The Springfield City Council advanced major changes to the city’s solid waste policies on October 21. The policies Public Works czar Chris Cignoli presented are fairly comprehensive and run a wide gamut of garbage in the city. However, the changes also include a cost element,
This blog has existed through five presidential elections. Perhaps they have all felt existential. Certainly, the most recent three presidential cycles have felt that way. That is because one major party’s candidate has been the same for three election in a row. Complete liberation from this déjà vu is not certain, but one step could help break it.
After its sibling city Holyoke had not one but three School Committee vacancies to fill this year, Chicopee is getting in on the action.
Longtime at-large School Committee Chester Szetela resigned October 9 according to a copy of his resignation letter WMP&I obtained. A retired teacher, Szetela was first elected in 2001.
SPRINGFIELD—In their second and likely last outing, US Senator Elizabeth Warren and her GOP challenger, attorney John Deaton, battled along many of the same lines as before. Deaton again attempted to brand Warren as an extreme creature of Washington. Warren returned the volley by calling him a tool of right-wing interests.
The Springfield City Council gave what appears to be the final greenlight to a major reconstruction of the X intersection in Forest Park at its meeting this past Monday. The approval for takings and underlying funding was not without its fireworks, though. Some councilors objected to the items appearing on the agenda only to have their arms’ twisted to deliver prompt action.
This week, James Leydon left the Hampden District Attorney’s office after nearly nine years as its public affairs director. Leydon held one of the few major government spokesperson positions in the region amid upheaval in media itself.
On Monday, Springfield city councilors will consider a negotiated contract with the Springfield Police Supervisors Association (SPSA)—a contrast from the terms a state panel imposed last year. The new pact ostensibly addresses inadequacies both city officials and the supervisors had identified in the arbitration award.
Over the summer, Ward 1 committee member Gustavo Romero and Ward 4 member Gloria Roca-Cabellero resigned. Per the city charter, a Joint Session of the rump of the School Committee and the City Council join forces to vote on replacements. On Tuesday, they chose former Ward 1 City Councilor Gladys Lebron-Martinez and Orlando Isaza for the Ward 1 and 4 Committees seats, respectively.
With primary season concluding early this month, attention is now turning to the general election in Massachusetts. Some contests do not even feature candidates from both major parties. One exception is the 4th Hampden House district, where the Democratic challenger has quietly outraised the GOP incumbent.
SPRINGFIELD—Returning from its summer slowdown that comes every August, the City Council confronted a phalanx of financial and property orders that made for a hefty agenda. However, a different kind of hefty may have defined the most compelling and complicated issue was before councilors on