Sign of the times?

A sign on the papered-up window of the old Medicine Shoppe advertises free rent on the space "while you prepare your shop."

The Medicine Shoppe closed last July, and Florentina's Pizza, which was
next door to the pharmacy, moved out about a year before that. At the
time, Florentina's owner Elvan Ozcelik said Cumberland Farms, which
owns the building, didn't want to renew a lease for his business. He
heard that the store was looking to expand into the space occupied by
the pharmacy and his old pizza shop. Both shops have sat empty since
the closing. Florentina's reopened in a new space about a few doors
down on Main Street.

I called the number on the sign (which goes to the Cumberland Farms real estate office), but they never called back. I'm assuming if I had an idea for a shop, they'd be more responsive?

Vegan Bus gets ready to roll

A vegan pizza party at Café Evolution on Chestnut Street last week raised $900 for the Vegan Bus Project. The project, which first organized in April, aims to buy an old school bus, convert it to run on vegetable oil and take it on the road to educate kids about veganism, animal rights, and environmental issues, according to Derek Goodwin, the project coordinator.
Goodwin said the group, which first got together in April, has already raised enough to buy a bus, but more is needed to buy and install a conversion kit to allow it to run on vegetable oil. The bus will be painted by local artists with images of happy animals, Goodwin said, but “it won’t be a hippie bus.”
The project’s next fundraiser is August 2 at the Eagles Club in Northampton. For more information on the project, go to www.veganbus.com.