Search Results

Keyword search: belchertown ma

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Town officials launched a new town website last week offering improved usability for site visitors and municipal employees, easier navigation and notifications for news and events.The revamped website presents the most-used resources for...

Staff Report

BELCHERTOWN — Four people arrested during the breakup of a pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of Massachusetts campus in May agreed to dispositions Monday in Eastern Hampshire District Court in which they will enter a four-month diversion...

By EMILEE KLEIN

FLORENCE — Morey Phippen and Brian Adams’ yard looks nothing like the traditional blanket of green grass associated with suburban lawns.Instead, bumblebees and butterflies bob and weave around her destined for the nearby foxglove, pink primrose, red...

Regarding the Horseracing Wrongs protest on Belmont Stakes Day at Saratoga racetrack: I’d like to note that there were over 50 protesters against this cruel and deadly “sport” in attendance. Yes, we were ignored, laughed at, and sometimes treated with...

I write to express my wonder about Amherst’s so very beautiful Sweet Alice pond and trails. We are so very lucky, blessed even that it can exist amid us, and be managed by the totally socially and ecologically responsible Kestrel Land Trust.Idyllic...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Residents shot down the proposed $122.6 million middle school building at Monday’s special election, bringing the project to an end and denying a $47.9 million grant from Massachusetts School Building Authority to offset the cost.The...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — When Jennifer Whitehead heard that the now-closed Taggell School hindered her child’s ability to learn in the first two years of his schooling, it nearly broke her heart.The sound the lights made, the slippery long hallways and the...

As a teacher at JFK Middle School, I am heartsick. We are not looking down the road at the potential harm of budget cuts; we are feeling it today.In many ways, the mayor’s starkest (4%) cuts have already taken effect. Anyone who received a pink slip...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Without any money to spend on the latest 1990s entertainment, teenage Tracy Taylor amused her young son by rolling down grassy hills at the Quabbin Reservoir, giggling with big smiles once the two reunited at the bottom.“I think we just...

The last Monday in May is Memorial Day, a federal holiday originally called Decoration Day that was formalized in 1868 and serves as the nation’s foremost annual day to honor its deceased service men and women.A bevy of parades and commemorative...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — While driving to Town Meeting earlier this month, Lynn Sikes noticed signs punctuating the lawns of homes, urging residents to vote “yes” or “no” on a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion override to fund a new $122.6 million Jabish Brook...

As a Belchertown resident, I was proud to read about the implementation of the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate program at Jabish Brook Middle School [“Change for a school’s climate,” Gazette, May 16]. The school reacted to the shocking...

Regarding your insulting editorial cartoon on Monday, May 13, how would your readers respond if that trashcan had Democratic Party candidate on it instead of third party? Interesting how those claiming to value democracy have no clue what it is. The...

By Emilee Klein

BELCHERTOWN — Two new faces will join the five-member Select Board next term following Monday’s town election.Nicole Miner, who ran on a economic platform advocating for a fiscal responsible budget, and Whitney Kuhnlenz, a new resident who focused on...

By Emilee Klein

BELCHERTOWN — Two new names running for the two open Select Board seats will appear on the ballot in an election with no contested races on Monday.With current members Peg Louraine and Ron Aponte stepping away from the Select Board, Nina Miner and...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — One day this spring as she was walking past the gymnasium at Jabish Brook Middle School, guidance counselor Jennifer Parker heard something that made her do a double-take — in a good way.A group of eighth grade girls were calling out a...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Residents formalized the position of town manager in town bylaws, adopted a zoning bylaw for stand-alone battery storage systems and endorsed a roughly $61.6 million budget for fiscal year 2025 at Monday’s Town Meeting — though some...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Town Meeting voters will consider codifying the new town manger position, authorizing two public roads, adding bylaws for battery storage system installations and approving a contested school budget that will cut 14 people, including 10...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Among UMass Cold Springs Orchard’s 35 acres of apple trees hang little orange tents at the top of the trees that, despite the blazing color, are discretely managing pesky moths.These prism-shaped moth traps release pheromones to attract...

By EMILEE KELIN

BELCHERTOWN — The president of the Granby Bow and Gun Club insists that stray bullets that hit two homes and a shed in the Turkey Hill area of town did not originate from the club’s long range.Club President Ryan Downing read a statement at the...