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21-Year-Old Takes Out Papers To Run For Mayor Of North Adams, Massachusetts

New England Public Media | By Nancy Eve Cohen
Published April 13, 2021 at 9:25 AM EDT
Josh Vallieres, 21, of North Adams, Massachusetts, is running for mayor.
Paula Evans
/
courtesy Josh Vallieres
Josh Vallieres, 21, of North Adams, Massachusetts, is running for mayor.

A North Adams, Massachusetts, college student who grew up in the city has taken out nomination papers to run for mayor.

Most people wait until they've graduated from college before going for their first big job. Not Josh Vallieres.

If elected, the 21-year-old Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts junior would still be juggling classes when his first term as mayor would start next spring. But he said he can do that.

Vallieres wants to improve sidewalks and roads, diversify the arts economy and make government more open.

"We need more information that's coming out of City Hall that the general public can see on a daily basis, that can better explain what's going on in their government," he said. "The more transparency we have equals the more political participation we're going to see in the future, too."

Vallieres said he was inspired by former Holyoke mayor Alex Morse, who was elected at age 22.

So far, Vallieres is the only one to announce candidacy for mayor. The current mayor, Tom Bernard, is not seeking re-election.
Tags
Regional News GOVERNMENT & POLITICSCITIESMAYORSELECTIONSYOUTHWESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Nancy Eve Cohen
Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
See stories by Nancy Eve Cohen
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