NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council in a brief meeting on Monday gave final authorization on the purchase of new software for the city's financial systems. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey also read the annual proclamation in recognition of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 

 

The council had authorized by roll call vote at the end of August the borrowing of $536,562 to purchase new financial software package, Municipal Uniform Information System, or MUNIS. 

 

The mayor said it will include the treasure/collector, accounts payable, general receipts, the assessing package, compass, as well as a citizen portal to report problems or made requests to departments. 

 

The software will allow for more efficient processing and streamlined reporting to the state for both the city and school department. Future add-ons can include permitting, the mayor said at the August meeting. 

 

"One of my first jobs was to implement our current financial software known as KBS," said Macksey, who joined the city's finance department in 1995. "KBS has been discontinued, in a sense, and it's no longer supported. It's 29 years old ... It has served us well. It has been a good tool, but it is time for us to modernize."

 

The borrowing will cover all of the the setup, the software, the training and one year of annual subscription. The annual fee after that is about $109,000, which is comparable to KBS and the Springbook software that the city has been using as a bridge. 

 

She is hoping for a January start and said the short-term borrowing could be shifted to a long-term borrowing or paid out as debt in the budget since some debt will be falling off. 

 

The city's former auditor, David Fierro, has been using and loving it in his new position in Williamstown so he has been piloting it in a way, said Macksey.

 

Councilor Peter Breen said at the August meeting that he had recommended MUNIS for the town of Adams in 2004 and it has worked well for them. 

 

"So my feeling is, we've been putting a Band-Aid on this for a bit. And it's kind of time to move on it," she said. "The key is to get our house in order in the sense of our system that we rely on everyday, KBS, is on life support." 

 

The council unanimously on Tuesday night gave final approval for the borrowing. A two-thirds vote was required.

 

The mayor, wearing the color gold to honor Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, read a proclamation stating "every baby, every child, deserves the opportunity to grow up and live a healthy, happy life, yet cancer continues to wrap families of this fundamental right, causing tremendous hardship for all those affected."

 

The document encourages local organizations and community members in North Adams to join the fight "by supporting events, initiatives and fundraising efforts and wearing gold, the color of Childhood Cancer Awareness as a symbol of solidarity with the young warriors fighting this disease."

 

A proclamation has been read each year in support of the month and the AYJ Fund, founded 10 years ago by Kathy and Joseph Arabia in honor of their daughter Anna Yan Ji Arabia.

 

The fund has committed $1.3 million to research and helped in hosting the first conferences on gliomatosis cerebri, the brain cancer that Anna fought against for three years of her young life. 

 

The fund has also helped numerous local children and their families who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis through its programs. 

 

"It's work that is very inspirational for us to see the progress that the researchers are working on to make a difference," said Kathy Arabia. "We visited with some of them last week at Dana-Farber [Cancer Institute], and the work they're doing is tremendous, but at the same time, there are more and more children with cancer that we're connecting with."

 

Arabia said the fund's Smiles program has connected with more than 5,000 children and noted the support the fund has received from the mayors, the City Council and community over the years. 

 

In other business:

 

• General Government Committee Chair Ashley Shade reported that a new communication has been received from city solicitor in relation to a proposed draft amending the city's cannabis ordinance. She said a meeting with be scheduled with the mayor and the solicitor with anticipation the ordinance will be presented to council at the second meeting in September. 

 

• The council confirmed the reappointment of Nicholas Rigger to serve as a member of the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, for a term to expire Oct. 1, 2027.

 

At the last meeting, the council confirmed the appointments of Tori Wilhelm and Leigh Uqdah to the library board of trustees and Gabrielle Thomas to the Youth Commission, all with terms expiring Aug. 27, 2027; and Paul Moriarty to the Traffic Commission to fill a term ending Jan. 10, 2025, vacated by Paul King.