Local officials and department heads attend Thursday's vaccine drill to see how it will work.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — North Berkshire first-responders will be receiving the COVID-19 vaccine beginning Monday at St. Elizabeth's Parish Center.
"Here we've been able to set it up with a good flow," said Amalio Jusino last week. "Everybody's separated by 6-foot distancing cones and screening and registration in the little front part, and then you walk into the actual vaccine clinic."
The Moderna vaccine is being distributed through the Berkshire County Boards of Health Association but the clinic is being managed by Northern Berkshire EMS and the Northern Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee.
"We wrote our plan, met their guidelines," said Jusino, a member of the emergency planning committee. "It's all our staff, through the NBREPC and through the COVID-19 Operation Center."
The clinic was prepared on Thursday night with representatives from participating communities and Mayor Thomas Bernard on hand to go over the plans and run a practice drill so town officials and department chiefs could communicate with their members what to expect.
The operations center had been set up last March upon Gov. Charlie Baker's declaration of emergency regarding the novel coronavirus. The center had been prepped for possible use as a drive-through testing center but never used as such.
A drive-through vaccination protocol would be too cumbersome, said Jusino, because of the registration steps and the need for the each individual to be observed for at least 20 minutes afterward.
There have been a few scattered reports of adverse reactions but the main complaint has been arms being sore at the site of the inoculation. Jusino said there will be an ambulance crew on hand just to be safe and about 25-30 staff to work the clinic.
He'd been queried about his thoughts on the vaccine by a first-responder and said he had responded he was definitely getting it even though he doesn't normally get the flu shot.
"I'll wait for everybody else but I'm definitely getting it because the reality is, this is different ... and I want to bring some normalcy back," he said.
The clinic is open to any first-responder in the communities of Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Florida, Hancock, New Ashford, North Adams and Savoy. Firefighters, police and emergency medical technicians in those towns can register, as can first-responders who may work in those communities.
Registration is made online through the state website.
"People are very happy with the registration process," said Jusino. "That's good, it takes the weight off of us because we didn't know how we were going to call each department and ask who you're going to send. ... It just speeds up the flow in here. We're looking at the same screen, they show an ID, boom, there's their name."
The Moderna vaccine requires two shots for full coverage so those getting the first shot will leave with an appointment for the second. The clinic will run Monday and Friday from 2 to 7.
"I think we'll get all the first-responders next week with one mop-up update being held centrally in the county," Jusino said.
Vaccinations have been occurring since mid-December with health-care and long-term care facilities the first in line; first-responders are also part of this Phase One rollout along with home-based health-care workers and health-care workers who are not in direct contact with potential COVID-19 exposure. The second phase will include those 75 and older, educational and other essential workers, then those 65 and older and people with one co-morbidity. Access for the general public is not expected until April.
The arrival of the vaccine is a huge relief, he said. "I got an email today from a firefighter in another town and he thanked me and the group that we have and the city for getting this to where it is today, and he was able to register and he was just so very happy.
"I literally was like, choked up. ... I don't think everyone realizes how monumental this is after a year of this."
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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.
Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.
"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.
The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.
The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar.
Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.
She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.
"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."
The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.
"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."
They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.
"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.
As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen.
Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.
"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."
Jake Eberwein showed the committee sections of the nbess.org website, including the resources page, which will be key to keeping residents informed about the study’s findings and collecting information from those residents. click for more
The planes were paper, the buildings cardboard and Main Street was a hallway at Colegrove Park Elementary School, but the setup represented nearly two weeks of creative research and design by the pupils in the public schools' 21st Century Summer Program.
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