NORTHAMPTON A group of local residents, business owners and advocates are calling for changes to the city’s planned Main Street redesign, which they say needs to better accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists and businesses in an ecologically friendly.
Hilltown Digest: Year after year it’s picnic table 63
A picture from the 2021 Memorial Day weekend picnic that was originally started by Helen Kagan, seated in the middle. Due to inclement weather, the picnic was held at the Mallory home rather than table 63 at Look Park. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Published: 6/3/2021 4:27:30 PM
The COVID-19 pandemic canceled many traditions last year, from big Thanksgiving get-togethers to the Cummington Fair. But one decades-long tradition that was called off for the first time last year resumed last Sunday: the Memorial Day weekend family picnic first started by Helen Kagan in the late 1960s.
“I never knew that it would be a tradition,” said Kagan, now 92. “But I’m so happy that it is.”
Smith College: Faculty member accused of sexual abuse should have been investigated
The Grecourt Gates of Smith College on Elm Street in Northampton. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
Published: 6/3/2021 9:45:31 AM
NORTHAMPTON Smith College knew for two decades that a faculty member had been accused of sexually abusing a minor, but chose not to act on those allegations, allowing him to teach at the college until recently.
On Wednesday morning, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield released an expanded list of former employees who had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors. The list included the name of Robert Ellis Hosmer Jr., a Smith lecturer from 1989 until 2016 who previously worked at Holyoke Catholic High School from 1968 to 1979.
NORTHAMPTON The city’s planned Department of Community Care is in line to receive an additional $150,000 from an amendment to the state budget.The department, which was a major recommendation of the city’s Policing Review Commission, would be.
Many communities scrambled to leave state mosquito spraying program
A mosquito PHOTO BY PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/TNS
Published: 6/1/2021 7:57:30 PM
During the past few months, several western Massachusetts communities have scrambled to meet a May 28 deadline to opt out of the state’s mosquito control spraying program.
Northampton became the latest municipality to opt out of the program under the State Reclamation and Mosquito Control Board (SRMCB) following in the footsteps of other towns like Amherst, Pelham, Williamsburg, Westhampton, Whately, Goshen and Greenfield.
“The Board of Health voted unanimously, recommending that the city opt out,” Northampton Public Health Director Merrideth O’Leary said.