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By EMILEE KLEIN

As South Hadley Army veteran Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, hiked along Signal Mountain in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park last week, he instinctively felt that he wasn’t alone.Burke began talking and singing to himself and breaking branches, noises...

By EMILEE KLEIN

NOTHAMPTON — Susan Loen still has the dozens of letters her eldest brother Kenneth Johnson wrote home from Vietnam to his parents and five siblings.Some of the letters contained short funny tidbits, like Johnson wearing out the back of his pants and...

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — Town Meeting members listened intently earlier this month as the accomplishments of this year’s Citizen of the Year were read out by Know Your Town member Linda Young.This year’s awardee is a Town Meeting member and a former Select...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Without any money to spend on the latest 1990s entertainment, teenage Tracy Taylor amused her young son by rolling down grassy hills at the Quabbin Reservoir, giggling with big smiles once the two reunited at the bottom.“I think we just...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — While driving to Town Meeting earlier this month, Lynn Sikes noticed signs punctuating the lawns of homes, urging residents to vote “yes” or “no” on a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion override to fund a new $122.6 million Jabish Brook...

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — David Alan Labonte narrowly edged out three other candidates to win a seat on the Select Board on Monday. Labonte received 307 votes, or 36 more than Micheline Turgeon’s 271 votes. The other two candidates, John Arcouette and Nathaniel Albin...

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The South Hadley Education Association has issued a vote of no confidence in the Mosier Elementary School principal on behalf of 43 staff members at the school.Union President Amy Foley read a shortened version of a statement at a...

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The principal and assistant principal at Michael E. Smith Middle School will both not return for next school year.According to an email sent to the guardians of Michael E. Smith students on April 30, Assitant Principal Anne...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — One day this spring as she was walking past the gymnasium at Jabish Brook Middle School, guidance counselor Jennifer Parker heard something that made her do a double-take — in a good way.A group of eighth grade girls were calling out a...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Residents formalized the position of town manager in town bylaws, adopted a zoning bylaw for stand-alone battery storage systems and endorsed a roughly $61.6 million budget for fiscal year 2025 at Monday’s Town Meeting — though some...

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — Town Meeting members will consider capital purchases, money transfers to stabilization accounts and a handful of operational budgets for ambulances and sewer, for a total of $5,019,193, at the first of a two-part annual Town Meeting on...

By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — Candidates in the coming town election — including the seven candidates in contested races for Select Board and Housing Authority — recently outlined their views at a candidate night forum in hopes of swaying residents to vote for them when...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Town Meeting voters will consider codifying the new town manger position, authorizing two public roads, adding bylaws for battery storage system installations and approving a contested school budget that will cut 14 people, including 10...

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — Town Meeting voters signed off Wednesday on a $56.4 million budget for fiscal year 2025 that creates a new Human Services Department and lays off 24 staff members in the school system.In the four-hour meeting, the 84 Town Meeting...

By EMILEE KLEIN

NORTHAMPTON — Above the rows of shelves at Northampton Wools, amid all of the yarn of different colors, materials and thickness that fill every cubby in sight, sits a famous sweater worn by Charlize Theron in the Academy Award-winning film “The Cider...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Among UMass Cold Springs Orchard’s 35 acres of apple trees hang little orange tents at the top of the trees that, despite the blazing color, are discretely managing pesky moths.These prism-shaped moth traps release pheromones to attract...

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — A zoning change to allow multifamily housing in the town’s business district along major corridors, a town budget encompassing a new Department of Human Services, a feasibility study for a new elementary school, and a school budget that...

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — Fire Distri`ct No. 2 voters will vote to approve a $1.73 million fire department budget and a roughly $902,000 water department budget during its annual meeting on Monday, May 6.The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the district...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — The Jabish Brook Middle School Building Committee officially approved the schematic design for a new school, and will now move on to calculating an official budget for the project before a townwide Proposition 2½ debt exclusion override...

By EMILEE KLEIN

NORTHAMPTON — The partnership between HEC Academy and Western Massachusetts Rabbit Rescue began when a non-verbal student wanted to get involved with the community.Many of the volunteer opportunities offered by the therapeutic public day school for...