In 2021, Jennifer Macksey made history when she became the first woman to be elected mayor of North Adams, Massachusetts. In a hard-fought race, the former city treasurer won by just a few hundred votes. Two years later, Macksey cruised to a second term. This week, the mayor pulled papers to seek a third two-year term in November. Since taking office, Macksey has led Berkshire County’s second-largest city through extreme weather events, a contentious vote to build a new school building, and renewed efforts to shore up crumbling infrastructure. As she prepares to make her case to voters, the mayor spoke with WAMC about her successes and challenges four years in.
MACKSEY: Well, to start Josh, as you know, serving as mayor has been always a long, life-long passion for me. And I pulled my papers early this year because I wanted to show the community my commitment and my continued efforts to serve the community. Plus, with my work schedule this summer, I wanted to make sure I dotted all my Is and crossed all my Ts going into this. So, the work of my administration is far from over. I am still really focused on getting a public safety complex, I'm focused on all of our infrastructure needs, my commitment to making North Adams a safe community to live in, and as well as being a central point for tourism. As you know, I've grown up in municipal work and in higher ed, but my heart resides in public service, and I'm far from over. I still have a lot of energy, I still have that burning desire to continue to make North Adams the best it can be.
WAMC: As far as things you would point you to say, this is evidence of strong work I've done in the North Adams community as mayor- What comes to mind? What are you flexin’?
Well, right out of the gate, I'm very proud of the work that I've done in securing some really big federal grants, the continued work of the Hoosic River Revitalization Project, the Reconnecting Communities, the Strong Communities Grant, everything on the school side, supporting all of that, especially the Greylock School project. I think we've really been focused on reaching out and taking advantage of every dollar that we can that's available to us at the state and the federal level. I also think that it was an important move to move the police station to a temporary location, but there still is a focus on a permanent home. And I also think it was a big achievement to get that Greylock School project passed. While there is, I will say, still a divide about the school project, I think we need to really invest in our students and in our community and stay focused on that, and I'm hoping that everyone will come along once we start building that project. But I really think, you know, two years, it flies by. Four years flies by. To me, I have no concept of time anymore, but I just work, work, work in the best interest of our community.
Let's turn to challenges. What are areas that you feel like you've been unable to make the progress you've wanted to make that you hope to continue in a presumptive third term?
Well, a challenge, it's a positive and a negative, is the public safety complex. I really believe that we should be reusing some of our city-owned property to build a complex that will house police and fire, but finding a clean site or being able to secure funds to clean sites have been an issue. I also think a struggle has been this ongoing infrastructure issue. We when we came into office, when I came into office, nothing was really designed or shovel ready. That's what we've been really focusing on, and in order to do engineering studies and assessments, you need funding, and a lot of our technical assistance funding has been around engineering services. And I also think I inherited somewhat of an infrastructure disaster that had been dying for the last 50, 60 years, and it's going to take us a little while to get back up to speed. So, that's probably the biggest challenge, is addressing what's underneath the ground. However, we've been very successful in getting funding for some sidewalk improvements, continuing with the community development money, the increase in Chapter 90 from the governor has been wonderful, but there's still a lot more to do. If you were in my office today, Josh, you would see my whiteboard of all of the federal funding and state funding that we're applying through the summer. Grant applications are flying out of here faster than people walking in to pay their excise bills. So, we're working very hard on really capturing dollars so we don't have to borrow and impact our tax rate. Keeping North Adams an affordable, safe community has always been a primary goal of mine.
There's been a number of things along the way that I'm interested to hear you reflecting on at this point in your political career- The unsuccessful bid to push forward the forest management plan in North Adams, that that generated a lot of conversation. Moments like that- What have you learned about the North Adams community during those moments where you've had to sort of backtrack on some plans?
So, Josh, I want to correct you. I don't think it was an unsuccessful bid, I think it was a bid that we needed more information on. I think it's important that people understand, I do listen to my constituents, I do listen to my community, and I want to be armed with the best information to make sound decisions to help our community. With that project specifically, it got legs on it that it just started to run before we were even walking, and I really took into account all of the input from the people who had concerns, and I didn't think I had enough information to move that project forward. Does that mean it won't move forward in a different form in the future? Absolutely not. We do have issues up there with runoff and trees and invasive species. So, those things need to be addressed, but to the magnitude that was put forth in that proposal- I hit pause on it because I really did listen to the community about that. So, I don't want to say that it's a negative, and I don't want to say it was a failure. I just want to say it was a time for us to take a step back and regroup, and I'm not afraid to do that.
Another sort of long-standing question in North Adams has been the fate of the Mohawk downtown. This was an issue that hit a roadblock when you took over power in North Adams four years ago over your disagreement with the previous mayor over his plan to deal with the property- Any updates on that? Because as of 2025, it remains just as shuttered as it was four years ago.
Well, yes and no. Yes, it's not as shuttered, because we did secure funding to redo the marquee, which was a considered blight in our path to our downtown. So, we redid the marquee. The question is, do we want to run it, or do we want to sell it? And I really think it is the heart, it's a polished gem in our downtown, and I think we need to keep a pulse on that building. We are in the process as we speak, Josh, of applying for a technical assistance grant to kind of help us maybe form a nonprofit that could do some fundraising for us for that building and look at the next phase of renovation. We were fortunate to get an earmark from [former North Adams mayor and Democratic State] Representative [John] Barrett to help us continue doing some design work, and that's our next step, but it's something that we just don't want to turn over to anyone, because it's such an important part of our history as well as an important building in our downtown. So, it's work in progress. It's been vacant for many years, and hopefully we'll start getting some more life into it, but it's something that you just can't make a knee jerk reaction and solve the problem that quickly. Again, it all comes down to the mighty dollar and what funds are available and how we leverage that grant opportunities versus putting it on the taxpayers. And right now, I'm focused on fundraising, and I'm focused on getting some grants to help us rejuvenate that building.
Lastly, you mentioned earlier this ability to attract federal grants to North Adams- We're entering a new era in the second Trump administration where a lot of federal funding sources long taken for granted appear to be under threat or possibly taken away. Do you feel like you're prepared to navigate a much more complicated federal funding scene over the next couple years than maybe you have in the last four?
Yeah, I certainly am prepared, in the sense that we take each step as it comes, Josh. We're really focused on making sure our funding is secured for the river project. None of our projects thus far have been impacted, but we don't know what the next six months in Washington is going to be. I'm hoping everyone can take a deep breath and calm down a little bit, but that's only my personal perspective, and we'll just take it as it as it comes. My biggest concern is the school lunch program, and if our federal funding gets cut, what does that do to our children in our community that rely on that program? But as far as our other projects, we're still continuing forward. Most of them are in evaluation, assessment, and design phase, so it's not like we've got something ripped apart and then all of a sudden, the money goes away. But we're just taking everything in stride. We're very fortunate, I'm very fortunate, I have a good relationship with the federal delegation, and I feel confident that all of our projects will move forward. Maybe a little bit slower than what we planned, but we will continue to move forward.
