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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Supporters of the Jones Library building project are condemning a letter sent to both the Trump administration and National Endowment for the Humanities requesting termination of a $1 million grant going toward build-out of a humanities center within the expanded building. 

We are writing to celebrate and express our heartfelt gratitude for our incredible Amherst community! On a drizzly Sunday, April 6, nearly 200 residents joined forces all over town for the annual Amherst Rubbish Roundup! Volunteers from all Amherst districts came in support of this community cleanup to beautify our beloved town. These amazing volunteers braved busy roadsides, bustling sidewalks, downtown parking areas, quiet conservation trails, and public school lands to collect an impressive 184 bags of garbage and recycling.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A yearly event to promote energy efficiency, recycling, electric and hybrid vehicles and solar power is being held on the Town Common Saturday, alongside the Amherst Farmer’s Market.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Creation of a 6th Grade Academy inside the Amherst Regional Middle School, coinciding with the opening of the new elementary school building on South East Street, will be supported by $450,000 in capital spending.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A large, colorful display depicting the four seasons, created by students in two kindergarten classes from cardboard, wood and paper, is greeting visitors in the lobby at Fort River School.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — University of Massachusetts officials are dispelling unconfirmed chatter this week that federal agents affiliated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement were present on the Amherst campus.

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s complacency and inaction felt less like a personal failure and more like a symptom of the Democratic Party itself. Instead of providing clarity or hope, the recent town hall at UMass Amherst on Wednesday seemed to be just another reason to disengage from the dire state of American politics completely.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Three full-time positions at the Jones Library will remain vacant, as they have for the past six years, in the $3.09 million budget proposal recommended by the elected trustees.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Several Amherst Regional High School students recently had the opportunity to travel to the State House to offer testimony to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing, explaining to legislators why funding formulas for state aid to local school districts should be revised.

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

The COVID pandemic — with its fear, and its quarantine, and its ongoing recommendations for limiting social contact — is still affecting us. Even if we are not among the many unfortunate individuals who are still ill with long COVID, our situation has changed. We are now living in a society where loneliness has increased and trust has decreased. As Jeet Heer wrote in The Nation, “In the wake of COVID, Americans have become more individualistic, more conspiracy-minded, and less committed to collective social effort.” We tend to be more separate from each other.

By CAROLYN BROWN

An Amherst festival dedicated to a famous Baroque composer is coming … Bach.

We have always been in favor of the Jones Library renovation and expansion. We think the improvements to the HVAC system and teh climate controlled space for Special Collections alone make it a worthwhile project. The addition of dedicated children’s and tenn space, in addition to the expanded ESL space and teh new display space for teh African American Civil War tablets, speaks to those citizens in our community whose interests and needs can be easily overlooked. The fact that the renovation doesn’t use fossil fuels and advances the building to a net-zero structure gives it another great advantage over the current structure. 

By JOHANNA NEUMANN

Humans are great at building things, but it’s also beginning to dawn on us that these impressive and sometimes magnificent structures also impact the other creatures that we share this earth with.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Professional mold remediation in the music and instrument storage rooms during April vacation, along with recent roof repairs and replacement of HVAC air filters, are among steps being taken to improve air quality at the Amherst Regional Middle School.

By EMILEE KLEIN

For the last two years, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment has aimed to help more than 1,000 third graders in Springfield Public Schools envision themselves as scientists and engineers.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Near annual challenges in putting together budgets for the Amherst and Amherst-Pelham Regional schools that meet the financial guidelines set by the Amherst Town Council is leading to the concept of forming a joint town and school task force, which would be responsible for examining educational needs over a five- to 10-year period.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Amherst Town Council is allowing the Jones Library expansion and renovation project to continue moving forward, nixing a measure that could have rescinded the borrowing authorization to pay for the work.

Many thanks to Gazette columnist J.M. Sorrell for putting us straight about spelling, grammar and word sources [“The official language,” April 2]. 

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Faculty at the University of Massachusetts are calling on Chancellor Javier Reyes and President Martin Meehan to form a compact with the 250 land grant and public universities across the country to fight Trump administration actions impacting academic freedom and free expression, including politically motivated detentions of students and faculty and visa revocations for some international students.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Responding to an online petition that collected nearly 250 signatures, officials at Amherst Regional High School have reversed a recent decision to close nearly all of the school’s bathrooms for students during lunch periods out of concern with a rising level of vaping indicated by vaping detection alarms frequently going off.

By TOM WASKIEWICZ

Small family farms are more than businesses; they are a way of life, shaped by generations of experience, sacrifice, and resilience. Every field plowed, every seed planted, every harvest gathered carries with it the wisdom of those who came before. But there’s no handbook for passing down this knowledge. Instead, it happens in the quiet moments — side by side in the fields, in conversations at the kitchen table, in the habits formed over years of hard work.