By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A second round of new business and technical assistance grants, using federal American Rescue Plan Act money that came to Amherst, is being initiated this winter.Amherst Business Improvement District Executive Director Gabrielle Gould...
By EMILY THURLOW
AMHERST — The light from the torch for social justice burned bright as the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. was celebrated at the University of Massachusetts on Tuesday morning.The inaugural “Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Racial Healing Community...
By RICHARD MCCARTHY
This past fall, I was bicycling in Hadley and I came up on a dead squirrel in the road. I got off my bike and used the instep of my foot to move the remains to the edge of a field on the side of the road. Two other cyclists approached me as I was...
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A $1 million donation from the co-founder of Stonyfield Organic is pushing the Hampshire College capital campaign to nearly two-thirds of the $60 million goal set for June 2024.The college recently announced that alumnus Gary Hirshberg and...
By MICKEY RATHBUN
A few years ago I was having coffee with my two sisters-in-law at a family gathering in North Carolina. Both of them had recently built new houses and were quizzing me about how to create gardens in the bare dirt surrounding their homes. The question...
By ROBIN GOLDSTEIN
With a new year of dining ahead, it’s time to boil down all of my last year’s recommendations into a cheat sheet that you can clip or print and stick on your fridge: the best of Best Bites. I’ve picked 40 amazing places to eat and drink in the area...
By STEVE PFARRER
Time was when Rachel Portesi did much of her photography using Polaroid film. She loved the immediacy of the image, the way each photo was different and often didn’t quite match what her eye had seen, and what she calls “the feeling of Christmas when...
Indoor garden report: The amaryllis bulb that was in the refrigerator has a leaf that is 17 inches long. However, the bulb that was not refrigerated has a leaf that is 30 inches long. So far, no blossom buds.* **It’s Girl Scout cookie time. The new...
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Two public forums on the elementary school project expected to be subject to a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion override vote in the spring are being held next week.After cost estimates and other updates on the project from the designer and...
In her Jan. 6 letter to the editor, Rita Burke refers to the Jones Library as being the 22nd largest public library in Massachusetts as reason to forego state and federal funding for renovation and expansion. In fact, the Jones Library is not the 22nd...
Two hundred and twenty-two years, seven months, and seven days ago, my ancestor Lucia, an enslaved woman and mother of two small girls, decided to risk capture, beatings, death, and being sold away from her children to escape her enslaver — her abuser...
Two years ago, a crowd of hysterical insurrectionists stormed the Capitol to block the counting of electoral votes. Taking their cue from Trump, 147 distempered Republicans voted to throw a valid election into Never-Never Land. Five police officers...
I would like to compliment the Amherst Planning Board and staff on their discussion at the Jan. 4, 2023 meeting of the development by ServiceNet of transitional housing on Belchertown Road. The staff and board engaged in consideration of landscaping...
By Robin Jaffin
While I was walking with my dog around the property and trails that surround the Arthur F. Kinney Center for Renaissance Studies building on the UMass campus, I noticed a Bobcat tractor ripping out the perennial beds behind the former Dakin home. I...
By STEVE PFARRER
SPRINGFIELD — Last month, when he stepped down from WRSI 93.9 The River after nearly 17 years hosting a morning show at the station, Christopher “Monte” Belmonte said he was not stepping away from radio. But the popular radio personality wasn’t ready...
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — In an effort to accommodate the widest range of patrons, and limit lines during public events such as after-hour meetings and Burnett Art Gallery openings, the expanded and renovated Jones Library is expected to do away with bathrooms...
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — A vocal critic of some members of the Town Council and government officials is describing the town’s latest action to charge her more than $300 to fulfill a public records request “petty and unfortunate.”Vira Douangmany Cage of Longmeadow...
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — With the first all-alcohol, off-premises liquor license back in the town’s hands in recent memory, those interested in opening a new package store in Amherst are invited to begin submitting applications to obtain it.Town officials announced...
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — The Amherst Town Council denies that it violated the state’s Open Meeting Law when it met with police officers in closed-door meetings last month, though some councilors contend that giving the officers a private forum violated the council’s...
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Members of the Amherst Town Council are keeping the body’s leadership intact for another year.While the 13 councilors gave near unanimous support to having District 2 Councilor Lynn Griesemer remain as president, a role she has...
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