Amherst preliminary school budget would cut spending by $864K
Updated Feb 03, 2021;
AMHERST The regional school board has begun its review of a proposed $31.3 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year that reduces spending by $864,246.
“We are proposing spending less money next (fiscal) year than this year; this is a literal reduction in the budget,” Amherst-Pelham Regional School Superintendent Michael Morris said on Tuesday. “It is raw, less money.”
The district budget chief, Douglas Slaughter, noted the fiscal 2022 plan represents “about a million dollars worth of cuts. that’s what we’ve done.”
The school district budget for the current fiscal year totals $32,145,531, which was $21,811 less than the previous year.
Published: 1/14/2021 1:29:54 PM
AMHERST Before a syringe containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was administered to Amherst Fire Chief Walter “Tim” Nelson this week, competition likely occurred among the department’s firefighter/ EMTs to deliver the shot.
“I think there may have been a pool from my guys to see who could stick the needle in me,” Nelson said, chuckling about that possibility moments after he received the injection from Fire Capt. Steven Chandler at the first responders vaccination clinic set up at the Bangs Community Center in Amherst.
But joking aside, Nelson said the weeklong delivery of vaccines to first responders throughout the region in Amherst, at the Northampton Senior Center and on the University of Massachusetts campus, which comes after initial vaccinations given at hospitals, nursing homes and extended care facilities, is a critical step in ending the pandemic.
Amherst weighs in on Washington DC demonstrations, saying ‘this event is not a standard protest’
Updated Jan 07, 2021;
AMHERST – Late on Wednesday senior town officials weighed in on the day’s events in Washington DC, releasing a statement highly critical of protesters who entered the capital building where the US Congress meets to conduct government business.
The Jan. 6 joint statement from Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Superintendent of School Michael Morris says in part: “Regardless of one’s political opinions, it is important to note that this event is not a standard protest or an example of exercising one’s rights under the First Amendment.”
Hampshire County gets COVID-19 testing site at UMass
Kyle Mastalerz, directs the public for getting tested on the first day for testing of Hampshire county residents at the UMass site, December, 14, 2020.
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST Hampshire County’s first free COVID-19 testing site for the public opened at the Mullins Center on the University of Massachusetts campus Monday as the result of a $5 million grant from the state.
After repeated calls from local legislators and municipal officials to the Baker-Polito administration to add a county site to the state’s Stop the Spread program, Baker announced Dec. 7 that the Public Health Promotion Center at UMass would be home to an appointment-only, walk-in site for asymptomatic individuals.