MAC Treasures Aims to Re-Open in North Adams

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — After four years at 600 Main St. in Williamstown, MAC Treasures has found a new home at the site of West End Auto at 362 State Road in North Adams.  

MAC Treasures is a donation-based tag sale that helps support the Minerva Arts Center, which provides performing arts opportunities to students in Northern Berkshire County.  

MAC Treasures provides an unique shopping experience, where you can find “treasures” including men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and accessories, books, children’s toys, music, housewares, furniture and seasonal items at reasonable prices. In addition to these “treasures” customers and donors alike enjoy the fact that everything donated to MAC Treasures is recycled, repurposed or reused:  Items that can’t be sold due to condition are re-donated to other organizations that can use them, such as stained blankets going to a shelter, torn denim being turned into paper, or rubber being melted off of shoes with holes.

MAC Treasures will be open for donations only beginning Thursday, May 12, at 362 State Road. Donation hours will be 2 to 6 p.m. during the week and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends.  Everyone who makes a donation during the month of May will receive a 10 percent coupon, which will be valid when the store opens officially on June 14th, pending approval by the North Adams Planning Board.  Gearing up for the grand re-opening, MAC Treasures will have a series of tag sales May 21-22, May 28-29, June 4-5 and June 11-12.

Cost, Access to NBCTC High Among Concerns North Berkshire Residents

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Thursday, April 25, 2024

Adams Select Chair Christine Hoyt, NBCTC Executive Director David Fabiano and William Solomon, the attorney representing the four communities, talk after the session. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public access channels should be supported and made more available to the public — and not be subject to a charge.

 

More than three dozen community members in-person and online attended the public hearing  Wednesday on public access and service from Spectrum/Charter Communications. The session at City Hall was held for residents in Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg and North Adams to express their concerns to Spectrum ahead of another 10-year contract that starts in October.

 

Listening via Zoom but not speaking was Jennifer Young, director state government affairs at Charter.

 

One speaker after another conveyed how critical local access television is to the community and emphasized the need for affordable and reliable services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. 

 

"I don't know if everybody else feels the same way but they have a monopoly," said Clarksburg resident David Emery. "They control everything we do because there's nobody else to go to. You're stuck with with them."

 

Public access television, like the 30-year-old Northern Berkshire Community Television, is funded by cable television companies through franchise fees, member fees, grants and contributions.

 

Spectrum is the only cable provider in the region and while residents can shift to satellite providers or streaming, Northern Berkshire Community Television is not available on those alternatives and they may not be easy for some to navigate. For instance, the Spectrum app is available on smart televisions but it doesn't include PEG, the public, educational and governmental channels provided by NBCTC.