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By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — South Hadley will expand its urban canopy over the next two years through the Environmental Justice Tree Planting Program, an initiative that calls for planting 400 trees to replace old trees and boost the town’s climate resilience.

By EMILEE KLEIN

LUDLOW — A new regional energy manager will guide decarbonization and sustainable energy efforts for 15 communities in Hampshire and Hampden counties as part of a collaboration to bring down energy costs.

By EMILEE KLEIN

AMHERST — Peanut butter jars, takeout containers and soft plastic wrap often end up in the recycling bin, contaminating viable plastic, cardboard and paper for recycling and resulting in more garbage in landfills.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — As a former Girl Scout, Celia Overby hoped her 6-year-old daughter would find a sense of self, responsibility and community with a local troop just as she did during her childhood, but no troop in the area was accepting new scouts her daughter’s age.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — Danielle Kelly has offered supplemental reading instruction for almost 500 South Hadley students since starting at the district in 2006, preventing 95% of students from needing special education reading supports and boosting literacy rates.

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — While volunteering at a tiny snack pantry for Granby Junior Senior High School students in 2017, Judy DeLong noticed a student wearing a sweatshirt with a wet, wrinkled and frayed collar.

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — Veteran Michael Slater left the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night feeling like he witnessed the taping of an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show” — a long-running tabloid talk show known for its sensationalistic topics — rather than a presidential address.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Tensions ran high during Monday night’s Select Board meeting as Belchertown families and school district staff — who spilled out the back and sides of the room holding signs to protest the proposed $2.1 million cut to the district’s level-services budget — pleaded with board members to consider a Proposition 2½ budget override for fiscal year 2026.

By EMILEE KLEIN

HADLEY — The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department Service’s Northeast regional headquarters in Hadley is proposed to close on Aug. 31 as part of the federal General Services Administration initiative to end leases for 164 federal office spaces nationwide, according to a list leaked by a government whistleblower.

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — A second round of tree cutting in Dufresne Park will take place later this winter along the Kendall Street side of the park, where crews will selectively cut hemlock and pine trees and remove the fallen logs.

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — After a year of public hearings about a special permit for a gravel pit on Trompke Avenue, the Select Board this week approved the applicant’s request to withdraw their application based on a legal issue with the membership of the board.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — For 15 minutes Wednesday morning, Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler turned the Belchertown High School Auditorium into his history classroom, teaching the Belchertown student body about a series of individuals who shattered the glass ceilings for Black people in their respective industries.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Weeks after learning the Belchertown school budget is $2.1 million short of funding level services, the School Committee is contemplating staff layoffs and reductions, cuts of extracurricular activities — including sports and performing arts — and closing Cold Spring School.

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — Nearly 15 months after the town approved $5.6 million to renovate the former West Street School into municipal offices and a senior center, the committee in charge of the project is proposing a $14.4 million restoration that would require passage of a Proposition 2½ override.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Belchertown is the most recent community to endorse the completion of the 104-mile Mass Central Rail Trail that runs through 26 communities across the state.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The Select Board is contemplating raising fees for trash and recycling over the next two fiscal years, a decision that if approved would come on the heels of a $100 increase this fiscal year to fund implementation costs for a new automated, cart-based trash system.

By EMILEE KLEIN

Fifth grader Hattie Griffin rubs the soft, thin tree trunk with one piece of sandpaper before switching to a different piece with a softer grit, hoping to make her already-velvety broom handle even smoother. 

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Window World of Western Massachusetts has a long history of providing quality windows and doors, but the business only provides one piece in the whole picture of home improvement — until now.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — After three years of discussion and fundraising, Plains Elementary School will officially change its name to Henry J. Skala School to honor of the school’s late principal.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Coming off a year of regional and national honors in baton twirling, the Belchertown Twirlers started their competition season strong when two members earned first and second place in the Pre-teen Miss Majorette of Massachusetts Pageant.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Four years after an online petition garnered more than 5,200 signatures in favor of Massachusetts returning 430 acres of state-owned land in Belchertown known as the Lampson Brook Farm to the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band, a new House bill proposes giving the tribe authorization to steward a majority of the farm and forestland.