Editor’s note: As part of the Greenfield Recorder’s end-of-the-year features, we are publishing in two parts our choices for the top 10 newsmakers of 2023. They are listed in no particular order.

Ginny Desorgher/Roxann Wedegartner

This year saw the end of an era, as Mayor Roxann Wedegartner lost to Precinct 3 City Councilor Virginia “Ginny” Desorgher, who will serve as Greenfield’s fourth mayor.

The final showdown took place at a November election, in which Desorgher defeated incumbent Wedegartner with 3,104 votes to Wedegartner’s 1,144 votes, according to election results. The two sparred in a debate held in October, where issues including school budgets, police morale and the former Lunt Silversmiths property were discussed.

“Thank you, everyone,” Desorgher said from the stage at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center, where she celebrated her victory with family and friends. “This actually was about you, the whole campaign was for you; that’s why I ran. I ran for this community because you wanted change. I stepped up to the plate because you asked for somebody to do that. I did it for you.”

She credited the victory in part to the people who campaigned for her.

“We all did it together, and that’s how we’re going to move forward,” Desorgher, 71, said.

Desorgher was elected to City Council in November 2019 and served most recently as chair of the Ways and Means Committee. She spent 30 years as a nurse, including managing the Emergency Department at MetroWest Medical Center in Natick. She was a member of the Planning Board for seven years and has been involved with various local boards.

— Max Bowen

David Fisher

Among the stories of devastation shared by the Pioneer Valley’s farmers, one voice — for one reason or another — stood out from the rest.

Soon after flooding from the South River destroyed nearly all of Natural Roots’ crops, David Fisher, the operator of the horse-powered, community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm on Shelburne Falls Road in Conway, found his farm to be the center of attention, as local, state and federal officials and politicians stopped by to assess the damage.

“It’s a mess here. … It just came so fast,” Fisher, who has owned the farm for 26 years with his partner Maggie Toran, said in July, as volunteers crossed the footbridge to the farm to help clean up debris. “It’s every bit as bad as Hurricane Irene.”

Soon enough, Fisher was meeting with state Rep. Natalie Blais, Sen. Jo Comerford, officials from the state Department of Agricultural Resources and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey. At the same time, a community effort was brewing for Fisher, as a GoFundMe to pay for repairs raised more than $90,000 and then farms from around the region began offering their support in the form of land or crops to supply the farm’s 260 CSA members with food.

“We were five weeks into a 22-week summer CSA,” Fisher said. “Our customers sign up to stick with us through thick and thin, but offering our customers nothing from then on would be extreme, and we weren’t in a position to refund everyone.

“We weren’t expecting much,” he continued, “but we asked neighboring farms if anyone had extra produce we could glean from their fields to feed our customers. The response was … incredible.”

As a difficult 2023 closes, Fisher and Natural Roots are looking toward the future, with 2024 CSA slots open.

— Chris Larabee

Ben Clark

For what is becoming a lifetime of service to the region, as well as a daring July 21 rescue in Deerfield, Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farms was honored as the Greenfield Recorder’s 41st Citizen of the Year earlier this month.

Clark is the Deerfield Fire District’s assistant chief and has served on Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture’s (CISA) board of directors. He currently serves on the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, as president of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers Association, and on Deerfield Academy’s board of trustees and the school’s building and grounds committee.

He regularly has Clarkdale-run fundraisers for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and has participated for the past eight years in the March for the Food Bank with Monte Belmonte, while also donating apples and other goods to the Center for Self-Reliance Food Pantry in Greenfield, Stone Soup Cafe and the Franklin Area Survival Center.

More importantly, Clark was, in his words, “in the right place at the right time,” on July 21 when Greenfield resident Lee Oldenburg’s car tipped into a hole created by torrential rainfall. While waiting for a rescue team, Clark dropped down the embankment and pulled her out of the rushing waters, saving her life.

“We’re both very thankful and I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, with the right training and gear to assist Lee and to get us both safely back to dry ground,” Clark said. “My motivation is not for recognition, but rather the satisfaction of helping others and making a positive impact in our community.”

— Chris Larabee

Erving school officials

Between facing layoffs in an effort to trim $332,000 from the fiscal year 2024 budget, grappling with a projected fiscal year 2023 deficit of roughly $300,000, and multiple periods of administrative leave and staffing changes, Erving Elementary School was frequently in the news this year.

Heading into Annual Town Meeting season, the Erving School Committee sought a 16% increase from FY23’s budget request, accounting for a difference of roughly $560,000. However, the Selectboard requested a $332,000 reduction to the School Committee’s proposal, with a $3.54 million budget ultimately heading to the Town Meeting floor.

An amendment, proposed by lead negotiator and sixth grade teacher Mark Burnett, ultimately brought the school budget back to the $3.87 million amount proposed in January, gaining support from residents at Town Meeting.

About a week after Town Meeting, the School Committee discussed a projected $300,000 deficit for FY23, a figure that alarmed and frustrated town officials who had appropriated all of the town’s $372,551 in free cash toward capital projects during Town Meeting under the belief the school would not be needing help with a deficit.

Later in the year, school officials confirmed that both Erving School Union 28 Superintendent Jennifer Culkeen and Erving Elementary School Principal Lisa Candito are on what they described as approved leave, with Candito later resigning. Veteran educator David Krane came out of retirement to serve as the school’s interim principal starting in August.

Meanwhile, Culkeen announced her plans to retire at the end of the school year. A search committee was formed this fall to find her successor.

— Shelby Brock