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Staff Report

NORTHAMPTON — State grants totaling $10 million for communities hit by last year’s flooding have been announced by the Healey-Driscoll administration. The neighboring Franklin County towns of Deerfield and Conway topped the money list, with awards of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — The chairwoman of the town’s Conservation Commission has stepped down, a decision she said stems from alleged personal attacks and interference by elected and appointed officials at Town Hall.Miriam DeFant’s decision comes on the eve of a...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Two LGBTQ+-owned businesses are the first recipients of the city’s new vacant storefront tax credit program, an initiative established in autumn 2022 in an effort to fill empty spaces downtown.The two businesses are Many Graces Farm &...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Four new councilors will join nine holdovers when Amherst’s third Town Council convenes its first meeting Tuesday evening, with the only decisions on the agenda being a vote on who will serve as the council’s president and vice president...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Email correspondence to all commissioners on the Hadley Housing Authority is prompting a board member to bring an Open Meeting Law complaint against her colleagues.Risë Smythe-Freed on Tuesday filed the complaint against commissioners John...

By Chad Cain

HOLYOKE — The ambitious, $61 million effort to reopen the Broadway-style Victory Theatre moved $2 million closer to becoming reality this week after the city made a significant commitment of American Rescue Plan Act money for the project in its...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — The public on Tuesday night had its initial chance to weigh in on plans for a massive multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the old Tasty Top site that could dramatically alter the Route 10 corridor in the city.Though some residents...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — City councilors will vote next Wednesday on whether to approve a supplemental appropriation to pay for an $18,000 party celebrating the grand opening of the new $109 million Mountain View School.And although the Finance Committee...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — A Westfield developer is proposing an estimated $26 million to $30 million mixed-use residential and commercial center at the former Tasty Top site on Route 10. The proposed development at 93-97 Northampton St., which is tentatively...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — In the wake of two highly contentious public hearings that packed the City Council chambers, At-Large City Councilor Owen Zaret came before the Board of Health Tuesday night to present a proposed ordinance designed to stop deceptive...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — The Registry of Motor Vehicles now has another tool to track out-of-state driving records, an area where gaps in the past have been tied to tragic results.Over the weekend of June 25 and 26, the RMV tested and successfully rolled out a new...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Continued complaints from residents on a downtown street about difficulties in exiting their driveways, and congestion caused by those who take advantage of free year-round on-street parking, is prompting the Town Council to revisit possible...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — A requirement that dogs be on leashes and a prohibition on people swimming in the reservoirs are likely to be among rules the Select Board will ask to have placed on a new kiosk being installed on Bay Road by Kestrel Land Trust.Board members...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — The world’s largest coffee chain plans to add another shop in western Massachusetts this summer.The city’s Planning Board has unanimously approved a special permit to construct and operate a drive-thru Starbucks. The shop would be built...

By BRIAN STEELE

NORTHAMPTON — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern met with city officials on Wednesday to celebrate an injection of federal funding for the Manhan Rail Trail and brainstorm ways that lawmakers can help with establishing the Community...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — The outlook of an ongoing city project is getting clearer as the Mount Tom North Trailhead Park nears completion.Since the fall of 2021, the city has been constructing a trail system and recreation area on a 23-acre parcel of land off...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A new town department that will provide an alternative to police, with unarmed employees responding to calls that don’t feature violence of serious crime, has its inaugural leader.Earl Miller, regional director of recovery for the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY – A three-story storage building proposed to be built on 4.2 acres of farmland on South Maple Street is nearing approval from the Planning Board.For Ideal Movers and Storage to construct the 96,500-square-foot temperature-controlled building,...

By DUSTY CHRISTENSEN

HOLYOKE — Across the city, intricate brickwork and beautiful architecture are found around every corner. But the Paper City also has its fair share of vacant, crumbling, and tax-delinquent buildings that cause city leaders plenty of headaches.When the...

By MATT MURPHY

BOSTON – When Stanley Rosenberg left Beacon Hill in the spring of 2018 under less than desirable circumstances, no one could say for sure if or when the Amherst Democrat might resurface after a career spent in public service.But Rosenberg, who once...