A new market and cafe is opening on Spring Street.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A new market and cafe on Spring Street is gearing up to open the first week of June.

 

The Spring Street Market and Cafe promises breakfast and lunch on premises, dinners to go and a full service market in Williamstown's downtown commercial district.

 

"On the market side, we'll have every product from shampoo and soap to higher-end gifts," proprietor Karen Gosselin told the Board of Selectmen at its Monday meeting. "We're trying to do the whole wide range.

 

"I want to become a real part of this community and get to know the people who live here and work with them."

 

Gosselin, who told the board she has operated a business in Bennington, Vt., for some time, was before the Selectmen to obtain a common victualler license.

 

Her shop will offer mostly baked goods but also an oatmeal bar with toppings in the morning along with coffee and other beverages. At lunch, Gosselin plans homemade soups, grilled sandwiches, salads and more baked goods.

 

The cafe will offer dinners to go and will provide catering services, she said.

 

"Everything we serve will made that morning," she said. "Vegetable soups, non-vegetarian soups. Soup is my baby. I love to make soups."

 

Monday marked the final Board of Selectmen meeting for two members of the board, Chairwoman Jane Allen and David Rempell.

 

Allen wasted no time engaging in her next act of service to the town.

 

By a unanimous vote, her colleagues decided to name her the coordinator of the newly forming Williamstown Cultural District.

 

Organizers have completed the application process to be named the 25th officially designated cultural district in the commonwealth and the second in Berkshire County, along with Pittsfield's Upstreet Cultural District.

 

The cultural district program is an initiative of the Massachusetts Cultural Council to promote walkable areas where the creative economy is thriving.

 

The Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art and Williamstown Theatre Festival are anchors of the town initiative, but there are more than a dozen local organizations involved in effort.

 

Fran Lapidus spearheaded Williamstown's effort.

 

Allen said on Monday the town hopes to be officially designated at the MCC's May 20 meeting.

 

"If it is not going to be the town that manages the district, there has to be a managing entity," she said. "The hope is, the plan is, that the town would manage for the first year and that after the first year, it is the intent of the Chamber of Commerce ... to be the managing entity."

 

Allen volunteered to manage the district under the authority of the Board of Selectmen, who appointed her to the task.

"I'm loving this project and very excited about the ramifications of it," she said.

 

In other business on Monday, Selectwoman Jane Patton updated her colleagues on the activity of her Public Safety Building Study Committee.

 

Patton said the committee is focusing on the Main Street parcel owned by the estate of Kurt Lehovic and is negotiating with the owners to gain access to the property to test the ground for suitability.

 

"All public safety buildings need to be on land that is certified as seismically suitable," she said. "And there is also wetlands mapping."

 

Patton said the committee believes the Lehovic parcel is large enough to accommodate a combined police and fire facility. And the committee has been told that Village Ambulance Service is interested in moving into the current fire station on Water Street if it becomes vacant.