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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — As a University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral student in physics, Mark Murdy has seen his wages as a graduate employee decline relative to inflation, meaning he, like others who work on campus, is taking home less money.Amid these...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Bylaws to regulate large-scale battery storage, limit outdoor light pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions in new housing construction and control door-to-door solicitors will be considered by residents at Annual Town Meeting on...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — Money for continued restoration of the North Leverett Sawmill, a citizen’s petition calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, and a $7.56 million budget for fiscal year 2025, which adds a fourth police officer to the Police Department,...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — After 10 years as principal at Shutesbury Elementary School, Jacqueline Mendonsa is leaving the position at the end of June to relocate to the Boston area.“It is very hard for me to put into words my true love and appreciation for our...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Climate change’s impact on farming, as well as emerging areas like urban agriculture, soil health and pollinators, are a focus for the University of Massachusetts Extension Agriculture Program, which continues to help farmers adapt and...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — During a summer in which area farms dealt with significant rainfall and flooded fields, keeping agricultural drainage ditches cleared became essential to protecting crops by ensuring excess water could be removed.Often, though, farmers found...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — The owners of a Shelburne farm have permanently protected 100 acres through the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, ensuring that the fertile land won’t be turned into a large, upscale housing estate or put to other uses.“That’s...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — A project to improve accessibility for patrons at the current Shutesbury library and the new library building that will break ground in June is being supported by a $10,000 grant from the American Library Association.Library Director Mary...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — In film, literature, paintings and other forms of art, palm trees and warm climates are almost always the settings depicted for slavery in North America, from the plantations of the American South to the transatlantic ships transporting...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — At one time, the U.S. post office in town center doubled as a general store, a place where adults picked up and sent their mail or filled their gas tanks and children could choose from a wide variety of penny candy on their way to and from...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — 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...

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...

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...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Food and other necessities can be found at the Goshen General Store on Route 9. For low-income individuals in Goshen and surrounding communities, the Hilltown Food Pantry, at the nearby Town Office Building, distributes food every...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

ERVING — Athol Community Elementary School Principal Shannon White-Cleveland is being tapped as the next Erving School Union 28 superintendent, overseeing four K-6 elementary schools attended by children in Shutesbury, Leverett, Erving, Wendell and...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

A temporary worker in the Holyoke City Clerk’s Office brought on to deal with the influx of mail-in ballot requests for the presidential primaries is ensuring that 2,700 or so ballots are already in the hands of those who want to cast their votes...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A call for an increase in federal money to support homeless services and programs related to substance use disorders, and for keeping unhoused individuals from being targeted by federal law enforcement agencies, is coming from the House...

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...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — On his first day at Shutesbury Town Hall, a week before officially being sworn in as the Police Department’s first K-9 officer, Charlie provided a calming distraction for a stressed and flustered resident who had come to the town...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — An historic guideboard on the town common since 1837, helping travelers to navigate to Massachusetts communities both near and far, is temporarily absent from the green as a restoration project begins.Last Tuesday morning, the wooden...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Prohibiting PFAS from consumer products sold in Massachusetts remains an objective for Sen. Jo Comerford, who sees a recently advanced legislative bill to protect soil and farms from such contamination as an important first step to...