HOLYOKE—Facing their first ever election to choose a mayor to serve four years, voters here displayed a mix of blah and Morse-mentum catapulting the incumbent Alex Morse and former city councilor Jason Ferreira into the November election. That face-off headlines a Fall campaign season which
UPDATED 11/9/15 5:41PM: To reflect that O’Connell did give an interview on Election night to The Reminder. Afterglow 2015 is a series analyzing the results of the 2015 municipal elections in the Pioneer Valley and beyond. HOLYOKE—Music blared, drinks flowed and hugs abounded. In the
Holyoke is at a crossroads. Intractable problems of poverty, disparity and want remain as it has in ilk cities for some time. Yet of late, there is a spark of life among the citizenry and in the earth of the Paper City. People are engaged
HOLYOKE—A two-story retail building along Northampton Street’s commercial strip, wedged next to a gas station, normally would not normally get much attention. But from there, Alex Morse has based his campaigns for mayor, from his out-of-nowhere upset of Elaine Pluta in 2011 to this year’s
One major trouble in Holyoke these days is the water and sewer departments’ effect upon the budget. In comparison to Springfield, where the unitary Water & Sewer Commission essentially operates off-budget, the costs and revenues of Holyoke’s systems for delivering potable water and removing water directly
HOLYOKE—The next six weeks of the mayoral campaign here will feature incumbent Alex Morse and homecare mogul Francis “Fran” O’Connell took the top two spots in Tuesday’s preliminary. The result mirrored—depending on perspective—the results from 2013, but the data is more nuanced than that with
UPDATED 4:10PM: For clarity and grammar and to reflect a correction. An earlier version of this post said O’Connell had not spent money on rent. He is, in fact, paying Pic’s Pub rent. Campaign finance reports detailing spending and fundraising in Holyoke’s mayoral preliminary became
UPDATED 9/4/15 11:09 PM: For grammar & clarity. HOLYOKE—The early 1990’s were a period of labor unrest at the Holyoke Visiting Nurse Association. Relations between management and workers, then-represented by Local 285, Service Employees International Union, iced over and devolved to strike threats and eventually
UPDATED 7/31/15 10:42: For clarity and grammar. Elections in the Paper City are rarely dull affairs, but a healthy mix of nominal retirements and fresh pushes by the city’s dominant political camps may yield a potentially heated cycle. Pile on the likelihood of some binding
HOLYOKE—With a banner blaring “a new direction” behind him, Francis “Fran” O’Connell offered a nostalgic appeal to a crowd of supporters and cited his business experience to undergird his case to elect him Holyoke’s chief executive. Although he touched on other issues in his remarks and