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
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
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
For weeks now, tension has been building among city councilors over the mayor’s budget. Even before Mayor Domenic Sarno presented his budget two weeks ago, many councilors were almost livid over the process. Consequently, when the budget faced its annual scrutiny Wednesday evening, it was
This post has been updated to reflect confirmation from the Department of Revenue on the Hotel Tax. With tension high following last week’s release of the mayor’s budget, on Monday the Springfield City Council staked out its own position on the proposed financial plan and
As Domenic Sarno rolled out his budget for the 2013 fiscal year on Tuesday, most of the observers in the crowd, largely just reporters and department heads, knew or had known for some time it would be bloody. On paper, the layoffs were limited to
Six months ago, as Springfield voted in the shadow of a year of bizarre weather that almost certainly affected the election, a potentially subtler electoral coup emerged besides Domenic Sarno’s landslide victory. Even as the weather had scrambled the predictions of the city’s punditocracy and
With its capacity to capture headlines and late night news teasers, crime remains one of the troubles for which Springfield get plenty of attention. Although the news can make the city appear to be a river of blood set against the din of incessant gunfire,
After a year defined by piece-meal measures of debatable effect to rein in crime in the City of Springfield, two councilors are propsoing arguably the most comprehensive approach yet when compared to other efforts. Early entertainment cessation and street closings have been the focus on