From Other Sources: News for and About Amherst. This Week – News Roundup from Across the Commonwealth

Here are links to some local stories from the last few weeks that we were unable to cover in the Indy as well as some links to stories from around the commonwealth.

Recommended Read of the Week
There were a lot of harrowing articles last week that raised the alarm about imminent threats to democracy, to global health and well being, to world peace, and to the fate of the planet. Among them all, I found “America is Under Attack by Nicolas Confessore in the New York Times to be the most sobering. Confessore examines the dark money behind the ongoing war against “woke” and against DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and the considerable efforts that are underway to ban DEI work in public schools and particularly in public universities. As it stands now, 20 states have enacted legislation or have legislation pending to outlaw DEI work in public schools. This of course has been going on since the Trump administration and might not strike anyone as particularly newsy, But Confoessore documents what the folks engaged in these campaigns say to each other ,offering us their vision of a fascist America in which gay people are imprisoned, women are excluded from the workplace, black people are limited to the “low IQ work that they are best suited for.” and a large number of the nation’s Black and Asian citizens are expelled. And they hope to capture education to mandate that only their anti-woke vision of the world can be taught. Confessore warns that the anti-woke movement is growing and is only becoming more outrageous, more intolerant, and more dangerous as it gathers momentum.

Are Paywalls An Obstacle?”
Here at the Indy we support several other publications with our personal subscriptions and we encourage our readers to do the same as they are able.  And for this feature, we try to post articles that are not hiding behind a paywall.  But sometimes an article worth reading is hiding behind a paywall, and subscription to the source is just not feasible.  For such instances there are workarounds. Check out some possibilities here and here and here.  

Share The Good Stuff That You Are Reading
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AMHERST
Gould Stepping Away from Amherst BID but Not Going Far by Bill Zito (1/25/24).  Gabrielle Gould, executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District and the Downtown Amherst Foundation announced on Jan. 12 that she will be stepping down from her position at the BID to form a consulting business. Gould was appointed as BID executive director in August 2019 and the organization credits her with a number of successes; strengthening the BID’s relationship with town government and institutional partners; teaming with the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce on COVID-relief for small businesses; producing signature downtown events and launching The Drake, the downtown’s first-ever live performance venue. (Amherst Reminder)

Balancing Solar with Farms and Forestland by Emilee Klein (1/25/24). As debate continues over how best to develop solar throughout the state to help meet an ambitious net-zero emissions goal, representatives from Mass Audubon and Harvard Forest are touting a recently completed report that details how solar and forestland can co-exist in Massachusetts. Or, pulling the words straight from the “Growing Solar, Protecting Nature” study, “We can have our forests, working lands, and solar, too.” Representatives from Mass Audubon and Harvard Forest, a long-term ecological research site and an academic department at Harvard University, are in the middle of a statewide tour to discuss the report’s findings and policy recommendations. The tour stopped in Amherst on Monday night. The report finds that it is possible for Massachusetts to meet its ambitious goals for clean electricity and net-zero emissions by 2050, while also protecting valuable natural and working landscapes. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Amherst College on Track for Downtown Store on Hastings Site by Scott Merzbach (1/25/24).As keys for the former Hastings shop at 45 South Pleasant St. are turned over to Amherst College so that it can open a store this spring to sell apparel, collectibles and other Mammoths-related merchandise, the owners of the third-generation business are teaming up with a prominent developer to advance an adjacent five-story, mixed-use project. Bringing a campus store to downtown Amherst has the support of Amherst College President Michael A. Elliott. “The Amherst College store will serve as a gateway to town for students, faculty, staff and the many other visitors who come to campus every year,” Elliott said in a statement that thanked Mary Louise Broll and Sharon Povinelli, Hastings owners and spouses. They are handing over the street-level retail space in the Mercantile Buildings of Amherst to Mike Thomas, the college’s chief financial and administrative officer, and Ralph Johnson, the college’s executive director of campus operations.Thomas said the expectation is that having a college store downtown will improve the economic vitality of Amherst center. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Amherst Pelham Schools to Make Plea to Town of Amherst for Help in Closing $1.9M Budget Gap by Scott Merzbach (1/24/24). To stave off a portion of what could be nearly $1.9 million in reductions and efficiencies to balance next year’s Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools budget, Amherst representatives to the regional committee intend to seek more financial support from the town of Amherst. With a formal budget presentation at Tuesday’s regional committee meeting confirming preliminary numbers presented at a Four Town Meeting between Amherst, Pelham, Shutesbury and Leverett officials in December, showing that the budget will fall almost $2 million short of the $36.5 million needed to maintain current services, calls are being made to ask the Amherst Town Council and its Finance Committee to scrap a recommended limit of a 3% increase for Amherst’s regional school assessment. Amherst representative Irv Rhodes said an appeal for a higher assessment for Amherst could be made, though he doubted its likely success, based on what the schools have experienced in previous years. In 2023, the regional committee asked for an additional $84,000 from Amherst, which was denied. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Dual Language Program in Amherst Schools Loses State Funding by Scott Merzbach (1/22/24). The leader of a successful dual-language program at Fort River School is calling on the Amherst School Committee for a continued commitment to keep and expand the program now that the district has lost a state grant. Katie Richardson, the district’s multilingual educator, told the committee last week that the Caminantes program continues to meet the needs of students enrolled in it, improving the language and literacy skills of both the Spanish and English speakers. Since its launch in 2019, when Caminantes began for kindergartners, the program has been funded by grants from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. That money helped build the program’s foundation, and has covered curriculum materials, texts, supplies and subscriptions and the training of staff.“But it’s not continuing, and this is the time where the district has to start looking at how to make it a sustainable commitment to make this program work,” Richardson told the committee on Thursday. Funding is just one of the challenges coming for Caminantes, including how to bring the program to sixth grade and to the Amherst Regional Middle School, in the fall of 2025 and the fall of 2026, respectively, and ensuring that Caminantes continues to function when a new elementary school opens at the Fort River site in 2½ years. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Camp Howe in Goshen Loses 4-H Affiliation After UMass Drops Support  by Scott Merzbach (1/25/24).  About to begin its 96th year, Camp Howe is the longest-running 4-H summer program in Massachusetts, one of five camps offering a place for youths and young adults to gain life skills as they bunk in rustic cabins, swim, canoe, climb, hike and take care of farm animals. Beginning this summer, though, Camp Howe, along with Camp Middlesex in Ashby, Camp Marshall in Spencer, Camp Leslie in Georgetown and Camp Farley in Mashpee, will no longer be affiliated with 4-H because the University of Massachusetts opted against renewing memorandums of understanding through its Extension Service with each of the summer camps. Even though UMass has provided minimal educational support since eliminating the state camping specialist role in 2004, the agreements governed the association between the camps and the Massachusetts 4-H Program, UMass Extension and UMass. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

