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Deluxe's Amanda Brinkman with Benjamin Lamb and Suzy Helme during a tour of the downtown last month. The city will learn next week if Brinkman will be back.

North Adams Will Know Small Business Voting Results Next Week

Staff ReportsiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — It's all over but the counting for five communities hoping to become this year's Small Business Revolution - Main Street winner.
 
The city's weeklong push to collect as many votes as possible toward the $500,000 economic development boost ended at midnight on Thursday.
 
Five municipalities across the nation were trying their best to reach out to every resident, visitor, celebrity, official and sympathizer they could find to get as much support as possible. 
 
Next Wednesday, Deluxe Corp. will announce the winner of the second season of the Small Business Revolution — and which community will get technical aid, consulting and physical improvements worth a half-million dollars. 
 
The community and about five of its businesses will be featured in an online series with the opportunity for national exposure. 
 
The effort was initially spearheaded by City Council President Benjamin Lamb and Events Coordinator Suzy Helme. Soon more people jumped on board — particularly Eric Kerns, Becky Miner, Keifer Gammell, Julia Dixon and Jodi Joseph of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. 
 
The big break was when North Adams, the smallest city in the state, was selected as one of eight semi-finalists — out of 14,000 nominations. Last month, Amanda Brinkman, chief brand and communications officer at Deluxe, arrived with a camera crew to meet local small-business owners, talking with them about their goals, their challenges, their successes and their needs. 
 
Last Thursday, shortly after 7 a.m., Brinkman and her SBR co-host Robert Herjavec, best known for "Shark Tank," announced the five finalists that included North Adams. Online voting began immediately, with votes able to be cast once every 24 hours on any device or browser.
 
Deluxe, a Minnesota-based company that had its start in printing checks and now also provides small-business solutions and financial services, started the Small Business Revolution after traveling the country seeking 100 business to feature for its 100th anniversary.
 
The next year it asked for nominations to help improve a downtown, with Wabash, Ind., becoming the first winner of the Main Street initiative. Some 180,000 votes were cast in total last year. 
 
That's been far surpassed in this last week's voting, according to communications from Deluxe. In a Facebook post on Wednesday, it said the volume of voting was so high that some people were having connection errors and decided to extend the deadline from 9 p.m. Thursday to midnight:
 
"It is a TIGHT race. A dead heat at the top, and very close throughout the rankings. It's still anyone's game. Thank you for your patience and good luck to all five towns!" 
 
The #MyNorthAdams team admitted to "shamelessly" contacting as many celebrities and social media powerhouses they could find. That included current and former politicians, reaching out sports teams, and connecting artists. Both James Taylor and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren spread the message. They may have hit the jackpot when movie star and Pittsfield native Elizabeth Banks sent out a tweet to her 2.28 million followers as the deadline loomed. 
 
The final days also had supporters on a whirlwind tour of radio and television stations, a "snow angel" flash mob in the middle of a blizzard and photo pose with the Empire State Building — or at least a scale model of it. 
 
North Adams has been solidly in third place through the week, except for a quick shift to second that last about three minutes. But Wabash was reportedly 11,000 votes down right before it won.
 
The results will be announced on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m. in Club B-10 at Mass MoCA. It will be preceded by a showing of Episode 1 of Wabash's season at the North Adams Movieplex at noon and followed by a party at Bright Ideas Brewing.
 

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Clarksburg Gets 3 Years of Free Cash Certified

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Town officials have heaved a sigh of relief with the state's certification of free cash for the first time in more than three years.
 
The town's parade of employees through its financial offices the past few years put it behind on closing out its fiscal years between 2021 and 2023. A new treasurer and two part-time accountants have been working the past year in closing the books and filing with the state.
 
The result is the town will have $571,000 in free cash on hand as it begins budget deliberations. However, town meeting last year voted that any free cash be used to replenish the stabilization account
 
Some $231,000 in stabilization was used last year to reduce the tax rate — draining the account. The town's had minimal reserves for the past nine months.
 
Chairman Robert Norcross said he didn't want residents to think the town was suddenly flush with cash. 
 
"We have to keep in mind that we have no money in the stabilization fund and we now have a free cash, so we have now got to replenish that account," he said. "So it's not like we have this money to spend ... most of it will go into the stabilization fund." 
 
The account's been hit several times over the past few fiscal years in place of free cash, which has normally been used for capital spending, to offset the budget and to refill stabilization. Free cash was last used in fiscal 2020.
 
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