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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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MCLA Selects Pennsylvania Educator as 13th President

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The board of trustees on Thursday voted 8-2 to offer the 13th presidency of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to a Pennsylvania higher education executive. 
 
Diana L. Rogers-Adkinson is senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs and chief academic officer for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, providing system-level leadership for 10 universities serving approximately 80,000 students.
 
"I thought she was really able to articulate the value of a liberal arts education and our mission to both society and, you know, to our students in their lives," said Trustees Buffy Lord before presenting the motion to offer her the post. "I think that she'll be a fantastic advocate for MCLA within Berkshire County, but also in Boston. You know, my sense is that she's going to be able to fight for us if it needs to happen." 
 
Rogers-Adkinson was one of four finalists for the post out of 102 completed applications. 
 
Trustees expounded on her experience, leadership and communication style. She was also one of two candidates, with preferred by the faculty, the college's unions and Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega. 
 
The second candidate, Michael J. Middleton, provost and vice president at Ramapo College of New Jersey, withdrew after consultation wiht his family, according to Lord. 
 
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