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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Just after Memorial Day, the first round of testing to determine the E. coli levels at Puffer’s Pond revealed the bacteria in the water exceeded acceptable state standards, requiring the temporary closing of the site for swimming.

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

GREENFIELD — Brenda Bialecki, 60, formerly of South Deerfield, was sentenced to two years probation and must pay $13,600 in restitution after she pleaded guilty in Franklin County Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon to single counts of Medicaid false claims, larceny over $1,200 and Medicaid kickbacks.

By SAMUEL GELINAS

Three multi-generational traditions in Hampshire County are being maintained with the help of tens of thousands in funds from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR).

EASTHAMPTON — River Valley Co-op will hold its annual Strawberry Ice Cream Social & Austin Miller Co-op Hero Awards on Thursday, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Co-op’s Easthampton location.

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Reparations Study Commission will ask the city to extend its operations for an additional year, amid contentious debate among members over whether additional public input from Black community members is needed before submitting recommendations to the City Council.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Despite both written and oral appeals from advocates for the town’s unarmed community responders, two positions in the department will go unfilled for the next year after the Town Council approved a $103.3 million fiscal year 2026 budget for town, school and library operations.

By EMILEE KLEIN

CHICOPEE — Inside Berchmans Hall at the College of Our Lady of the Elms on Tuesday, 90 Westover Job Corps Center graduates celebrated securing their driver’s licenses, high school diplomas and vocational certificates. But outside the ceremony in the rainy weather, three members of the western Massachusetts political delegation rebuked the Trump administration’s recent attempts to shut down the Job Corps programs that made these graduates’ achievements possible.

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — The bids are in for the 1888 Building rehabilitation project, with the lowest one coming in at roughly $5.93 million.

By RYAN AMES

AMHERST — Ground has officially broken on the Amherst Regional High School track and field renovation project, following a ceremony in the school’s parking lot overlooking the complex on Monday afternoon.

By BILL DANIELSON

The story of this spring has been the weather; specifically, the rain that just keeps falling. Add in the new arrival of the hazy smoke blowing south from Canadian wildfires and you’ve got a soggy, foggy, smoky, cloudy mess. The grass in my lawn is growing like crazy and the notion of a No Mow May wasn’t even really much of a choice so much as it was foisted upon us by the weather. When I finally get a dry moment to get out into the yard I am going to have to keep my eyes open for tigers and velociraptors in the tall grass.

By JONATHAN KAHANE

Well all I can say is, “It’s about darn time!” Pete “Charlie Hustle” Rose, and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson have been “reinstated” into Major League Baseball after committing their “heinous” crimes. They are now both eligible to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF). It’s a shame that this didn’t happen while they were alive. Rose was banned, because he was caught betting on MLB games. Jackson was punished for purportedly being part of the “1919 Black Sox Scandal” where eight players were accused of throwing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. (They were never found guilty.)

Recently, nearly 200 donors, legislators and media representatives toured our Emergency Department (ED) at Cooley Dickinson Hospital (“Cooley’s new ‘front door’ on display,” Gazette, June 7). Our long-awaited project, which is being completed in phases, expands the ED by 40%. It features new equipment, more private rooms and a floor plan designed with patients in mind. Earlier this year, we opened a dedicated space to provide a calm, healing environment for those needing mental and behavioral health support. Additional ambulance bays await our region’s EMS teams as they bring patients to our ED. The new addition opens in July and renovations in the existing ED continue through early 2026. Our ED is open throughout the project.

The Northampton Education Foundation had its 28th Annual Plant Sale on May 10 on the lawn of the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School. Each year hundreds of plants are donated from backyards across the valley, and volunteers spend the night before the sale getting everything ready. The day brought with it all the weather that spring can muster, and plant lovers came from all over to see what they could add to their gardens. Everyone joined in the countdown to the 9 a.m. start time.

By TOLLEY M. JONES

On Jan. 1, 1863, The Emancipation Proclamation became law in the United States. It declared that “all persons held as slaves … shall be … forever free and the …Government of the United States … will do no act … to repress such persons … in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

By CHRIS LARABEE

SUNDERLAND — To mark Juneteenth this week, the Sunderland Public Library and the Human Rights Task Force are inviting the public to a film screening and discussion exploring systemic inequities in the United States that have lingered from post-Civil War society to today.

By Grace Chai

HADLEY — Fourteen high schoolers bid farewell on Saturday to the place they had called home for their academic careers — the Hartsbrook School — in a song-filled ceremony with their teachers, family and friends watching.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — An initial meeting to collect feedback from residents about the town charter adopted by voters seven years ago, putting in place a council-manager form of government, takes place Wednesday.

By JIM BRIDGMAN

Some 2,000 people attended ceremonies at The Cooley Dickinson Hospital yesterday marking the opening of the emergency outpatient and physical therapy center. Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were conducted by William Welch, president of the hospital, hospital administrator William Lees, and fund drive co-chairmen Robert Saner and David Lipshires.