The Center for Restorative Practices fosters an inclusive engaging campus climate where all members have the tools and experiences necessary to engage in meaningful restorative dialogue around community and conflict circles and trainings throughout the year for the Amherst College community See below to explore what we have planned for the upcoming semester The events listed below offer a snapshot of events we have offered publicly We have also offered numerous circles and trainings by request for specific groups on campus and beyond.  If you would like to request a private training or circle for your community or group Back to the Center for Restorative Practices Homepage It feels safer to keep parts of myself hidden—to avoid rocking the boat or being perceived as less than.” Has this ever been you?  Come explore using "Social Identity Wheels" to access the multitudes of who you are who others are and how to develop bridge-building skills toward each other that make room for your differences -- engaging with one another with more kindness and curiosity for change-making parents and off-campus participants welcome LINK TO REGISTER: https://forms.gle/BVo4iQ4HAD7ExyjJ7 In 2021 Amherst College officially launched the new Center for Restorative Practices How does this relate to Restorative Justice Come to an experiential presentation and training that explores these questions alumni and off-campus participants are welcome LINK TO REGISTER: https://forms.gle/ZLgLL9JeapLkELm88 Conflict is a natural part of our professional lives Join our workshop to explore how conflict can be a catalyst for positive transformation We’ll delve into why our brains are hardwired to fear conflict and how we can rewire our responses to handle it constructively Through observing real-time restorative conflict responses you’ll see firsthand how to override instinctive reactions and cultivate new Engage in reflective activities like debriefing in pairs and journaling to deepen your understanding and begin your journey toward a restorative conflict mindset This workshop is your opportunity to reframe how you think about conflict and equip yourself with tools to navigate it more effectively LINK TO REGISTER: https://forms.gle/sc5PnpeDsbnqKLkXA This Workshop has reached its cap of 25 attendants but we encourage you to sign up anyways in case folks can't make it!  A Restorative Practices Community Building Circle is a transformative tool that fosters trust By providing a safe and structured environment for open dialogue participants are encouraged to share their thoughts This process not only allows team members to truly listen to one another but also helps them better understand diverse viewpoints and experiences Through active participation and empathy-building storytelling and story listening the circle enables team members to forge stronger bonds and develop a deeper sense of connection by addressing underlying tensions and conflicts in a constructive manner these circles facilitate conflict resolution and prevent issues from escalating ultimately promoting a harmonious and cohesive work environment where trust thrives and collaboration flourishes  Come learn about and practice this valuable tool LINK TO REGISTER: https://forms.gle/e4PPRp4QbXd8si128 This training has reached its cap of 20 attendants but we encourage you to continue with registration to be placed on our waitlist Interested in becoming a trained Restorative Practices Circle Facilitator Restorative Practices Circles are a dialogical tool rooted in Indigenous ways of being that can be used to strengthen relationships and build community through storytelling The Center for Restorative Practices is hosting a 3-part Circle Keepers Training that is made up of 3 training sessions that last about 3 hours each and take the span of about 4-6 weeks to complete. This training is experiential by design and requires that you complete a final project consisting of designing and facilitating a circle within your community.  alumni and off-campus participants! This workshop's attendance is capped at 20 participants Please let us know if you can no longer attend so we may give your place to someone on the waitlist.  LINK TO REGISTER: https://forms.gle/htHh14vLxgdCykaSA Uptown Tap Grille and UMass Downtown in Amherst Those attending a recent ribbon-cutting for the new UMass Downtown retail store and event space in Amherst center were invited to an afterparty at the Uptown Tap & Grille which despite having a seemingly different geographical designation is a neighboring business in the same building Organizers of the post-event reception had fun with that telling those who might want a drink or a meal at the restaurant that they would be heading “from downtown to uptown.” Though the businesses at 104 and 108 North Pleasant St use different identifiers for their locations this may demonstrate how terminology is ever evolving For at least some of those who grew up in Amherst in the 1970s and 1980s much of the commercial area in Amherst was referred to as “uptown,” such as when leaving the Amherst Regional High School campus for the day It was similar for those attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the 1990s especially if they were heading for a night out at the bars Amherst Business Improvement District Executive Director John Page who grew up in Pelham and went to the high school especially with the Amherst BID using the URL amherstdowntown.com and a home page that states “Experience Downtown: a walkable mile of cuisine music and independent film at the center of legendary trail networks for hiking noting he has tended to call it “downtown.” the the only formal use of “downtown” is at the new UMass store while “uptown” is in the names of both the Uptown Tap & Grille and McMurphy’s Uptown Tavern Uptown Tap & Grille is run by mid-1990s graduates of UMass How “uptown” and “downtown” came to be used in the vernacular of those living in Amherst isn’t clear though one observer notes the downtown bars 40 years ago were considered The Pub all located in the East Pleasant and Pray streets area alongside