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.
HOLYOKE—On the precipice of the municipal election, the Facebook page Keep Holyoke Affordable took out the knives. It posted a darkened screengrab from a virtual Planning Board meeting centered on at-large Council candidate Mimi Panitch. The Facebook post included text that blasted her record on the Board and noted the menacing, eight-armed undulating cephalopod in her background.
The ghost of Eastfield Mall and the promise of its property’s future hovered over the Springfield City Council on June 2. The administration presented the Council with a District Improvement Financing (DIF) plan to help pay for infrastructure around the site of what will be Springfield Crossing.
UPDATED 1/29/25 1:40AM: Voters approved the charter change 572 to 270 per unofficial results the Clerk released Tuesday night. The last time voters in the City of Holyoke had to trudge to the polls in the dead of winter was probably 2010. On January 19
Tragedy and the march of time itself undermined two ordinances before the City Council on Monday. Before the body was a proposal to automate electeds’ raises and another to double the time new hires have to move into the city. A majority of councilors present
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.
A week before the Springfield City Council was to consider tax rates for residential and commercial properties, members briefly clashed over funding to close deficits from prior years. There was another mayor-Council flashpoint last week, albeit one that took the guise of old school political territorialism. The removal of the historic Stearns Square bench had reached the Council. However, the body punted on a resolve at the request of one councilor.
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,
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
SPRINGFIELD—Despite a lengthy debate and reasonable fears about how the city’s principal revenue stream affects residents, the City Council approved the fiscal year 2025 budget. It passed last week with no modifications and no dissent. This was also the first annual spending document presented under the new Chief Administrative & Financial Officer, Cathy Buono.