State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing addresses the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition on Friday. Downing and other officials are vowing to return medical services to North County.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The closure of Northern Berkshire Healthcare has led many to draw parallels with the departure of Sprague Electric from the city nearly 30 years ago.
North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright sees one very important difference between then and now.
"When manufacturing left, it left. With health care, we will rebuild it," Alcombright said to applause from a capacity crowd in the basement of First Baptist Church in Friday morning.
The mayor joined fellow elected officials state Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, and state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, at the monthly forum of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition.
The topic of this month's meeting was "How Helping Professionals Can Support Community Members During the North County Community Transition" and the goal was to bring together a panel to address issues surrounding the health-care situation in North County.
Alcombright was not the only speaker to sound a hopeful note. Cariddi updated the crowd on services that have put into place to serve the needs of the community and that House leadership is "very engaged" in the process of finding a solution, and she herself is in regular communication with the governor.
"We need our health system back," she said. "We're not going to take no for an answer."
Downing also said he is working tirelessly on this issue.
"This is not a question of if," he said. "This is a when question."
He did, however, caution the forum several times that the process of restoring services in North County is a long process that has only just begun.
"This is not one step and we're done," he said. "We are in the opening stage."
And that's why it's hard to envision what those services will look like, and what will happen to the hospital campus, and economic development steps to be taken in the future, with the elected officials agreeing that once the "dust settles" and the immediate need for emergency services is filled, there will be many conversations about the future.
"We just don't have that picture yet," Cariddi said.
In the meantime, members of the community need to continue to make their voices heard.
"We need the community to continue to rally," Alcombright said, adding that he did not want to see the large crowds meeting Tuesdays at the American Legion to dwindle. "We can't let the momentum die. This is where we have to be hopeful."
northadams.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
MEMBER SIGN IN
State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing addresses the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition on Friday. Downing and other officials are vowing to return medical services to North County.
