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Snow Expected Friday Morning; North Adams Schools Close

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 The Berkshires can expect 2 to 5 inches of snow overnight into Friday morning.
 
 A winter weather advisory is in effect from midnight through noon on Friday.  A wintry mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain is also possible late Saturday night into Sunday, which could result in slippery travel conditions, according to the National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y.
North Adams Public Schools will use an “emergency day” for Friday in light of the coming weather and staffing shortages because COVID-19. There will be no school or afterschool activities on Friday.
The state Department of Transportation is warning of 3 to 9 inches across the state and the governor has directed all non-emergency state employees working in Executive Branch agencies not to report to their workplaces Friday.  The administration is also urging residents to stay off roadways and to use public transportation when possible.
 
"We will have crews patrolling and chemically treating our roads by late this evening as snow is anticipated to begin in Western Massachusetts just after midnight tonight," said Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver. "Depending on the region of the state, the storm will last until Friday afternoon, with heavy snowfall in some areas falling at the time of the Friday morning commute. Travelers are advised to use caution, travel at reduced speeds, and be mindful of poor visibility."
 
Accuweather meteorologists are predicting 1 to 2 inches of snowfall an hour in some locations, particularly in areas south and east of the Berkshire, though South County may be affected.
 
A bitterly cold airmass is expected early next week.
 
Said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist, Jonathan Porter: "Our latest snowstorm is quick moving but intense which is going to create dangerous road conditions and significant travel delays from parts of the South through the Middle-Atlantic and the Northeast."
 
A snowstorm in Virginia earlier this week left thousands stranded on I-95 for more than a day.

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2024 Year in Review: North Adams' Year of New Life to Old Institutions

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz poses in one of the new patient rooms on 2 North at North Adams Regional Hospital.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On March 28, 2014, the last of the 500 employees at North Adams Regional Hospital walked out the doors with little hope it would reopen. 
 
But in 2024, exactly 10 years to the day, North Adams Regional was revived through the efforts of local officials, BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who was able to get the U.S. Health and Human Services to tweak regulations that had prevented NARH from gaining "rural critical access" status.
 
It was something of a miracle for North Adams and the North Berkshire region.
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed in 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC had renovated the building and added in other services, including an emergency satellite facility, over the decade. But it took one small revision to allow the hospital — and its name — to be restored: the federal government's new definition of a connecting highway made Route 7 a "secondary road" and dropped the distance maximum between hospitals for "mountainous" roads to 15 miles. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," Rodowicz said. "It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated countywide system of care." 
 
The public got to tour the fully refurbished 2 North, which had been sectioned off for nearly a decade in hopes of restoring patient beds; the official critical hospital designation came in August. 
 
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