Greenfield

Federal budget cuts result in fewer Pioneer Valley Head Start slots

Monday, June 17, 2013

GREENFIELD — In the wake of federal spending cuts and a need to increase quality, anti-poverty agency Community Action is reorganizing its “Head Start” program — resulting in 129 fewer poor children across the Pioneer Valley who will be able to enroll in the free or discounted preschool/childcare service this fall. In Franklin County, the agency will cut 52 of 188 Head Start slots. One of two Orange classrooms will close and the agency will pull out of a two-classroom collaboration with the Pioneer Valley Regional School District — although school officials there say that preschool programs at the Northfield and Bernardston elementary schools will … 0

Recorder/Paul Franz
Acres of cultivated fields in Northfield.

Franklin County gets $74,000 to expand food supplies

Friday, June 14, 2013

With completion of a “Sustainable Franklin County” plan that calls for the region to protect farmland and expand local food supplies, a new $74,000 grant will advance “strategic food system planning” over the next year to help build “a resilient regional food system.” The grant came from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, a … 0

Big Y employees check out customers Wednesday at the Northampton store. Big Y Supermarket already offers insurance to all of its approximately 10,000 employees, no matter how many hours they work, but the affordability clause in the Affordable Care Act is a concern, said Michael Galat, the company’s vice president of employee services.

JERREY ROBERTS

Local businesses ‘weeding through’ Obamacare insurance regulations to comply

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Employers in this state are not new to dealing with health care reform. In 2006, those that didn’t already have it added coverage for their full-time employees when the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law required it. But when new regulations from the federal Affordable Care Act go into effect next year, employers will … 0