Clarksburg Closes Case on Police Department

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
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 CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Select Board this week formally voted to permanently close the Police Department and authorize the town administrator to sell the cruisers. 
 
"I think we can officially close the book on the Police Department," said Select Board member Colton Andrews at Monday's meeting. "And I've got no issues with allowing our town administrator to basically put the cruisers up for sale and and see what he can negotiate for a, I think, fair, equitable price."
 
Town Administrator Ronald Boucher was raising the issue in preparation for the fiscal 2026 budget. The town's cruisers have been stowed in the garage at Town Hall since the retirement of Police Chief Michael Williams in September. His departure left the town with one part-time officer so department activities were suspended and the town turned to State Police coverage. 
 
"I don't anticipate us continuing with a police department," said Boucher. "I talked with Chief Williams last week, and asked him how everything is going, and he says the State Police are covering everything pretty good. There's nothing out of the ordinary."
 
He said there is some interest in the town's two police cruisers and that selling off the vehicles would provide room in the two-car garage for the animal control officer. It could also be used for storage by the Highway Department. 
 
Select Board member Daniel Haskins said he had not heard any complaints about the State Police coverage. Andrews agreed, noting that the board's position in September had been that state coverage would be adequate. 
 
"We haven't really run into any major issues with chief retiring yet," he said. "That kind of closed the chapter, I think, on the Police Department. And I think we're fine."
 
Boucher said if the town does decide to end the Police Department, "it will be done" because of the amount of money it would cost reinstitute it.
 
Haskins said the state had allocated two details with troopers covering in four-hour patrol blocks. 
 
"Either this week or next week, there's going to be another four-hour patrol, and then from there, they're going to give us a report what they did," he said. "We can bring it back to the board and we can decide if we want to do further patrols."
 
Boucher will do some research on the value of the cruisers to see what the town could get for them. 
 
The board also approved a three-year contract with Stantec for monitoring the closed landfill and heard the school's well water passed a sanitary survey compliance plan. Boucher said a representative from the state Department of Environmental Protection sampled the water in October. There is currently a capacity of 1,600 gallons per day and the school averages 750 a day.
 
The board also discussed the roof project at the school. Bids were due by Thursday and Boucher said he would have the information for the board on Monday. He also had asked the town clerk to budget for a special election should one be needed for debt exclusion for the roof project. 
 
Select Board member Robert Norcross was absent. 

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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."

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