During Town Meeting Tuesday night with just under 650 voters, Longmeadow rejected a $8.6 million debt exclusion that would have financed the build out of a municipally-owned Internet provider. At the meeting, backers, which included the Select Board, mostly jousted with the Finance Committee. The Committee, a volunteer advisory panel, had given the project a thumbs-down.
As Longmeadow has moved toward developing its own municipal fiber, that is local Internet service, a nebulous and shadowy advocacy group and one of the nation’s largest telecommunications groups have moved in—at least on Facebook in town.
Longmeadow Daze is an occasional series about Longmeadow government and politics. Longmeadow voters authorized a debt exclusion on Tuesday that will let the town build a new middle school to replace Williams and Glenbrook Middle schools. A special town meeting had advanced the question to
Longmeadow voters elected three members of the School Committee, but only two were on the ballot. Incumbent Nicole Choiniere and newcomer Michaela Fitzgerald won seats as did Adam Rosenblum, who mounted a write-in bid.
Kency Gilet, a two-time Springfield City Council candidate, now of Longmeadow, is running in town elections next week. He is among three School Committee candidates on the ballot for three seats. The race attracted a write-in candidacy amid alarm that Gilet—and his historically right-wing views—could succeed in Longmeadow after failing in Springfield.
LONGMEADOW—In the beginning there was the Athens. Then came New England. New England stuck to tradition. Not even a once-in-a-century pandemic that complicated gathering itself could consign it to history’s wastebin.
The staff of Senator Eric Lesser experienced another shakeup this week with the departure of Michael Clark. A longtime advisor to Lesser, a Longmeadow Democrat, Clark has taken a new job outside government. He was the last staffer dating to Lesser’s original campaign in 2014.
BY LINDA MATYS O’CONNELL ARTS & CULTURE CORRESPONDENT This week I’m drawn to two opportunities to engage in cultural dialogues. Springfield’s Art for the Soul Gallery offers artist Dane Tilghman contemplating a slice of African-American history that speaks to him. Meanwhile, in Longmeadow people are
A joint meeting of the Longmeadow Select Board and School Committee voted Thursday to restore the latter body to working order. Quadruple resignations on January 23 had paralyzed the seven-member education board. Without a quorum, it was incapable of conducting business including designating new members
LONGMEADOW—Five days after simultaneous resignations essentially paralyzed the School Committee, the administrative clean up of the fallout has begun. The Select Board met in a special session Monday night with the Committee’s remnants. Together, they charted a course to resuscitate the school panel and, eventually,