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By GRACE FIORI

In 2023, Hampshire County received almost $1 million from the settlement payments of pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors involved in the opioid crisis. While Amherst received upward of $162,000 in fiscal year 2023, the town has yet to spend...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A Quincy-based temporary shelter that includes transitional housing, along with a resource center for people to find jobs, medical care and permanent homes, is being eyed as a model for how Amherst might redevelop the former VFW site at 457...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Jake Hulseberg won’t let his children play on the swing set he built them in their backyard on Mountain View Drive because of bullets that shattered glass doors on two houses on the street.Instead, Hulseberg keeps his kids in the front...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — The tiny number of emergency dispatch calls directed to the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service since mid-December, when the department began taking 911 calls, is prompting worries by members of the Community Safety and...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — A joint meeting between the Northampton City Council’s Committee on Legislative Matters and the city’s Planning Board heard public comments on a petition to ban further automobile dealerships near the city’s downtown, an issue that...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — An Amherst developer is proposing to construct a new commercial building on Route 9 that will become the headquarters for a Holyoke metal roofing and gutter company.At Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting, Thomas Reidy, an attorney at Bacon...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Black-owned business owners and supporters made a final appeal to the Town Council this week for $1.5 million of the $3.8 million in remaining American Rescue Plan Act money, though it appears that money is being directed to other...

CHESTERFIELD — The town will hold a special Town Meeting Tuesday, March 26, at 7 p.m. at the Community Center to allow votes on paying an unpaid bill from last year and amendments to the cannabis bylaw.Article 1 seeks voter approval for the transfer...

By JAMES PENTLAND

EASTHAMPTON — City councilors preparing to meet with Eversource representatives last month to discuss a permit for new and replacement utility poles on Loudville Road were shocked to find the job was already completed.In addition, several shade trees...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Community Preservation Act money for an initial phase of fixing up an early 19th-century farmhouse at the Porter Phelps Huntington Museum and hiring an architect to evaluate and prepare the 1840 Town Hall for renovations is being recommended...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Mold grows out of several locations. Its structural support slowly deteriorates. And a large chunk of plaster has fallen from the ceiling, not far from an office desk where a worker sits.These are just some of the issues currently...

By BELLA LEVAVI

ASHFIELD — Six towns are pooling resources to hire a paid conservation agent to serve their communities as the number of permit filings exceeds the capacity of the all-volunteer conservation commissions.Williamsburg, Whately, Goshen, Ashfield,...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Hadley Media could see a small boost in revenue from a new 10-year contract with cable and internet provider Charter Spectrum, though there is uncertainty about the reliability of this funding source as people continue to choose streaming...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — With the Conservation Commission and Board of Health registering objections to the proposed poured-in-place rubber surface of a playground at the town’s new elementary school, the design team is asking the Elementary School Building...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A former Amherst finance director is returning to town for the next few months to assist officials in getting through the budget season.Sanford “Sandy” Pooler, who was Amherst’s finance director from 2011 to early 2016, will be coming back...

Staff Report

NORTHAMPTON — State grants totaling $10 million for communities hit by last year’s flooding have been announced by the Healey-Driscoll administration. The neighboring Franklin County towns of Deerfield and Conway topped the money list, with awards of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — The chairwoman of the town’s Conservation Commission has stepped down, a decision she said stems from alleged personal attacks and interference by elected and appointed officials at Town Hall.Miriam DeFant’s decision comes on the eve of a...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Two LGBTQ+-owned businesses are the first recipients of the city’s new vacant storefront tax credit program, an initiative established in autumn 2022 in an effort to fill empty spaces downtown.The two businesses are Many Graces Farm &...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Four new councilors will join nine holdovers when Amherst’s third Town Council convenes its first meeting Tuesday evening, with the only decisions on the agenda being a vote on who will serve as the council’s president and vice president...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — A revised club alcohol license for the Young Men’s Club that offers more flexibility for where members and their guests can be served and consume alcohol at the 138 East St. property, including on an outside deck, has been approved by the...

By MARTIN MILLER

The Amherst Town Council will be making a very important decision at an upcoming December meeting. I, along with a likely majority of voters (based on the results of the town vote in 2021), are asking that the council vote in favor of amending the...