News
Jones trustees ask Amherst town manager to reject library bid
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Trustees for the Jones Library are recommending that the lone bid for renovating and expanding the Jones Library, which is at least $6.5 million above projected costs, should be rejected.In 6-0 vote, the elected trustees advised Town Manager...
State OKs Valley Green Energy program for Amherst, Northampton, Pelham
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A program offering Northampton, Amherst and Pelham residents more electricity supplied by green sources should be ready to launch by this fall.Amherst officials announced on May 8 that the state Department of Public Utilities recently...
The Lehrer Report: May 17, 2024
Garden report: The bluebells have bloomed and some are pink. The iris buds should open by the end of the week.Reminder: take down bird feeders. Several bears have been spotted in neighborhoods.***Senior Services Director Hayley Bolton sent me an...
Amherst College faculty join students in urging divestment from military suppliers to Israel
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — The faculty of Amherst College is joining the college’s Student Senate in asking trustees to divest from corporations supplying military equipment to Israel in its ongoing war in Gaza.The divestment appeal, made last week, came with support...
UMass graduation speaker Colson Whitehead pulls out over quashed campus protest
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Disturbed by the arrests of 132 protesters on the University of Massachusetts campus this week during a pro-Palestinian encampment, Colson Whitehead, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the...
Three candidates for two Select Board seats make pitches in Hadley
By SCOTT MERZBACH
HADLEY — Protecting farmland, keeping Hadley affordable and family friendly, and promoting commercial development appear to be areas of agreement for the three candidates vying for two seats on the Select Board at next week’s town election.Fielding...
South County Senior Center opts not to renew church lease after rift over LGBTQ program
By CHRIS LARABEE
SOUTH DEERFIELD — The Senior Center Board of Oversight has opted to not renew the center’s lease to use the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church’s function hall after a disagreement over the Rainbow Elders program.With the current lease expiring May 31,...
Around Amherst: High school sleuths point out $2M mistake in town budget
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Members of Sunrise Amherst recently uncovered a $2 million discrepancy in the fiscal year 2025 municipal budget when it was released on May 1, showing how the same vehicles for various departments were listed for purchase two years in a row...
Large, loud parties in Amherst lead to arrests on last weekend before UMass graduation
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Eight college-age people are facing criminal charges for violating the town’s noise bylaw after police responded to two large and loud parties over the weekend, the last before University of Massachusetts commencement on May 18.At a Pelham...
Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: Venture beyond your garden walls: Plant sales and noteworthy gardens to visit this season
By MICKEY RATHBUN
After long weeks of yearning for gardening weather, we’re suddenly inundated by spring. Endless outdoor chores beg for our attention — composting, mulching, edging, scrubbing birdbaths and, at least in my garden beds, pulling out multitudes of maple...
Pelham TM backs 6% school assessment, community choice aggregation program
By SCOTT MERZBACH
PELHAM — A 6% increase in the assessment for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools and the final step in establishing Valley Green Energy, a municipal community choice aggregation program for Pelham, Amherst and Northampton residents and businesses,...
Deerfield’s Tilton Library expansion ‘takes a village’
By CHRIS LARABEE
SOUTH DEERFIELD — With tosses of dirt, dozens of residents, town officials and legislators celebrated the start of Tilton Library’s expansion last Friday.The ceremony was more than a decade in the making and officially kicked off the project as the...
Plans to overhaul Amherst’s War Memorial Pool site questioned
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A preliminary vision for breathing new life into the 2-acre area around the War Memorial Pool shows a new bathhouse building anchoring the site, along with play areas, a spray park, walking paths and a memorial area.While Kuth Ranieri...
UMass chancellor defends protest crackdown, arrests
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — University of Massachusetts Chancellor Javier Reyes defended the arrests of 134 people at a campus pro-Palestinian encampment last week, telling a special session of the Faculty Senate on Tuesday afternoon that the decision to break up the...
‘Home away from home’: North Amherst Library officially dedicated, as anonymous donor of $1.7M revealed
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — An avid reader throughout her life, who often brought her three children to the North Amherst Library as they were growing up, Hilda Greenbaum saw the need to improve the 1893 building to ensure it would continue to serve future generations,...
Political newcomer defeats Shores Ness for Deerfield Selectboard seat
By CHRIS LARABEE
DEERFIELD — In the town’s highest-turnout race in at least a decade, political newcomer and longtime resident Blake Gilmore defeated Deerfield political fixture Carolyn Shores Ness, 898-857, for a seat on the Select Board.Gilmore claimed victory...
Funding will limit ARHS track/field makeover to cheapest option
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Widening the existing track from six to eight lanes and rejuvenating the interior grass field appears to be the extent of renovations that can be done to Amherst Regional High School’s track and field because of limited funding.While the...
Town manager’s plan shorts Amherst Regional Schools’ budget
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A $97.3 million town budget for fiscal year 2025, maintaining municipal staffing and programs and promoting climate change and racial equity objectives, is being proposed by Town Manager Paul Bockelman, even as concerns are being raised that...
Granby Bow and Gun Club says stray bullets that hit homes in Belchertown did not come from its range
By EMILEE KELIN
BELCHERTOWN — The president of the Granby Bow and Gun Club insists that stray bullets that hit two homes and a shed in the Turkey Hill area of town did not originate from the club’s long range.Club President Ryan Downing read a statement at the...
New Hopkins Academy athletic fields nearing completion
By CONNOR PIGNATELLO
HADLEY — The red shed off to the side of the Hopkins Academy softball field has seen some use. For decades, Golden Hawks baseball and softball pitchers used it as a backstop in pregame warmups. But now, with construction on a new athletic field...
