" said Chris Reed, director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism, the project's designer.
"What do we want to see? Active street life and place-making. This makes for good community, a mixed-use downtown with housing, with people living here ... And a district grounded in arts and culture."
The concepts for dealing with the crumbling bridge and the roads and parking lots around it were built from input from community sessions last year.
The city partnered with Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program and was the only city in Massachusetts selected. The project received $750,000 in grant funding to explore ways to reconnect what Reed described as disconnected "islands of activity" created by the infrastructure projects.
"When urban renewal was first introduced, it dramatically reshaped North Adams, displacing entire neighborhoods, disrupting street networks and fracturing the sense of community that once connected us," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey. "This grant gives us the chance to begin to heal that disruption."
Nearly 70 residents attended a presentation on Saturday morning on how to stitch back together the asphalt desert created by the Central Artery project. click for more
This month, students highlighted the company Sheds-N-Stuff in Cheshire, showcasing its array of merchandise and services, including selling, delivering, and assembling its products.
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