SPRINGFIELD—The first City Council meeting of June featured an agenda of the usual fare. Grants and orders were plentiful but typical. There was an appointment to the Springfield Redevelopment Authority (SRA), one of the few positions where the Council has a gatekeeper role. However, there
The first regular Springfield City Council meeting of 2026 after last week’s inauguration largely featured consensus. The highlight of the evening was a new contract with the firefighters. There were also new economic development grants and a conspicuous cut to a grant the Police Department has received for years.
SPRINGFIELD—There was no arithmetic grinch to upend at-large Councilor Tracye Whitfield’s march to the council presidency Monday night. Indeed, despite the doubt heading into the evening, the informal election of the body’s leader for 2026 occurred quickly and with little fanfare. As a result, Whitfield is on track to become the first woman of color to serve as City Council President here.
The substance of 2025’s last meeting, however, had its twists and turns.
Slowly but surely, Mayor Domenic Sarno is backfilling the parade of retirements and reassignments that have emptied leadership in Springfield city government. Since his reelection—or before if you count former finance czar Timothy Plante—multiple high-ranking and long-serving department heads have exited.
SPRINGFIELD—In what could be the full mayoral field’s last outing, the candidates to lead the City of Homes sparred over crime and economic development. Incumbent Domenic Sarno tried to swipe at his opponents, but faceplanted.
SPRINGFIELD—Ranking at or near the bottom by various wealth metrics, the City of Homes looked like a sitting duck as the pandemic crashed upon the United States. In the weeks after the City Council’s March 16 meeting, its last in-person since then, Massachusetts and Connecticut
UPDATED 3/13/21 12:09PM: To include demographic data of Springfield vaccinations. SPRINGFIELD—After weeks of pleading, the city Health & Human Services Department here will soon have its own clutch of COVID-19 vaccine to distribute to neighborhood residents. Over the course of four days between now and
SPRINGFIELD—Despite its world-class healthcare assets, Massachusetts had been milling around the bottom of vaccine distribution in the United States. That has begun to change as Governor Charlie Baker loosened criteria to inoculate an individual. Still, access is spotty, particularly in Western Massachusetts, and the mass