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Nicole Senecal puts the finishing touches on her painted crosswalk at Eagle and Main Streets. Four artists are embellishing eight crosswalks in the downtown this week.
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At Holden and Main. Holden Street will be closed in the evening on Wednesday and possibly Thursday.

North Adams Begins Decorative Crosswalk Painting

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
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Center and Marshall got a wavy design from Gail Sellers and Dan Morgan.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Watch out for road closures in the downtown as the city's crosswalks are embellished with original art over the next week. 
 
The painting began Tuesday, with some crosswalks completed and others getting some outlines down for later details. 
 
The work is expected to be finished in time for First Friday on June 6. 
 
On Wednesday, artist Nicole Senecal was painting the crosswalk at Main and Eagle, which will match the artwork at Main and Ashland. 
 
"For me, its spreading happiness, spread a little paint and get to make people feel happy," she said. "I'm grateful that North Adams is doing it so I can be a part of it. It's a really cool project."
 
Senecal's design was a path of beehive hexagons with flowers and leaves in blue, white, yellow and green.
 
At Marshall and Center streets, a wavy yellow design was painted by Gail Sellers and Dan Morgan. 
 
Some councilors have been advocating for some time for painted crosswalks, which were last done more than a decade ago by Art About Town. 
 
Councilor Andrew Fitch had promoted the idea most recently for painting crosswalks and electrical boxes. The boxes were painted last year and this year, the city put out a call for artists to paint eight crosswalks. 
 
Four artists were chosen and each are receiving an honorarium of $2,000 for design and implementation. The project is a collaboration of the North Adams Cultural District Committee, Assets for Artists, Fitch and Mayor Jennifer Macksey's office, and funded through the Cultural Council. 
 
Fitch thanked the mayor on Tuesday for moving forward with the project.
 
"Thank you so much for helping to brighten up downtown and really look forward to seeing those
completed," he said. 
 
The other crosswalks being painted are at Main Street and American Legion Drive and Holden, Center and Holden, Eagle and Church and Eagle Street and Center Street. Closures will run from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. 
 
Holden Street, from Center Street to Main Street, will be closed on Wednesday, May 28, from 8 p.m. until late evening and possibly again on Thursday, May 29. The street will be open for the morning commute. 

Tags: crosswalk,   

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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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