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By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — With Superintendent Mark McLaughlin poised to leave the district at the end of the school year, the School Committee has identified a front-runner to take his place in Jennifer Voyik, current assistant superintendent of finance and business operations.

Before our family moves to a new town, and sometimes when we visit, a first stop is the public library. As the heart of the community, the state of the library says much about its priorities: how it values preserving and sharing knowledge, its welcoming of a variety of people and perspectives, how much it fosters conversation and education. Our family lives libraries. They are a source of entertainment (movies, TV series, crafts), education (books, programs, online and in person language courses), computer literacy, to name a few. They have provided social connections and part-time employment for our grandchildren, guidance through consumer reports, ancestry and grant writing programs.

Mount Holyoke College (MHC) is attempting to pressure South Hadley into allowing a 6,000 square foot electrical power plant to be constructed on Woodbridge Street, next to All Saints Episcopal Church and across from The Ruby apartment building. MHC calls the proposed building an “Energy Center” to “showcase” their commitment to carbon neutrality. Yet MHC’s own architect said at a public hearing on April 14: “Basically it’s an electrical power plant.” This is a residential zone. The South Hadley Planning Board must prohibit this industrial use. It will destroy the neighborhood’s charming village character, and abutters and nearby residents will be subjected to constant noise from the electrical power plant heat pumps. After encountering significant opposition from residents at that public hearing, MHC now claims the Planning Board has no jurisdiction and zoning regulations do not apply. They claim that the college is exempt under a state law called the Dover Amendment. The Dover Amendment gives institutions latitude in using land and structures for educationally significant purposes. But the Dover Amendment also stipulates the educationally significant goal must be the primary or dominant purpose. If an electrical power plant is educational, so too is a garbage dump. After all, it could teach students about the importance of recycling. The South Hadley Planning Board needs the courage to stop this industrial facility in a residential neighborhood. I urge town residents to come to the next public hearing. It’s June 23 at the South Hadley Senior Center, 45 Dayton Street; 6:30 p.m.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I wrote only one poem during my stint as an Alzheimer’s caregiver. Most of my writings were either straightforward recountings of my days with my mother as she unlearned things (finding her way home, tying her shoelaces) or analyses of lessons I learned from our time together.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A restructuring of the progressive New College of Florida by that state’s Republican leadership in 2023 prompted Hampshire College to offer students there a respite and opportunity to continue their studies in Amherst.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — After five years of little to no progress redeveloping the former Bardwell Library property into condominiums, the Select Board decided to investigate legal options against the developer for breach of contract.

I am writing to alert the citizens of South Hadley to the continuation of the public hearing on the proposed Energy Center of Mount Holyoke College, at the corner of Dunlap Place and Woodbridge Street. This hearing will be before the Planning Board on Monday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Senior Center and virtually.

At last Wednesday’s town hall with U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern at UMass Amherst, university community members asked specific, thoughtful questions; meanwhile, all McGovern’s answers were platitudes about the power we the people have and jokes about Russian influence. Enough. We know Donald Trump is a disaster and we are asking what Ywill do; all our elected representatives can offer is “Trump bad” and “we are holding a lot of town halls.” We need our elected leaders putting themselves on the line with real action, like Sen. Van Hollen traveling to El Salvador. Anything less is cowardice. At least McGovern admitted in response to what Congress is doing to protect due process: “not a goddamn thing.” And that’s what McGovern offered us in his town hall, too.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — April showers bring May flowers, but foliage isn’t the only thing blooming in South Hadley after a windy winter and early spring rain.

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 EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — Incumbents captured most of the votes in Tuesday’s annual town elections, which featured few contested races and drew only 1,552, or 5.79%, of registered voters to the polls.

Trump no longer remembers his campaign promise to reduce the price of groceries. He only remembers he talked a lot about groceries on the campaign trail. He now says he thinks the word, groceries, is quaint. Who knew?

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The town will break ground next week on a second round of renovations for Buttery Brook Park that will further expand recreational offerings with the addition of more pickleball courts, a disc golf course and a band shell, among other items.

I write in response to Lundy Bancroft’s March 14 letter “Negotiate, don’t escalate,” which uncritically echoes the counterfactual talking points of the Russo-Ukrainian War’s unconditional aggressor: Russia under the authoritarian regime of Vladimir Putin.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADELY — It’s shaping up to be a quiet election season in town this year, with a host of incumbents or newcomers running unopposed and only two contested races in District 1.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — South Hadley and Ludlow are organizing municipal and school leaders, students and community members from at least eight communities to attend a hearing Monday at UMass to persuade the state Legislature’s House and Ways Means Committee to support altering the state’s municipal education funding formula.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The Holyoke Rotary Club will give South Hadley residents a chance to honor their personal heroes during its Flags for Heroes fundraiser from May 17 to July 5 on the South Hadley Commons.

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The Select Board is reluctantly supporting a $58 million budget that will be presented at annual Town Meeting this spring, with members acknowledging that the spending plan for next fiscal year does not meet the needs of residents.

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

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.