the former Delano’s and Barselotti’s That jibes with the presence from February 1993 to August 1994 of a pizzeria called Uptown Pizza which competed with Antonio’s in the vicinity of those uptown bars and a 2001 Massachusetts Daily Collegian article referring to Barselotti’s as “situated in the heart of uptown Amherst slap-bang in the middle of Club Sidewalk.” a former restaurant on Main Street opposite Town Hall in an advertisement in the Gazette in the 1980s described its location as “uptown” Amherst in the early 2000s also used “uptown” Amherst in its ads to distinguish that from its Hadley location If geography plays a role in how the area is identified then students attending both Crocker Farm School on West Street and Fort River School on South East Street have to physically go up to get to Amherst center Cowls President Cinda Jones said that she would have to go uphill to get to the center Jones said that the Mill District in North Amherst Amherst’s mercantile and civic centers have changed over time notes retired Planning Director Jonathan Tucker with town center in colonial times on lower Main Street where North East and South East streets converge now part of the East Amherst village center and even before the Revolutionary War the business center came to be on top of the hill associated with the First Congregational Church “downtown” is more general and seems to refer to historic commercial and civic centers while “uptown” is a more urban term and historically refers to an urban residential area within or associated with a mixed-use center who grew up in North Amherst and has worked for the town for 20 years said it’s likely in his high school days that he would have referred to the center as uptown but that in his municipal position he knows it mostly as Amherst center Former Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tony Maroulis attributes the frequency of saying “downtown” to Jerry Jolly Jolly founded an organization called Promoting Downtown Amherst a precursor to the formation of the Amherst Business Improvement District Gabrielle Gould is the former executive director of the Amherst BID and continues to oversee the Downtown Amherst Foundation Gould said she believes the terms to be geographical in origin as heading south on North Pleasant Street to the main intersection of Amity and Main streets the road has a noticeable rise Whatever the case for the use of the terms Gould said having side-by-side businesses using both designations is interesting said he’s invested in the success of Amherst so he wouldn’t discourage people from using whatever they want to refer to Amherst’s main business district as Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com you agree with our use of cookies to personalize your experience measure ads and monitor how our site works to improve it for our users Facing a cancer diagnosis in your 20s or 30s Young Adult Cancer Explore how our Survivorship Center can benefit you beyond treatment Cancer Survivorship View our many on and off-campus activities that are available to patients and their families Events Calendar Our Physician Resources website is by physicians for physicians – featuring educational videos with our experts from various specialties Roswell Park Physician Resources Download our free mobile app — exclusively for physicians and physician offices — for direct access to a directory of Roswell Park physicians Email or call to refer a patient or ask a question with a click of a button Apple iOS Google Android Just in time for winter weather, valet parking is available at the Scott Bieler Amherst Center You can skip the snowy walk to the entrance and allow our friendly attendants to park and retrieve your vehicle Both parking and valet service at the Scott Bieler Amherst Center are free.  We use a ticketless system that helps make our valet parking operation run efficiently and allows attendants to communicate with drivers if necessary you’ll be asked for your mobile phone number instead of receiving a claim ticket The valet enters your number into their device as well as the license plate number and make Then you’ll receive a text with your claim number simply go to the valet podium outside the front entrance and request your vehicle Sign up to receive our weekly Cancer Talk e-newsletter Sign up! Make an appointment by calling 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (“Roswell Park”) takes steps to provide for the accessibility and usability of its websites and all digital assets contained or offered therein (collectively Roswell Park works to provide Services that are compatible with commonly used assistive browsers While Roswell Park strives to provide accessibility and usability for all users please be aware that accessibility is an ongoing effort and it may not be possible in all areas of Roswell Park’s Services with current technology and other restrictions Read the full ADA statement   Report an accessibility concern who for the past six years has led senior centers in Amherst and Bernardston is poised to become Shutesbury’s town administrator in April “This is the next step in what I’ve been working toward,” Bolton said in phone interview Wednesday adding that she is looking forward to being part of the Shutesbury community Bolton was selected as one of two finalists and interviewed with the Select Board at its March 6 meeting where she called the town administrator job the next logical step in her municipal government career “I’ve been really interested in progressing to a town manager Bolton was selected over the other finalist outgoing Templeton Town Administrator Adam Lamontagne Following reference checks and contract negotiations for the position that could pay up to $85,000 Bolton will succeed Becky Torres in the role on April 7 Torres left the position after 15 years to become town administrator in Sunderland in November Gabriele “Gabe” Voelker has served as the interim town administrator who has been senior center director in Amherst since late 2021 cited her work in the MBA program at Springfield College and her completing