MCLA Community Members Recognized at North Adams Neighborly Awards

• Barbara Baker, TRiO Student Services Support Program Director 
• Sergeant Justin Biasin, MCLA Campus Safety  
• Miles Cigal, MCLA Student 
• Christopher Hantman, Coordinator of Civic Engagement and Advisor to Student Government 
• Hellen Hogge, MCLA Student 
• Officer Khalil Paul, MCLA Campus Safety  
• Christopher MacDonald-Dennis, Chief Diversity Officer 
• Kaylea Nocher, MCLA Student 

Healey, Driscoll Talk Transportation Funding, Municipal Empowerment

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:56PM / Friday, January 24, 2025

The governor talks about a transportation bond bill filed Friday and its benefits for cities and towns.

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll were greeted with applause by municipal leaders on Friday as they touted $8 billion in transportation funding over the next decade and an additional $100 million in Chapter 90 road funds. 

 

Those were just a few of the initiatives to aid cities and towns, they said, and were based what they were hearing from local government

 

"We also proposed what, $2 1/2 billion the other day in higher education through investment in campuses across 29 communities statewide," the governor said. 

 

"Really excited about that and with those projects, by the way, as you're talking to people, you can remind them that that's 140,000 construction jobs in your communities."

 

The governor and Driscoll were speaking to the annual Massachusetts Municipal Association's conference. Branded as Connect 351, the gathering of appointed and elected municipal leaders heard from speakers, spoke with vendors in the trade show, attended workshops and held their annual business meeting this year at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

 

Healey and Driscoll followed a keynote address by Suneel Gupta, author, entrepreneur and host of television series "Business Class," on reducing stress and boosting energy, and welcomes from MMA Executive Director Adam Chapdelaine, outgoing MMA President and Waltham councilor John McLaughlin, and from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu via her chief of staff Tiffany Chu.

 

"We know that local communities are really the foundation of civic life, of democracy. We invented that here in Massachusetts, many, many years ago, and that continues to this day," said Healey. "It's something that we're proud of. We respect, and as state leaders, we respect the prerogative, the leadership, the economy, the responsibility of our local governments and those who lead them, so you'll always have champions in us."