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Erika Bailey whipping up a batch of cookies in her new bakery on Main Street.
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New North Adams Bakery Opens on Main Street

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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Cookies with a smile at Bailey's Bakery.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Erika Bailey decided this year it was time to take a leap and leave her corporate career for cupcakes.
 
The result is Bailey's Bakery, which opened in the former Empire Cafe on Main Street last week. 
 
"I have been baking since I was a little girl with my grandmother," she said. "It's always been something that I've loved to do but I went to school and thought I was supposed to do the corporate thing. I did that for a while and it's definitely not what I wanted to do."
 
Bailey, of Stamford, Vt., was approved by the Planning Board in July but it took awhile to prepare the space inside Keith Bona's Berkshire Emporium into a bakery. The bakery now has ovens and display cases and coffee from Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters. There's still some tables to get in place for when people stop for muffin and a coffee.
 
She plans on having a changing variety of baked goods — cupcakes, muffins, whoopie pies, pastries, brownies, cookies and other goodies. Gluten-free goods may also be available and she takes orders including for cakes. 
 
Bailey said her specialties are probably her cupcakes and cakes. In fact, she had a couple wedding cakes on order. But she also has a sugar cookie that her customers have compared to those once made at Molly's Bakery. 
 
"My sugar cookies are very similar to the Molly's cookie," she said. "People have said that they have liked those as well."
 
The sublet space has been the site of several ventures, including an earlier bakery, Luma's Muffin & Mug. Bailey said she had originally been interested in the old Molly's on Eagle Street but the cost of putting a kitchen back in, and the size of the space, was prohibitive. 
 
"Brendan [Bullett] had given my name to Keith because this was opening so it just kind of worked out," Bailey said.
 
The first week had been a little slow, she said, probably because of the cool, wet weather and that her opening had been quiet. 
 
"There were two guys who came in this morning that said they were going to put a little message out I was here and to figure out when they could all come down," Bailey said.
 
Bailey's Bakery is open Mondays and Tuesdays 7 to 3; closed Wednesdays; Thursdays and Fridays 7 to 5; and Saturdays 9 to noon. Hours may be subject to change. 

Tags: new business,   bakery,   

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Clarksburg School Seeing Residential Enrollment Rise

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — As talk once again turns to the possibility of a school project, the School Committee wants to clear up misconceptions about enrollment. 
 
School choice students had made up about 25 percent or more of the student body at one time; that's now down to 17 percent and will fall off rapidly in the next few years. 
 
"The numbers in our school are pretty clear that people are moving into town to attend the school," said Superintendent John Franzoni at last Thursday's School Committee meeting, held virtually. 
 
There are currently 172 pupils in prekindergarten through Grade 8, of which 34 are school choice. 
 
There are no school-choice students in kindergarten and first grade, and no non-Clarksburg children in prekindergarten, which is ages 3 and 4 years. The School Committee has not opened slots to school choice since 2023.
 
The bulk of the school choice numbers are in Grades 6 through 8 — a total of 22. 
 
"That's a far cry from all the people I hear that say, why would we invest in our building when half of the kids are out of town," Franzoni said. "They're not. Most of the building, 83 percent of the building, is Clarksburg residents, and that's going to increase, because 27 of those 34 students are Grades 5 and above that are school choice."
 
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