News
The Evergreens house is ready for its close-up after preservation work at Emily Dickinson Museum
By STEVE PFARRER
AMHERST — Closed since 2019 for extensive preservation efforts and infrastructure improvements, The Evergreens, a key property at the Emily Dickinson Museum, will reopen for visitors March 1.The 19th century house was built in 1856 for Austin...
Hadley mall owners demand Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School stop using its parking lot
By SCOTT MERZBACH
HADLEY — The owner of Mountain Farms Mall, which borders the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, is prohibiting students, staff and visitors to the school from using its parking lot, and has stationed a tow truck at the site on weekday...
When a rural road goes bad: Unpaved Dudleyville Road illustrates challenges facing WMass towns
By SCOTT MERZBACH
LEVERETT — Restoration of a 1.4-mile section of the mostly gravel Dudleyville Road from Moore’s Corner to the Shutesbury town line could cost at least $2 million, and possibly as much as $4 million, according to a draft evaluation recently completed...
Amherst-Pelham schools to make plea to town of Amherst for help closing $1.9M budget gap
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — To stave off a portion of what could be nearly $1.9 million in reductions and efficiencies to balance next year’s Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools budget, Amherst representatives to the Regional School Committee intend to seek more financial...
Amherst College on track for downtown store on Hastings site
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — As keys for the former Hastings shop at 45 South Pleasant St. are turned over to Amherst College so that it can open a store this spring to sell apparel, collectibles and other Mammoths-related merchandise, the owners of the third-generation...
Shutesbury voters OK new wetlands bylaw at special TM
By SCOTT MERZBACH
SHUTESBURY — After a series of amendments and nearly three hours of discussion and debate, a new wetlands protection bylaw is in place in Shutesbury, adopted without a sentence that some interpreted as giving developers veto power over certain...
Frontier, Union 38 school committees renew super’s contract
Staff Report
SOUTH DEERFIELD — The Frontier Regional and Union 38 school committees voted unanimously on Jan. 24 to renew Superintendent Darius Modestow’s contract for another five years.Modestow has served the district in different capacities over the years and...
Chunglo to end 36-run in Hadley politics; town election set for May 21
By SCOTT MERZBACH
HADLEY — In 1988, Joyce Chunglo began a 15-year tenure on the Hadley School Committee that ended in 2003, when she was elected to the Select Board, a board she has remained on for the past 21 years.With nomination forms for the May 21 town election...
Municipal aggregation OK’d for Belchertown
By JAMES PENTLAND
BELCHERTOWN — State utility regulators have given a green light to municipal aggregation in Belchertown, allowing residents and businesses to act as a bulk buyer of electricity supply.Aggregation typically helps to keep electricity rates down and can...
Expanded North Amherst Library branch to reopen Monday
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — North Amherst Library, closed since the spring of 2022 for a $1.7 million project to make the 1893 building fully accessible and provide public bathrooms for the first time, reopens Monday. The expansion of the 1,080-square-foot, town-owned...
Amherst, college to host day for girls in sports on Saturday
Staff Report
AMHERST — Girls will have the opportunity to try a variety of sports and games as Amherst College’s female athletes help lead a regional celebration for the Women’s Sports Foundation’s National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Saturday.Running from 10...
Amherst picks 20 people for its superintendent search committee
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A 20-member search committee, whose members represent a range of backgrounds and identities, hometowns and work experience, will be responsible for identifying the candidates to become the next superintendent for the Amherst, Pelham and...
Around Amherst: Soldier’s 1865 letter stars in Ancestral Bridges exhibit
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A soldier’s letter from 1865, written on an original government flyer announcing the Emancipation Proclamation to cities and plantations across Texas, is being unveiled as part of an expanded Ancestral Bridges exhibit opening at Amherst...
Amherst brings back former finance director part time for budget season
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...
Probation for 2 in UMass procurement fraud case
By JAMES PENTLAND
NORTHAMPTON — A long-running case against two men accused of conspiring to defraud the University of Massachusetts through an environmental remediation company in which they both had an interest ended Wednesday with the men admitting to sufficient...
UMass profs picked for new state climate science panel
By EMILEE KLEIN
AMHERST — Three faculty members at the University of Massachusetts are joining the state’s new Climate Science Advisory Panel, a group of 21 experts who will attempt to bridge the communication and knowledge gap between policymakers and scientists....
Amherst native opens area’s first indoor skatepark
By MADDIE FABIAN
EASTHAMPTON — On the ground floor of Eastworks, a converted old mill that now houses artists, writers and nonprofits, a different type of tenant can be found — one where its customers practice “ollies” and “grinds,” “pop shove-its” and “kickflips.”...
Earth Matters: Facing the ‘age of humans’: Should a new epoch, the Anthropocene, be initiated to reflect human impact on Earth?
By TOM LITWIN
As I concentrated on the computer screen, the news played in the background. A story about the environment got my attention, causing me to sit back and listen more carefully. I played the piece again to be sure I heard it correctly.In the summer of...
‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face
By STEVE PFARRER
Dr. Khama Ennis had come a long way in her medical career.Until 2022, the Amherst resident had spent about two decades in emergency medicine, including a number of years as chief of emergency medicine at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, as...
State reckons with its history: Efforts to change school mascots, state seal make slow, steady progress
By STELLA TANNENBAUM
Slowly but surely — and not without opposition — long-standing efforts to change images of Native Americans that many view as offensive have gained new momentum across Massachusetts, sparking conversations about history, representation and what it...
