Farmers Market brings people, produce to common
Staff Writer
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST Locally grown produce, cheese, cut flowers, herbs and prepared foods will be available as the Amherst Farmers Market begins its 50th season Saturday.
The market, which again will be on the Town Common instead of in the Spring Street parking lot, runs from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays each week through Nov. 20.
Though COVID-19 protocols are still in place, with masks required and social distancing used to keep people safe, the market is able to start on time this year, unlike last year when it was delayed until after Memorial Day.
Amherst seeks public input on intersection rebuild in Pomeroy village center
Amherst Town Hall GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 4/15/2021 9:42:02 AM
AMHERST A $1.5 million project to rebuild the intersection in Pomeroy village center, and make other improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists, will be the subject of a pop-up event Saturday morning.
From 10 a.m. to noon, town officials are holding a walking tour so people can provide suggestions and see concepts for how the intersection of West Street, Pomeroy Lane and West Pomeroy Lane might change using a grant from the MassWorks Infrastructure Program.
Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek, who will join Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Planning Director Christine Brestrup, said a tent will be set up in the parking lot at 445 West St., where storyboards will be displayed showing what a roundabout would look like, or how keeping the signalized intersection might happen.
Permit process begins to extend waterline from Amherst to Leverett
Published: 2/19/2021 3:04:20 PM
AMHERST A project to extend a water main from Amherst into Leverett to provide drinking water to homes with wells contaminated by a former landfill is going through a permitting phase.
Before the work pegged at a cost of between $2.3 and $2.5 million and to be contracted out by the Department of Public Works begins, the Conservation Commission will hold a public meeting under the state Rivers Protection Act and the town’s Wetlands Protection Bylaw on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
The meeting comes after the DPW filed a notice of intent to install 9,500 linear feet of a 12-inch main beneath East Leverett Road in Amherst and both Cushman and Teawaddle Hills roads in Leverett, where the homes affected by a plume from the capped landfill are located. Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek said the notice of intent is a routine aspect of the initial permitting required for the project.
Departing Hitchcock Center chief Julie Johnson helped build environmental leader
Julie Johnson checks parents and toddlers in Friday for the Nature Discovery Preschool program at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Julie Johnson, the executive director of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, is retiring after almost 20 years at the center. One of her signature achievements is shepherding the construction of the center’s net-zero-energy headquarters. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Julie Johnson, the executive director of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, checks in Isa Deloge and her daughter Autumn Deloge for the Nature Discovery Preschool program Friday, February 5, 2021. Johnson is retiring after 20 years at the center. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Amherst weighs improvements to Pomeroy Village Center
Updated Jan 28, 2021;
During a Town Council on Monday, officials said the improvements could spur economic development.
The core location of the two proposals involves the West St. intersection, at junction of West Pomeroy Lane, and Pomeroy Lane, along Route 116.
“We want to aim high” on what is possible to improve this area, Assistant Amherst Town Manager David Ziomek said at the Jan. 25 meeting.
The aim is to “make this a more walk-able more bike-able more livable village center,” he said, by making judicious use of a recent $1.5 million state grant.
“There are many challenges here,” he added, and “there are a number of safety issues” with the current layout at the intersection.