Northampton

The city council in Northampton, Massachusetts, has greenlit several green-minded efforts for the city’s school district – all building toward the city’s carbon neutrality goals. Through a special fund and borrowing, the projects will cost about $12 million – with most of it going toward a geothermal heating system for Northampton High School.The projects received unanimous approval from the city’s school committee – but the council needed a special meeting to get them across the finish line.WAMC’s Samantha Simmons spoke with Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief James Paleologopoulos about the development.

Tuesday’s elections featured plenty of incumbent mayors sticking around in western Massachusetts – though just barely in Northampton. And in Easthampton, with no incumbent on the ballot, voters picked the city’s 4th mayor in 30 years.

Coming to a close in less than two weeks, two campaigns seeking the mayor’s office in Northampton, Massachusetts are in the final stretch – featuring the incumbent and a challenger looking to unseat her. Both squared off in a forum this week. WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief James Paleologopoulos reports.

Throughout Northampton, Mass., this weekend, a festival that fills the Paradise City with music will be in full swing.

In Northampton, Massachusetts, the table appears to be set for this November’s elections. That includes the mayor’s race, with Tuesday’s preliminaries narrowing the field to the incumbent and a longtime local business advocate.

It’s been at least 10 years since the state of Massachusetts purchased a stretch of rail along the Connecticut River – a restored Knowledge Corridor Line that’s seen passenger ridership rise steadily ever since. State and local officials recently marked the anniversary.

Voters in parts of the Pioneer Valley are once again casting ballots. Polls are open for preliminary elections in Chicopee and Holyoke, with the most crowded contests in Northampton, including the race for mayor.

For two nights in late-August, the BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity in Florence was filled with Northampton residents and a slew of candidates.Organized by the League of Women Voters and broadcast by Northampton Open Media, the forums saw locals vying for city council seats and the mayor’s office answer questions on budgets, school funding and city projects. Alexander MacDougall, who has reported on the sheer size of the council candidate pool over the past few months, was on the panel asking questions.

Ahead of a preliminary election, four mayoral candidates in Northampton, Mass., talked problems and solutions at a forum – making their pitches to a packed community center before the field’s slimmed to two.

An interview with drummer and singer-songwriter Jason Boesel.