Following a vigorous May 23 debate session, the nearly $60 billion budget reached unanimous approval by the Massachusetts state Senate. Members adopted more than 400 of the 1,100 amendments filed, resulting in close to $90 million of additional spending with Western Massachusetts lawmakers maintaining the regions stake in funding.
WILBRAHAM — A two-hour Town Meeting moved swiftly through a warrant containing 57 articles with attention focusing on the seemingly resolved differences in the budget numbers for the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District budget, funding for a new fire engine, issues concerning drinking water, battery storage, additions to the Memorial School pickleball courts, the presence of ice cream vendors and steeper fines for littering in town.
LONGMEADOW — The Longmeadow Select Board weighed whether to approve a dramatic hike in water rates when it met on June 3. The rate increases are the largest in years, but Finance Director Ian Coddington warned they will not be the last.
EAST LONGMEADOW — As East Longmeadow heads into a time of change, with a new high school building, shifting of town offices and a potential center town district, Robert Watchilla has taken the reins as director of planning and community development.
EAST LONGMEADOW — A group of eighth grade students from Birchland Park Middle School recently took a field trip to Washington, D.C., as part of their civics capstone.
LONGMEADOW — Two-hundred fifty years after the death of an enslaved couple in Longmeadow, two stones that bear witness to their lives have been set into the ground in front of the First Church of Longmeadow.