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By LYNNE MAN, NANCY POLAN AND DALE LABONTE

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Up to 24 staff positions would be eliminated at the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, including four teachers and three paraprofessionals at both the middle and high schools, based on a possible deficit of $1 million or more in the schools’ $37.7 million fiscal year 2026 budget.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Rebuilding Amherst Regional High School’s track and its interior field, both in poor condition and identified as priorities for replacement in a town study released more than six years ago, should be underway by late June, shortly after the school year ends.

Thank you for publishing Erica Avery’s Dec. 26 letter to the editor, ”Column on gender care for children opens discussion.”

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Moments before a Danvers resident appeared ready to end his own life on the morning of Jan. 1, a Shutesbury police sergeant located the man’s vehicle parked off Route 202 and engaged in a conversation that convinced him to remain alive, and then be brought to a hospital for needed physical and mental help.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A New Hampshire timber company has closed on a massive land buy of nearly 2,400 acres in seven communities in Hampshire and Franklin counties, acquiring five parcels for more than $20 million from Amherst-based W.D. Cowls Inc.Including 1,050...

I am writing in support of Bruce Spencer’s Dec. 10 guest column regarding the ”People’s Pines” [“Are these the ‘King’s Pines’ or the ‘People’s Pines’?” His article questioned the current plans of state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR)...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Embracing change through an equity lens, putting new protocols in place that don’t rely only on past practices, and improving communication while also speaking hard truths are at the heart of Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman’s approach to...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — A lawyer whose earlier professional life included covering land-use boards as a news reporter will be joining the town’s Conservation Commission, despite objections from some residents that the appointment could create complications for...

AMHERST — Both the Amherst Regional and Union 26 school committees met in executive session late Monday afternoon, even with school vacation underway.With some members of the committees in person at the Amherst Regional Middle School cafeteria and...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Residents, town officials and the legislative delegation are raising concerns about a proposed forest management plan for land at the edge of the Quabbin Reservoir that could involve removing many tall white pines using large equipment...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Already facing a possible $1.26 million deficit in next year’s $37.54 million operating budget for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, officials from the four member towns are divided on the best approach for both closing that gap and...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Optimizing staffing and reviewing programming at the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools are among strategies for confronting a likely deficit in next year’s budget, which Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman is anticipating even under the most...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Kestrel Land Trust is permanently protecting a forest featuring more than 200 acres of white pine and mixed hardwoods on Montague Road, where a centuries-old dam was removed over the summer.A $327,000 grant from the Executive Office of...

A Dec. 9 letter writer (“From UFC to NFL, everybody’s happy again”) bizarrely proposes that “people seem to be happy again” simply because she has seen some professional athletes dancing like Trump. No doubt some millionaires are dancing at the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Residents who pushed to get a new wetlands protection bylaw into place in Shutesbury are asking the Conservation Commission to adopt an updated associated set of regulations to ensure the bylaw can be enforced.“No regulations means we are...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — A general town bylaw creating a licensing process for large-scale battery storage in Shutesbury has been struck down by the state attorney general’s office, for both unreasonably regulating renewable energy and improperly regulating...

On behalf of the Back from the Brink campaign (www.preventnuclearwar.org), I want to thank U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern for his steadfast leadership in confronting the existential threat to humanity posed by nuclear weapons. All of his constituents, and...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Douglas Slaughter, who served as temporary superintendent for the Amherst, Pelham and Amherst-Pelham Regional schools for the 2023-2024 academic year, is joining the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District as its assistant...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — Appealing to the state Legislature to allow noncitizens who live in Shutesbury the right vote in local elections, making the town pollinator friendly, and providing some money for the rebuilding of the Amherst Regional High School track,...

By TERRY MOLLNER

Listening to the talking heads in the news media is painful because of how shallow it is, from Nancy Pelosi to Bill Maher on down.For me the issue is that the lower middle class and working class revolted against the establishment, as, by the way,...