Inside, Helfand was faced with a shuttered store that she knew deep down would need a massive renovation. Outside, along Main Street, all was crickets.
If you're a restaurant owner who wants to stay open in the midst of a public health crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic, you essentially have one choice: trying to eke out a living by offering take-out, and perhaps delivery.
By the end of the summer, service is expected to be extended to the Mason Library and the town water department, known as the Great Barrington Fire District, on East Street.
In a letter to the editor, Nick Diller writes, "When I was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, the New England Candy Company products were all over the place."
The story of Robin Helfand, and her eponymous candy store in Great Barrington was read by more than two million Wall Street Journal readers this Tuesday and the story was far more sweet than sour.
There are a variety of theories as to why the seasonal labor market has been tightening over the years. Birth rates have been dropping for at least a generation, and more students are willing to forgo a paycheck in the summer while taking a volunteer position or internship to build their resumes for life after college.
While a long list of businesses and other organizations said they supported the new bylaw, it did not sit did well with a number of other merchants, who felt the ban would harm their businesses or who objected on the grounds of legislative overreach.
Forty businesses and organizations have signed off on the Great Barrington proposal. There are some high-profile businesses on the list, including Guido’s, Prairie Whale and Soco. Most recently the Berkshire Co-op Market came on board.
"If you don't think we have a problem, watch drivers circle our streets on Saturdays like desperate sharks.”
--- Writer and downtown resident Mickey Friedman
"It was unfathomable to me that this president could do something so cruel, so un-American and, quite honestly, something that's just bad policy."
-- Brooke Mead, director of the Berkshire Immigrant Center
In her letter to the editor, Robin Helfand writes: “We are a nation whose “greatness” is rooted in our acceptance of people from all places who came here under a myriad of circumstances.”
For its ninth annual Fill-the-Basket campaign, Salisbury Bank collected food throughout the months of November and December at all 13 of its branches in Litchfield County; Berkshire County, Massachusetts; and Dutchess and Orange Counties in New York.
