UDPATED 10/18/12 2:22pm During a relatively quiet meeting at the Springfield City Council, two things were clear. The Council remains skeptical of the mayor’s budgeting tactics and everybody loves the Student Prince. Beyond that, much of the evening was focused on a couple of tax
UPDATED 9/28: Additional reporting included. The subject matter is complex, esoteric and to some, probably dull. However, Tuesday night the revision of the city’s zoning ordinance packed seats and elicited cheers and jeers from meeting attendees as residents demanded, sometimes bluntly, that Councilors act on
In its first full regular meeting since July (August’s meeting was technically for permitting), the Springfield City Council confronted built-up financial matters and committee reports. Indeed, the Council dispatched the hefty agenda more quickly than it has shorter ones filled more greater banality. Part of
Aside from a few special meetings and a one scheduled meeting in July and August each, the Springfield City Council took the bulk of the summer off. Certainly, one issue, casinos, kept the City Council busy as it tussled with the mayor for control of
**This post has been edited for accuracy. ** When the Springfield City Council voted 7-4 to approve a higher than requested trash fee in exchange for reopening neighborhood library branches, it was clear the side the crowd was on. A sustained applause greeted Councilors who took
As 2010 faded into 2011, Springfield and its largely Forest Park neighborhood-based Ward 6 faced a tumultuous transition. Councilor Keith Wright had resigned from the seat only a year after his and seven other ward-based seats were created in the city’s 2009 Council reorganization. The
The Springfield City Council inched closer Monday night toward an increase in the fee and a deal has emerged to reopen closed neighborhood library branch. The discussion reopened wounds leftover from this year’s eleventh hour budget process. Elsewhere the Council approved some reports and grants
**This post has been edited for accuracy.** This post is the third in a series about the Hampden Senate District Primary Election In the modern political campaign, the announcement almost certainly predates the real campaign. This happens all the time. Candidates announce and then little
More than five months after it had overturned Palmer Renewable Energy’s permit to begin construction, the Zoning Board of Appeals once again ruled against the proposed biomass plant. Left unresolved from that January meeting was the Springfield City Council’s appeal. The ZBA sustained the Council’s
**This post has been edited for clarity.** Housing advocates and community activists breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday as United States District Court Judge Michael Ponsor killed a lawsuit by various banks to strike down Springfield’s new foreclosure ordinances. Ponsor’s ruling sided with the