The Nightclub of Amherst.  Spoke Live to Open in February by Liesel Nygard (1/16/24). By the time students of the Five Colleges arrive in Amherst for their spring semester, The Spoke will be planning its grand opening of a new nightclub.Spoke Live, located at 1-11 Pray St. will open its doors come Feb. 1, according to Spoke Live owner Chad O’Rourke. It will feature a 100-foot bar, dance floor and a variety of liquor options and seltzers. “My vision here is to become the entertainment district of downtown Amherst, especially as more development happens,” said O’Rourke. “It’s going to be the nightclub of Amherst.”The new nightclub is behind The Spoke at 35 East Pleasant St., which first opened in 1984 and was bought by O’Rourke in 2017. Throughout roughly seven years of ownership, he’s been renovating and expanding the bar, making the business one of the top 16 college bars in the country last year according to fans of the multimedia outlet Barstool Sports. (Massachusetts Daily Collegian)

BEYOND AMHERST
Newton Teachers Emotional as Strike Enters Day 6 by Shaun Ganley (1/26/24). Newton Public Schools will remain closed on Friday as an ongoing strike by the teachers union canceled classes for a sixth day.”The day did not end on a positive note and school is canceled once again (Friday),” Newton school committee chair Christopher Brezski said.Emotions appeared high within the Newton Teachers Association Thursday night as leaders held a news conference, announcing where negotiations stood.The teachers union expressed frustration about how the Newton school committee was approaching negotiations with them.”The biggest sticking point is that the Newton School committee refuses to bargain with us,” Michael Zilles, the president of the Newton Teachers Association, said. “They are playing a game of wait it out, wait it out. Wait it out. That’s the biggest sticking point. There is nothing in particular that we are fighting over that we couldn’t reach agreement on.” (WCVB)

In the Final Months of 2023, Islamaphobic and Antisemitic Incidents up in Massachusetts by Jill Kaufman (1/25/24). More than half the Islamophobic workplace incidents in Massachusetts took place in the last three months of 2023, according to a new analysis from CAIR Massachusetts, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Overall the state saw a 53% increase in reports, as compared to 2022, when 14 incidents were reported to CAIR. In 2023, 68 incidents were reported overall; 36 were reported between Oct. 7 and Dec 31. The period of increased reports coincides with the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, and Israel’s ongoing bombing in Gaza that’s led to a humanitarian crisis. Tahira Amatul-Wadud of CAIR said the majority of those incidents reported included some kind of censorship by an employer of an employee’s private social media account. “Some statement in solidarity with Palestinians or some statement against the militarism from Israel,” Amatul-Wadud said, “and employers will be asking the employee to either remove content or face discipline.”A cursory review indicates 10% of complaints are coming from western Massachusetts,  (NEPM)

