NORTH ADAMS — The city has been awarded nearly $1 million to fix three more worn out roadways and build another parking lot in the senior center.

North Adams was one of 11 Berkshire county communities to receive funding from the Community Development Block Grant Program for 2025, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced last week during a trip to Great Barrington. The federally funded, annual program has paid for previous city improvements; this time the city landed $950,000 to fix roadways around Prospect Street and build a second parking lot at the Mary Spitzer Senior Center.

Both projects will go out to bid this winter and construction will start in spring 2026, Mayor Jennifer Macksey said.

“We're very excited and fortunate to have this,” she said.

These are the details of the projects.

The city will use $693,500 to repair roadways on Beacon, Wesleyan and Tremont streets.

According to project descriptions from city grant applications, these street improvements are the next phase of an extended effort to use this funding program to fix streets connected to or near Prospect Street. This round of funding will cover the costs to build the new streets, which were engineered by PARE Corp. in Holyoke under a previous grant award. The application estimated that construction "can be done within" 18 months.

An example of repairs done to the sidewalks and roadway on Jackson Street in North Adams.

Previous CDBG funding rounds since 2020 have paid for design and reconstruction of Bracewell, Freeman and Chase avenues; Laurel Way; Orchard and Brook terraces; and Liberty, North Holden, Hall, Grove, Jackson, Hudson and Hermon streets.

Residents on Beacon and Tremont streets expressed appreciation when hearing of the plans for their street improvements on the pothole-ridden and "chewed up" roads, as one resident described. Some noticed the effort to repair the streets in the neighborhood and said the streets "needed it."

A deteriorating section of Beacon Street in North Adams is among the areas to be repaired thanks to state grant funding through the Community Development Block Grant program.

North Adams will use $120,000 to construct a new parking lot at the northerly side of the senior center at 116 Ashland St.

This is the fourth phase of CDBG funding that the city has used to complete capital improvements to its senior center. Previous rounds since 2018 have paid for a roof replacement, updated the interior, redid the kitchen, made basement repairs and installed the “beautiful” new deck that Macksey said the city was about to reveal to the public when a wind storm knocked down a neighboring tree on it, destroying it. Now, it has to wait for the repair to be made.

The parking lot of the newly renovated Mary Spitzer Senior Center in North Adams.

During a design firm’s analysis in 2023, it was noted that the existing parking lot was tight and provided limited spots, according to the grant application. The firm believed there was more space on the northerly side of the center that could allow for a new small parking area that could help alleviate current congestion in the existing lot.

“We're always cramped on parking,” Macksey said of the lot, which the center shares with the Housing Authority. “We have residents who take the bus but we do have a significant amount of people who still drive and park.”

She said a new lot would also create more space for staff parking.

Macksey said the remaining $136,000 will pay for a portion of the administrative salaries for the three full-time employees of the Office of Community Development that helmed the grant application process. She gave a shoutout to former Director of Community Development Michael Nuvallie for his continuous work securing CDBG funding. Nuvallie retired earlier this year.

“He puts his heart and soul into this grant application … and to helping out moderate to low income neighborhoods," the mayor said. "He has been wonderful at making sure our young-at-heart community is safe and he should be applauded for continually getting this grant funding year after year.”

The Community Development Block Grant program provides annual grants to cities, states and counties based on formula to develop "viable urban communities" by maintaining housing, living environment, and economic opportunity "principally for low- and moderate-income persons," according to the Office of Housing and Urban Development.

There are two primary Massachusetts CDBG funding programs, the Community Development Fund and the Mini-Entitlement Program. North Adams has consistently been a Mini-Entitlement community since at least 2020, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Entitlement communities generally have a population of 50,000 or more and receives this funding directly from HUD.

The state website says that municipalities selected for the Mini-Entitlement Program are determined by using a formula calculation "based on high statistical indicators of need, poverty rate and population size."