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Steam tables are set up in the cafeteria in the Amsler Campus Center.

MCLA Campus Center Makeover Nearly Complete

By Andrew RoiterSpecial to iBerkshires
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New booth and lighting are being installed. The renovations in campus center also include a Subway franchise.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The renovations at the Amsler Campus Center at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts that began this summer are nearing completion, just in time for students to arrive this weekend.

"It'll be ready," James Stakenas, vice president of administration and finance, said last week. "We can feed students today, it's just where ... Right now, the contractor informs us that we'll be able to serve out of the cafeteria."

The renovations have revamped the look and structure of several areas of the campus center, including the main cafeteria.

"It will look amazingly different than it did six months ago," Stakenas said. "The cafeteria itself, the portion where students get their food and eat, has been completely remodeled. We have gutted it, we have put in new vents for heating and cooling. We are putting in new serving stations. We are putting in new flooring.

"It's been painted and we've created a new entryway so it'll feel a little more spacious on one hand, but more comfortable for students on the other."

In addition to the cafeteria, the areas that held Public Safety, the campus convenience store, the bookstore and the Marketplace have undergone renovations. While the convenience store, bookstore, and Marketplace will stay in the same area, Public Safety will move to the former Brewer-Perkins building on Ashland Street.

In order to expand the Marketplace, bookstore and convenience store, a stairwell from the second floor will be removed and the outside concrete patio area will be converted to indoor space.

"We will have a little more space for the bookstore. We'll have a little more space for the convenience store. This part of the project won't be done until late November," Stakenas said. "The expectation is that students will actually have a comfort zone in the Campus Center. There, they can meet their friends, have coffee, have a meal, wait for your friends in a comfortable location and have some gathering spaces that we currently don't have right now.”

Until the work is completed, the bookstore will reside in Sharky's commuter lounge and the basement floor of Bowman Hall will house aspects of the convenience store.

The completed Marketplace will not only be home to the bookstore and convenience store but a Subway sandwich shop as well.


The college is taking over some exterior space to create a new entrance.
"We did a small survey of students, talked to them about the choices, [and] Subway remained high. It wasn't the only one that students had an interest in but it had the highest level of interest," Stakenas said.

Stakenas added that the top choice amongst students was a Starbucks, but it was not financially viable for the college.

"We were looking for a coffee vendor to come in but weren't able to afford the coffee vendor that people wanted to come in. So we're setting up in this marketplace area, a special coffee area ... and Aramark, [MCLA's food service provider] will manage that," he said.

The college's administration looked through several concepts for the renovations before settling on one. Work was originally scheduled to begin last year, but the planning process took longer.

"It was just time," Stakenas said. "We needed to do something in the cafeteria. We needed to replace the carpets, we needed to freshen our services to students and we have a good relationship with Aramark and so we constructed a contract renewal with Aramark and put these renovations in as part of the contract renewal."

Stakenas spoke highly of the plans and the progress of the campus center.

"It's new, it's clean, it's beautiful. You get more choices for your meal plan dollars. And it looks like a good investment for the students."

Tags: building project,   MCLA,   

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Airport Commission Drama Surfaces at North Adams Council Meeting

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff

Ashley Shade takes the president's seat after being sworn in again as vice president. Bryan Sapienza, who was attending remotely, was re-elected president. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The controversies stewing at the Airport Commission bubbled over to City Council on Tuesday night with a councilor demanding an investigation and the subject of a failed lease agreement claiming conflicts of interest and mayoral tampering.
 
The spark was an agenda item appointing Doug Herrick of Williamstown to fill the term of one of two commissioners who resigned after a vote to enter into a lease agreement with airport user Michael Milazzo and Brian Doyle for the Northeast Hangar back in October. That vote was rescinded in December after a letter from Mayor Jennifer Macksey called the process into question, particularly noting the recommendation by a subcommittee to reject Milazzo's proposal and concerns from the inspector general's office.  
 
Milazzo and Doyle are involved in civil lawsuits around the hangar going back to 2019 as both a plaintiffs and defendents with former hangar owners and Milazzo is accused of damaging the structure, to the point it was taken over by the city and restored at a cost of more than $750,000. 
 
City Councilor Peter Breen repeatedly called for an investigation into the commissioners' resignations, pointing to the reasons given by Michael McCarron in his email in November. Herrick would fill his term. 
 
"It says that it is the unexpired term of Mike McCarron, my understanding, after reading his email, that he said that he's resigning because the city official is telling him how to vote," he said. "I think we should send this to committee to investigate why we would have a commissioner be forced to make a vote."
 
Breen, the council's liaison to the commission, also referred to an email by Airport Manager Bruce Goff describing the situation and raised concerns about federal and state laws being broken. 
 
"There are two investigations going on now. And then there is a third one, because it's $750,000 worth of grant money from the federal government," he said. 
 
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