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By EMILEE KLEIN

NORTHAMPTON — When Kara McElhone, executive director of child welfare nonprofit Children’s Advocacy Center of Hampshire County, searched in vain for a satellite office in Belchertown, Police Chief Kevin Pacunas personally helped her locate a place to rent.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Residents at a public listening session last Thursday voiced their disappointment over the Select Board’s decision to advance a request for a $3.3 million Proposition 2½ general override to annual Town Meeting this spring, claiming the figure is too high for voters to stomach and puts school funding in jeopardy.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — When Town Manager Steve Williams goes on the road to advertise Belchertown as a viable, business-friendly community, business owners admit to him that they never considered the town as a potential home for their company.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — After a month of parent protest and debate among town leaders, the Select Board narrowly approved putting a Proposition 2½ general override question on the ballot to fund level-services budgets for both the schools and the town.

By Dr. DAVID GOTTSEGEN

I’ve been a physician for nearly 40 years. We are trained to evaluate information about human health based on a foundation of knowledge learned in 11-12 years of pre-med, med school and residency training, evidence-based research, and experience listening to and treating thousands of patients.

By EMILEE KLEIN

For 15 minutes one morning last week, state Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler turned the Belchertown High School Auditorium into his history classroom, teaching the Belchertown student body about a series of individuals who shattered the glass ceilings for Black people in their respective industries.

By DR. DAVID GOTTSEGEN

The week of Jan. 20, 2025, made history in a way few Americans realize. For the first time in 128 years, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, originally called Public Health Reports, was not published due to a gag order placed on all federal agencies by the new president.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Coming off a year of regional and national honors in baton twirling, the Belchertown Twirlers started their competition season strong when two members earned first and second place in the Pre-teen Miss Majorette of Massachusetts Pageant.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — The School Committee is pushing back against a potential $2.1 million cut to its proposed $36 million level-services school budget that would result in the loss of more than 20 positions, a blow to the schools after the committee’s proposed budgets have been cut $4 million in the past five years.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — A new project called Branding Belchertown aims to overhaul the visual identity of the commuter community in hopes of distinguishing Belchertown as a destination for tourism and business.

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Three artists will transform the Belchertown Transfer Station’s brown recycling containers into works of art that incorporate opinions from residents in the design and execution of the murals.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A New Hampshire timber company has closed on a massive land buy of nearly 2,400 acres in seven communities in Hampshire and Franklin counties, acquiring five parcels for more than $20 million from Amherst-based W.D. Cowls Inc.

Before entering the Mos Eisley spaceport seeking an interplanetary Uber to Alderaan, Obi-Wan Kenobi cautioned Luke Skywalker, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” Evidently, Mr. Kenobi had never been to Washington, D.C., and certainly not during a Trump administration. Donald Trump is a con man. Always has been and always will be. He is also a hollow man honeycombed with self-doubt, horror-struck at the thought of self-awareness, and using remorseless mockery of others as a psychological contrivance counterbalancing his moral and ethical impotence.

On Friday, Dec. 20, about 5:30 p.m., I was driving home east on Route 9 from South East Street in Amherst. It was terrifying. My good snow tires had zero traction on the icy surface. Vehicles were going 10 mph yet still skidding.At one point I saw a...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — The Board of Health has approved regulations prohibiting the sale of nicotine products within the town’s limits to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2004, making Belchertown the first municipality in western Massachusetts and the 11th in the...

On Dec. 3, 1860, President James Buchanan delivered his State of the Union address justifying the fugitive slave laws, denying the right of the territory of Kansas to abolish slavery, and blaming Northern abolitionist agitators for inciting slave...

By CAROLYN BROWN

Decades ago, it was common for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be kept in inhumane conditions inside horrific institutions. With the release of his new book, “Becoming Darlene: The Story of Belchertown Patient #4952,”...

By MELISSA KAREN SANCES

“And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” — Friedrich NietzscheI have never liked ghost stories. But when I heard about Half-Hanged Mary of Hadley, I was spellbound. Not that long ago, right around here, a woman, thought...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — A Belchertown restaurant is facing charges for allegedly serving 22 shots of liquor to three underage employees over a six-hour period in early August, one of whom got into a car crash while driving under the influence in Ludlow a short...

By EMILEE KLEIN

BELCHERTOWN — Police Chief Kevin Pacunas is appealing an Eastern Hampshire District Court judge’s ruling that reversed his decision to deny a resident’s application for a gun license.In his appeal to Hampshire Superior Court, filed Sept. 23, Pacunas...

By JACOB NELSON

When Heather McCann founded her Belchertown farm, Rustic Outlook, in 2020, she picked a niche that few local farmers have chosen. She decided to make beans her thing.Dry beans, specifically. They’re a pantry staple that lasts for years and a delicious...