News

Amherst Town Council calls for Gaza cease-fire after tussle over blame

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — The Town Council is calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, approving a controversial resolution Monday that demands an end to the Israeli military siege in the Gaza Strip, the release of hostages and detainees on both sides and...

Music, special ed teachers back in Amherst elementary schools budget

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — More money available to support the Amherst elementary schools budget should preserve the instrumental music program, as well as two special education instructors, one at Wildwood School and another at Crocker Farm School, next school year,...

Amherst Regional School budget cutting 10 teachers runs into buzz saw of opposition

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A proposed $34.81 million fiscal year 2025 budget for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, necessitating cutting 10 teachers and professionals between the high school and middle school, is facing opposition from parents, students and staff,...

Restaurateurs opening 2 businesses in Amherst face nearly $500K for violations at Eastern Mass. restaurants

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Business partners who are opening two restaurants in Amherst this winter are on the hook for nearly $500,000 in both restitution and penalties related to child labor, sick time, wage and hour and payroll record violations at their Plymouth...

The Lehrer Report: March 1, 2024

Reminder: Tuesday, March 5 is our state primary election day. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. I will be an election worker again. However, I will be in a new space: the Immanuel Lutheran Church. I will get to meet North Amherst residents but will...

Hillside Pizza closes Hadley location, but business brisk at other locations

By GRACE LEE

HADLEY — Hillside Pizza has closed its 15-year-old location at 173 Russell St., though owners report that the Super Bowl marked a record-breaking year in sales and fundraising efforts for the other two locations in South Deerfield and Bernardston....

Site work for Amherst’s new elementary school set to begin

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — New traffic patterns into and out of Fort River School will be in place in the coming weeks as a contractor undertakes initial site work for the new three-story elementary school to be built on the same site at 70 South East St.Town...

Chinese charter school planning for a second campus in Hadley

HADLEY — A Venture Way office building is being envisioned as a second campus for the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School.Executive Director Richard Alcorn told the Planning Board late last month that the school has a purchase-and-sale...

Around Amherst: Kindness campaign targets stress, encourages mental wellness

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A food and diaper drive and a series of talks aimed at fostering mental wellness in the Amherst community are part of a recently launched Kindness Campaign by the town’s health and recreation departments.Starting on Feb. 29, or Leap of...

Leverett, Shutesbury, Westhampton join digital equity program to expand internet to all residents

By SCOTT MERZBACH

All Leverett and Shutesbury residents have access to high-speed Internet connections, following the municipal build-out of broadband over the last decade or so, but a small portion of households continue to opt against becoming subscribers.In...

Amherst School Committee to decide in May when sixth graders will move to middle school

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — The Amherst School Committee could decide in May when the town’s sixth graders will move to the Amherst Regional Middle School, and whether they might be accompanied by sixth graders from the other three towns that make up the current grades...

June dates set for big school vote in Belchertown

By Emilee Klein

BELCHERTOWN — Voters in June will get their say whether to authorize funding for a new $121 million Jabish Brook Middle School, now that the Select Board has selected dates for a special election and special Town Meeting to take place about a month...

FAFSA fiasco: Financial aid form meltdown trips up students, colleges

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A continued challenge for some prospective students and their families in accessing federal financial aid applications, and a corresponding delay in relaying the information from these forms to colleges and universities, is raising...

Town busts out cake, events to mark 250th

By SCOTT MERZBACH

A large commemorative wooden cake in the field between the Leverett Library and Leverett Elementary School will be lit up in Leverett for the first time as night falls on March 5, exactly 250 years after the town officially separated from Sunderland —...

Hadley Senior Center launches monthly ‘memory cafe’

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Older adults with dementia or memory loss, along with their care partners, are invited to participate in a new monthly memory cafe opening at the Hadley Senior Center.Connections Cafe, which is free for both residents and people from around...

Hadley foundation wants $150K in CPA money for Phelps farmhouse fixes

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — An initial phase of stabilizing the early 19th-century Phelps Farm, a farmhouse that became part of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum in 2022, could depend on support from the town’s Community Preservation Act account.The...

Luthier bowing out: After 53 years, Tony Creamer closing Fretted Instruments in Amherst this spring

By JAMES PENTLAND

AMHERST — Tony Creamer began his career in luthiery upstairs at 49 South Pleasant St. in 1969, and he’ll be ending it there, too, when he closes the Fretted Instrument Workshop on April 1. “I will have completed 53 years in business,” he said last...

Amherst council takes up Gaza cease-fire resolution Monday

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Significant local and regional interest in an Amherst Town Council resolution advocating for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war is prompting the meeting to discuss, debate and possibly vote on the matter to be moved to the Amherst Regional...

Amherst gets good budget news that could stave off cuts

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Amherst’s public schools, municipal government and town libraries are in line to get spending boosts in next year’s budgets that go beyond initial projections, potentially staving off recently announced cuts that could be made to elementary...

Superintendent warns of 20 staff cuts in Amherst-Pelham regional schools

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Even with Amherst officials signaling a commitment to increase the town’s financial obligation to the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, around 20 staff members, including classroom teachers and paraeducators, could be eliminated at the middle...