Home Sales in Massachusetts Fall to 12 Year Low by Eileen Woods (1/25/24). Massachusetts is unwillingly leading the charge to housing unaffordability. Sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts hit a 12-year low in 2023, but prices continued to soar to record-breaking heights, according to a report The Warren Group released on Jan. 16. If your shopping for your first home, the road is full of potholes: Soaring home prices and high mortgage rates mean you have to shell out more money every month: for principle, interest, and private mortgage insurance (if you take out a conventional loan and put down less than 20%).It’s a domino effect. High mortgage rates have prospective sellers sitting on the sidelines. This depletes the inventory of available homes. A lack of homes for sale ratchets up the demand for the listings we do have, which drives up prices. (Boston.com)

Regional Bike Share Program May Make Return by Alexander MacDougall (1/25/24). After being inactive for more than a year, the city of Northampton is hoping to get the ValleyBike share program up and running again by putting the service out to bid. The city put out a request for proposals for interested bidders in late December with a Jan. 31 deadline. ValleyBike has been dormant since last year, when the Canadian company operating it, Bewegen Technologies, declared bankruptcy and defaulted on its contract with the city of Northampton. Northampton is the lead community and is responsible for the program, which also has stations in Easthampton, Holyoke, South Hadley, Amherst, Chicopee, Springfield, West Springfield and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The bid is for a three-year contract that would last into 2027. In the request for proposals, the city states that it expects a new owner not just to resume operations, but to add additional bicycles and stations as part of the transfer. (Amherst Bulletin)

If Land Could Speak: Valley Community Gardens on Land With Social Justice Roots by Pat James (1/25/24). Community gardens grow on all kinds of land. Many gardens start as derelict lots, long abandoned by owners who sometimes reclaim the property after community gardeners reveal its beauty and productivity. Schools and parks are common sites for community gardens, and some uncommon sites include rooftops, repurposed factory buildings and piers.Here in the Valley, several community gardens are located on land with stories that resonate with the social justice roots of each garden. Just Roots is a nonprofit organization that manages the Greenfield Community Farm on land that was once the Greenfield Poor Farm. The Poor Farm was established on land sold to the county by Justin Root (inspiring the nonprofit’s name) in 1849. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Shutesbury’s ConsCom Leader Resigns.  Cites Personal Attacks, Interference from Town by Scott Merzbach (1/24/24). The chairwoman of the town’s Conservation Commission has stepped down, a decision she said stems from alleged personal attacks and interference by elected and appointed officials at Town Hall. Miriam DeFant’s decision comes on the eve of a wetlands protection bylaw to be presented to voters at a special Town Meeting on Tuesday night. DeFant has been a member of the commission since being appointed Sept. 29, 2020 and has chaired the panel for the past 2½ years before she resigned last Thursday.“The backdrop to my resignation includes blatant disregard for environmental regulations, unnecessary polarization, resistance to providing the commission with necessary resources (such as access to legal advice), and pressure campaigns to interfere with the commission’s work,” DeFant wrote in a 10-page letter titled “Don’t Drain the (Wetland) Swamp!” (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Outgoing Greenfield Mayor Gave Big Pay Raises To Police Officials by Dusty Christensen (1/11/24). Last year, one week before she lost a landslide election in which policing was a central issue, then-mayor of Greenfield Roxann Wedegartner signed agreements to give big pay raises to the city’s top police officials. That’s according to new documents The Shoestring has obtained, showing that one of Wedegartner’s last acts before Election Day was to give raises of 20% and 25%, respectively, to the city’s police chief and deputy chief. Wedegartner signed those agreements on Oct. 31, just before a Nov. 7 election in which controversy over the Greenfield Police Department played a key role in her ouster.  At the center of that controversy was Police Chief Robert Haigh. In 2022, a jury found Haigh discriminated against a Black officer in the department. Following that decision, Wedegartner reinstated Haigh as police chief. Wedegartner, who also faced backlash for attempting to cut funding from the School Committee’s budget last year, did not respond to several voicemails left on her phone Wednesday. Haigh and Deputy Chief William Gordon did not respond to emails requesting comment. (The Shoestring)

Massachusetts has the Nation’s Highest Childcare Costs. If You Can Find a Spot That Is by The Globe Editorial Board (1/22/24). High-quality child care can set a child up for success in school and life. It’s vital for parents. And when child-care options were limited during COVID-19 lockdowns and employees had to make do, employers realized how crucial child care is for them, too. “Child care is a lynchpin to the health and well-being not only of families … but it’s essential to everything we do as a state,” Governor Maura Healey said at a Tuesday press conference in Malden, where she announced a planto expand child-care access. Healey’s plan, which she also touted in her State of the Commonwealth address, provides important recognition that child care in Massachusetts must be more affordable and accessible. Right now, Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of the nation’s highest child-care costs — if parents can find a spot at all. That’s a problem for parents with an infant and a problem for parents with an older child ready for an educational pre-K program. (Boston Globe)