This past Wednesday, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a lower court ruling and, in effect, reanimated—although did not fully resurrect—the prospect of a biomass plant in Springfield. The decision gives the biomass plant proposed for Page Boulevard enough life to punch open the project’s coffin.
Hampden Superior Court Judge James Manitsas largely rejected a motion the City of Springfield and Mayor Domenic Sarno had filed to dismiss the discrimination suit former mayoral aide Darryl Moss had brought against them. While the courts have whittled it down, the meat of Moss’s suit could now advance to a jury.
The municipal political season has kicked off in Springfield. On Wednesday, School Committee member Joesiah Gonzalez announced that he would run for the Ward 1 City Council seat Maria Perez now holds.
The race will be a test for Gonzalez as much as for Perez, should she seek reelection.
Earlier this month, a state agency with an officious name, the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), held two public hearings about the replacing the Hampden County Courthouse. These were not about where the state might put the now-styled Springfield Regional Justice Center, which would replace the deteriorating, musty and ostensibly unsafe Brutalist incumbent.
The Springfield City Council is wading once more into the fraught waters of their own salaries. A bill appearing on Monday’s agenda would raise the annual salary for councilors, the mayor and members of the School Committee. However, the increase would not be immediate.
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.
Springfield’s longest-serving mayor, Domenic Sarno, is said to have seen Tom Menino as a model. He ostensibly envied the power, both official and political, the Hub’s former ruler wielded. Yet, in last week’s Democratic primary, a year on from the tightest mayoral prelim Sarno ever faced, he has shown himself no threat to his enemies.
SPRINGFIELD—After a race that veered into mendacity and nastiness at its climax, Democratic State Senator Adam Gomez bulldozed primary challenger Ward 4 Councilor Malo Brown to again secure his party’s nomination for the Hampden Senate District. Brown’s boss, State Representative Bud Williams, fared better.
From the moment the contest began the subtext of the Hampden Senate District’s Democratic primary would be who could represent it best. Therefore, it was probably fate that the battle between Senator Adam Gomez and Springfield City Councilor Malo Brown would take a nasty turn. That happened mid-August.
Generally, when the United States Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) comes up in Springfield, it is about the Community Development Block Grant program. At worst, it is usually middling news, such as a lower Congressional appropriation. On July 25, however, HUD came knocking