Richard Alcombright is serving his fourth term as North Adams’ mayor and is two years removed from one of the biggest blows to the western Massachusetts city: the abrupt closure of North Adams Regional Hospital. The move put some 500 people out of work in the city of roughly 13,000. The nearest full-service hospitals are about 20 miles away, but emergency and numerous other medical services have returned to the North Adams facility under the Berkshire Health Systems umbrella.
Alcombright, a Democrat, spoke with WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Jim Levulis about his recent state of the city address.