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By MADISON SCHOFIELD

COLRAIN — The Highway Department is seeking its next superintendent, with the ideal candidate being someone who can effectively balance administrative tasks with fieldwork alongside the crew.

By MADISON SCHOFIELD

COLRAIN — The Selectboard on Tuesday approved doubling from $250 to $500 the individual fees for a special permit, a site plan review and a zoning variance, as well as the cost for an applicant to appeal a decision made by the building commissioner.

By GRACE CHAI

NORTHAMPTON — After 15 years directing harm reduction at Tapestry, Liz Whynott recently accepted a new post as senior program officer at RIZE Massachusetts Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding and collaborating on solutions to end the overdose crisis in Massachusetts.

By CHRIS LARABEE

GREENFIELD — With the approval of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act last week, which includes $1.2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), regional food assistance agencies say they are anticipating negative impacts that will sprawl across many aspects of society.

By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN

GREENFIELD — Despite concerns circulating about the future of Baystate Franklin Medical Center after the passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that cuts roughly $1.1 trillion in health care spending, Baystate Health’s chief financial officer advises the Greenfield hospital is not at risk of closure.

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — The site plan review hearing for a proposed solar array at 160 Conway Road was continued to August, as the applicant and the Planning Board will further examine concerns about water on the site.

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE — Ralph C. Mahar Regional School will soon be more energy-efficient after securing $524,000 in grants.

ASHFIELD — Sanderson Academy alumni and music lovers are invited to attend a Sanderson reunion concert on Sunday, July 13.

A year ago, Mass Audubon began a fundraising campaign to accelerate land conservation in the commonwealth. The 30 X 30 Catalyst Fund hoped to find $75 million to protect 30 % of Massachusetts by 2030. To date, $40 million has been raised. Working with other state, regional, and local conservation groups, the fund has jump-started over 20 projects, totaling 18,000 acres. The conservation team has also been able to purchase land from owners who cannot wait for current uncertain federal funding to materialize. Eligible properties are judged by their ability to help clean air and water, provide biodiversity and wildlife corridors, and capture carbon for climate resilience. Intact forests in western Massachusetts and coastal properties are especially crucial to safeguarding these cost-effective solutions of Nature.

While shopping for plants recently at a local flower store, I saw a woman with ivy vines and a peony in her cart. She had been shopping in the discount area and had spent a long time looking for “the best of the rest,” some plants looking half dead. But she had found some lovely choices. After admiring her choices and a brief chat, she went to the checkout but came back quickly as she had lost her wallet. A short time later she returned with a smile and her wallet, and I told her she was lucky to get the last peony worth buying. I gave her a hug, wished her happy planting and she went on her way. After I found the best of the rest, I checked out, but when I got to my car … she had left me the last peony by our car! My heart melted! But she was gone, without a note. This is my “thank uou” note to her.

By BILL DANIELSON

My school year stretched into late June and then I had several social engagements that I had to attend to during the rest of the month. As a result, my first week of vacation was actually busier than a regular week of work. It was fun, but it required enough energy that I declared a moratorium on any and all social entanglements for the first week of July and I managed things so that I only had to get into the car once to run a small errand. That was a real treat.

By DOMENIC POLI

GREENFIELD — The end of the fiscal year coincided with the conclusion of a 39-year career at the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, as Donna Dudkiewicz retired as the organization’s chief financial officer on June 30.

During the 1940s and 50s, single-use items were just coming into vogue. Remember the advice given to Ben in “The Graduate?” Plastics? It was certainly taken seriously and now has become an almost insurmountable problem. The June 28 My Turn on reusable take-out containers is great [“It’s time for reusable take-out containers”]. But why wait for businesses to implement the practice on their own or worse, wait for government to pass yet another law. Do it yourself.

Hello MAGA people. I have a challenge for you. I want you to identify one good thing about the past six months that personally has touched you as a New Englander. For instance, anytime I drive down a newly paved road I think, “Thanks Infrastructure Act. Thanks Joe.” So what is it you can thank Donald for? Please don’t tell me about closed southern borders unless you have been to them. Whatever is happening 3,000 miles away has not touched you personally. Perhaps you know someone who has been deported locally. Has that improved your life? Did you get a job that the immigrant couldn’t? Maybe your boss gave you a raise now that those immigrants aren’t bringing wages down. Tell me about it please. Can you thank Donald Trump for cheaper or better health care? How about better policing so we can feel safer? Maybe it’s your gun collection, does that make you safer? But did Biden do anything to restrict your guns these past four years? I can’t think of anything. Has Trump provided you with less expensive food or housing? How about lower taxes? Exactly how much do you expect to get back from the Treasury? Is it more than those tariffs are costing you? I know I haven’t covered everything. So please help me understand what is something real and concrete that MAGA folks can point to, touch, and hold up that they are getting that they were not getting before. Thank you for your help.

As a 43-year-old stay-at-home mother of three and the first in my family to graduate high school, pursuing a college degree has been both a personal dream and a powerful act of transformation. For years, I put my children first, guiding them through life with love, sacrifice, and hope that they will have opportunities I never had. But somewhere along the way, I realized that my own dreams still mattered and that it wasn’t too late to pursue them. And coming from parents who did not graduate from high school, let alone go to college, I had no guidance in doing so for myself. I was left to figure life out while my friends’ parents took them on trips to visit campuses across the country.

The Trump administration has been slashing funding for a broad array of “wasteful” government programs in the name of “efficiency.” Among the victims are funding for research grants. Science is probably “under the radar” for most people, but the irrational, destructive cuts are affecting the advancement of medicine, technology and environmental science; achievements we depend on which have been developed by private businesses applying basic research discoveries funded by taxpayer supported institutions, such as the National Institutes of Health.