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By STEVE PFARRER

It’s been almost three years since Amherst Community Theater has presented its annual musical at Bowker Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, given a little problem called COVID-19 that prevented the group from returning to UMass in...

By STEVE PFARRER

AMHERST — The Emily Dickinson Museum, in the midst of a major fundraising campaign to expand its resources and reach, has received a major new donation to help realize that goal: $2.5 million.Jane and Robert Keiter of Lakeville, Connecticut, have made...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — As students at the Amherst Regional Middle School boarded buses to take them home last week, teachers, paraprofessionals and other staff marched toward Chestnut Street to draw attention to the expired contract under which they have been...

I’m writing in response to Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone’s comment — in reporter Scott Merzbach’s story “Police staffing woes hit department morale” (Gazette, Dec. 26) — that “The most dangerous thing for a community is a police department...

“Kindness is the beginning of healing.” The words of my transport worker at Cooley Dickinson Hospital as he delivered me to my husband’s car after a 3-day stay for treatment and a minor surgical procedure. We are so blessed in the valley to have such...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A former Amherst man will serve five to seven years in state prison after pleading guilty in Hampshire Superior Court on Wednesday to a criminal charge stemming from the 2019 death of his 4-month-old baby, according to the Northwestern...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A 17-acre section of the former Hickory Ridge Golf Course is expected to be permanently protected as recreation land that will include trails for the public and associated features, such as informational kiosks.As a requirement of the town’s...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Recent private meetings between members of the Town Council and Amherst police, disclosed publicly during a council meeting in December, are prompting an Open Meeting Law complaint against the council’s president.The Dec. 20 filing with the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Improved playing fields that would be built at a new elementary school at the Fort River School site could be supported with Community Preservation Act money.Following an extended discussion about the request from residents for $3 million to...

By STEVE PFARRER

As Marianne Xenos sees it, you’re never too old to find new ways to be creative.Xenos, of Amherst, is a longtime visual artist who also received a degree in literature years ago and wrote poetry and short literary fiction for a time. But that writing...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

AMHERST — The Humble Peach, located at the former site of the Henion Bakery on Amherst’s North Pleasant Street, lays claim to the first fully vegan establishment in the socially conscious town. But the owners say that their mission isn’t merely to...

By JULIAN MENDOZA

WHATELY — While winter’s warmest days remind us that our climate’s future could be bleak, the future generation reminds us that it may not have to be.Stephanie Apanell’s fourth grade class at Whately Elementary School joined forces with Amherst’s...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A member of Amherst Town Meeting for more than 40 years, who began his career in activism as part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, is poised to return to municipal service.Vincent O’Connor of Summer Street, along with Jordan Helzer...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Revisions to the town’s zoning bylaws should make it easier for restaurants, bars and nightclubs to operate in Amherst, according to municipal planners.The Town Council on Monday approved a series of changes to sections of the bylaws on Dec....

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Older immigrants to the region, including those without English skills and a formal education, will benefit from development of a new curriculum for a program that will be housed in the long-running English as a Second Language Center at the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Communities across Massachusetts, including Amherst, will get more financial support from the state for school building projects they are pursuing, although a reimbursement increase recently approved by state officials fell short of appeals...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A sizable portion of the costs associated with buying an electric school bus and a charger for the Amherst public schools are being covered as part of $1.8 million being provided to cities and towns through a state program.The schools are...

The rebuilding of the main bridge at Amethyst Brook has been stalled for many months. The main bridge, leading to all paths, was destroyed during an epic storm in 2017, during which trees and 500-pound ice boulders were swept down stream, crushing the...

It’s hard to know what to make of the UN climate conference, COP27, in Egypt last month. Coming into the “conference of the parties,” the delegates found encouragement in the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, who has pledged to...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

PELHAM — The town’s Community Preservation Committee has rejected a $53,380 funding request to go toward a $4.7 million project at Amherst Regional High School that would rebuild and reorient the track, and put an artificial turf field inside it.The...