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By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The City Council’s effort to vote on a budget for next fiscal year will have to wait two weeks after two councilors who support giving more money to the school system raised multiple charter objections at Thursday’s meeting.“I think the...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The Hampshire Regional YMCA marked the grand inauguration of its airnasium on Wednesday, the first YMCA in the Northeast to do so. The new 2,250-square-foot outdoor gymnasium, features exercise bikes, weight racks and a roof to protect...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — A day before an expected final vote Thursday on the city’s budget for the coming fiscal year, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra has submitted a new budget that increases school funding by twice her originally planned 4% hike, after more than a...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Over the span of a few days between the end of May and the start of June, members of the sixth grade class at JFK leave their classroom and head outdoors to walk together in laps around the school building. But these kids are doing more...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Several years ago, Heidi Weeks made the decision go into business with her business partner Tim Fisk, who runs Salon Herdis in Northampton. The two had the idea of opening up a boutique shop in Greenfield, where Weeks was living.“Between...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — In a small outdoor corridor wrapping around the school building of HEC Academy lies a garden, with various patches of land and small pots sprouting vegetation such as squash, pumpkins and zucchini. Around half a dozen students help...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Sunday marked a turning point in the lives of Northampton High School’s class of 2024, the day they would finish their lives as high school students and move on out into the world to start their post-secondary life. For some, it was a...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — One by one they came to the podium in City Council chambers — or they zoomed in online — with a straightforward message for councilors: Save the city’s school system from cuts in next year’s budget.Among them was Janis Totty, a retired...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — When the state’s Department of Agricultural Resources commissioner Ashley Randle took the podium at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School’s football stadium in front of a crowd of hundreds of parents and families Thursday...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Residents in the Pioneer Valley looking to get away to New York City for the weekend now have more of a means to do so, thanks to additional Amtrak Valley Flyer trains running between Greenfield and New Haven, Connecticut, that can...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The city’s schools are poised to layoff 17 full-time teachers next school year, the most significant of expected cuts should the City Council approve Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget next month.On the eve of the...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

For the first time in his 27-year career in Congress, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern had his remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives struck from the record on Wednesday, after he criticized former U.S. President Donald Trump for his numerous...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

HADLEY — When the employees of Paragus Strategic IT’s Hadley office stroll into the office on a given morning, they know that they have a good reason to stay there. After implementing the first stages of a plan in 2016 to transfer ownership of the...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Strong Avenue in downtown will once again be pedestrian traffic-only beginning on Wednesday, marking the return of the “Summer on Strong” season in the city. The closing of the street to vehicle traffic is meant to encourage outdoor...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Weeks of debate over the Northampton school budget neared a conclusion Thursday night after Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra unveiled a nearly $137 million fiscal 2025 budget to the City Council that calls for an 8.5% increase in the city’s...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Friday, May 17, marks 20 years since Gina and Heidi Nortonsmith were married, although the couple is quick to clarify that their real anniversary dates back to more than a decade before that.The two women met at a conference for LGBTQ...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Ticket holders for the Iron Horse Music Hall’s grand opening Wednesday night will be able to order a drink from the venue’s newly-designed bar after the nonprofit worked through state bureaucracy to obtain a liquor license just hours...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The Iron Horse Music Hall begins its long-anticipated opening of concerts and shows on Wednesday, although its owners are still anxiously awaiting approval from the state on when it may serve alcoholic beverages at its venue.Despite...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — On a scenic, warm May day, Bob Melnik leads a contingent of Northampton High School students outside the school and down a flight of stairs toward a small charcoal smoker grill to check on its contents. Inside the smoker are nearly a...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — As the deadline for Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra to a submit a budget proposal for the city draws near, an entrenched battle over the city’s public school budget is coming to a head.The Northampton School Committee defied the mayor’s...