LENOX, Mass. — The Mount has announced the winners of the 15th annual Edith Wharton Writing Competition.

The Mount and The Berkshire Eagle established the writing competition in 1998 in support and recognition of emerging young writers in Edith Wharton's beloved Berkshire region. This year's writing competition is sponsored by The Berkshire Eagle, Berkshire Life, WSBS and Newspapers in Education.

The 2014 competition invited local and regional students from grades nine through 12 to submit entries in one or both categories: Fiction and Poetry. Marsha Recknagel, former writer-in-residence at Rice University, and Simon's Rock professor Peter Filkins served as judges. The

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Save North Adams Regional Hospital campaign is hoping to broaden its support base after delivering some 12,000 petitions signature to the governor's office on Tuesday.

That includes reaching out to officials and residents in North County communities, and the state's federal officials, to attend one of the weekly community meetings at the American Legion.

And Gov. Deval Patrick. The group even offered to buy him a beer.

Patrick was otherwise occupied at a memorial for the Boston Marathon bombing victims on Tuesday with Vice President Joseph Biden, but the Save NARH

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city closed a section Beaver Street at about 4 p.m. on Tuesday because of fears of a mudslide or banking collapse along a section of the state highway.

Local officials said the closure is "because of slope erosion on the easterly side of the road and the possibility of further erosion with the heavy rain."

Several hundred yards of the street, which is also Route 8, have been sectioned off just south of the Clarksburg town line and traffic is being detoured until further notice.

 "We have a geologist coming in tomorrow and, hopefully, we will have some

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Northern Berkshire Community Television Corp. seeks applicants for its Alma Lousie Mary Riello scholarship for 2014. The deadline to apply is May 9.

This scholarship is open to high school seniors and a total of five scholarships of $200 each will be awarded in May.

Through her role as a founding member of the board of directors of Northern Berkshire Community Television, Riello led in the development of local Public Access. As a community leader she took her vision on the air in a very popular show, "Bone Soup," during which  local events and cultural activities took center stage.

The multitalented Riello was a well-known actress who often

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Spring often brings with it an increased stream of people needing emergency housing.

Which is why spring is also the perfect time for a fundraiser for Louison House, the only homeless shelter in Northern Berkshire County.

But this year as the shelter prepares for its second annual Bunny Run-Walk-Hop to End Homelessness fundraiser on Saturday, April 19, there's another reason to worry that the one 22-bed home in Adams might struggle to meet the needs of the region: the closure of Northern Berkshire Healthcare and

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Two busloads of community members and health care workers boarded buses Tuesday morning to present petitions calling for the reopening of North Adams Regional Hospital to Beacon Hill.

"We've collected about 12,000 signatures on the petitions and we're highlighting that we're entering our third week with still no light at the end of the tunnel as far as emergency services being up and running again," said Jim Gander of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "There's still a tremendous

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Public Library will be the permanent home for the "Mill Girl."

William Oberst's 40-by-50 inch oil painting depicts a young girl working in a cotton mill, and inspired by the photographs of working children Lewis W. Hine took in 1911 at the Eclipse Mill.

New Library Director Mindy Hackner told the trustees last week that fundraising over the past year combined with a donation match from the Hunter family with the city has allowed the painting to remain in the library. The machine the girl is working at was produced by the James Hunter Machine Co.

"I think

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What if there was actually an exciting new use for the existing hospital building?

What if BMC and decisionmakers determine that the present North Adams Regional Hospital structure is simply too large for the present and declining population in North Adams and Northern Berkshire?

Besides the difficult road to recovery for all of the displaced employees for whom we as a community will need to do our very best to help become either re-employed elsewhere within the region or re-trained for new opportunities, there would then be the enormous task of re-utilizing the existing hospital structure.

What if we as a community and as a county were to re-imagine something radically new, something

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The former River Street Package Store bit the dust on Monday.

The two-story building at 177 River St., which also had contained apartments, was demolished after being mostly empty for a number of years.

The structure and business had been owned by the Lora family of Stamford, Vt., for many years. Joseph S. Lora III sold the building to Berkshire Hills Development Co. LLC in December for $250,000; the business was relocated to the east end of River Street, in the former Lopardo's Liquors.

The principal of Berkshire Hills is John S. "Jack" Wadsworth Jr., a partner in the Porches Inn on the

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The stopgap measures are in place.

Local banks are working with those who lost their jobs to smooth out finances. Agencies like BerkshireRides are working to make those who need to get to Pittsfield for doctor's appointments have a way to get there. Visiting nurse and hospice services are back up and running in North County.

But none of that takes away from the feeling of trauma the community has experienced with the closure of the North Adams Regional Hospital nearly three weeks ­ ago — trauma that has been experienced by North Adams

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