the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s Suffolk Leadership Program this spring as supplementing the skills she already has Bolton thanked Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman for his guidance in advancing her career “I’ve really appreciated the opportunities and experiences here,” Bolton said She said she will miss the Senior Center staff the older adults who have imparted wisdom and being able to interact with them Bolton said she is grateful to have gotten support from her working class family and others in continuing to work in town government While she acknowledged she has no experience in contract negotiations Bolton brings what she termed “adjacent experience” as a department head in building budgets and overseeing three full time and one part time employees she also had responsibility for maintenance of the building that houses the Council on Aging Bolton’s other professional experience includes being food pantry manager at Amherst Survival Center and staff manager at Craig’s Doors which oversees the town’s homeless shelter Bolton said her first steps in Shutesbury would be to meet as many people as possible and establish connections with officials in other towns and with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments with which she already has some familiarity “The first 30 to 60 days I want to be meeting people “I want to get a pretty concrete sense of where we’re at right now.” She doesn’t expect to micromanage and wants independent professionals doing the town’s work “Communication really is mostly listening,” Bolton said She appreciates that Shutesbury has long-range plans including those related to dealing with climate change Bolton said she will wrap up her work in Amherst on March 28 taking a short break before starting in Shutesbury and getting ready for annual Town Meeting on March 4 sent a letter resigning from his position in Templeton personal legal bills and complaints filed against him including some related to his job performance according to an article printed in The Gardner News He is expected to remain in the position in that Worcester County community through March 17 UMass Downtown has officially opened in downtown Amherst at 108 North Pleasant St Merchandise for sale at the newly opened UMass Downtown in Amherst Items on display at the newly opened UMass Downtown Director Micah Ariel James at the newly opened UMass Downtown event and satellite meeting space is located at 108 North Pleasant St in the heart of the Amherst’s central business district senior director of the UMass Downtown store restocks shelves at the newly opened location in downtown Amherst restocks shelves at the newly opened location in Amherst event and satellite meeting space for the University of Massachusetts is open in Amherst center Following several months of renovation to a storefront most recently used as a bank UMass Downtown opened Thursday at 108 North Pleasant St. in the heart of the Amherst’s central business district UMass Downtown is to be a welcome center for prospective UMass students and their families as well as a boutique retail satellite and campus information center during regular business hours It will also be a hub for town-gown interaction with community members the space will regularly host small lectures UMass Downtown is being managed by the Office of Community Relations and University Events in partnership with UMass Auxiliary Enterprises The presence for UMass in the business district was announced at the annual community breakfast late last summer by Chancellor Javier Reyes who emphasized the importance of building connections with the town I said I hoped to see more UMass in the community and more of the community at UMass,” Reyes said That sentiment is similar to the approach by Amherst College and its President Michael A Amherst College last spring opened its own store at 45 South Pleasant St associate vice chancellor for university relations said in a statement that university officials are excited to bring a UMass presence to Amherst center “UMass Downtown is something we have worked on for a long time and is another step in answering Chancellor Reyes’ call for more UMass in the community,” Buffone said the university also announced that Micah Ariel James will be UMass Downtown’s director Responsible for the day-to-day management at the site James is working collaboratively with campus and community partners on the experience and calls UMass Downtown “a place of town-gown convergence and activity.” “We will curate and attract programming that puts the talent of the campus on display in the community while partnering with organizations and businesses to strengthen downtown Amherst,” said James who most recently served as the inaugural outreach and equity coordinator for the North Liberty inclusive and accessible city initiatives and community events A grand opening celebration at UMass Downtown will be announced in the coming weeks Please join us for a reading and conversation with poet and translator Serge Tkachenko and Jane Wald Jane and Robert Keiter Family Executive Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum Tkachenko will read several of his translations of Emily Dickinson into Ukrainian after which he and Wald will discuss the poems and Dickinson in Ukraine He graduated from the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Languages at Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University in 1973 where in 1984 he obtained his Candidate of Philology degree He specialized in Translation Studies and wrote his dissertation on the translations of William Shakespeare’s Sonnets into East-Slavic Languages He taught English Lexicology and Theory of Literary Translation at Kyiv National Linguistic University from 1976-1986 Between 1987 and 2011 he worked as a translator  at the Translation Division of the United Nations Secretariat in New York His research interests include Ukrainian and world literatures He began writing and translating poetry in 1970s when his works were published by leading Ukrainian literary journals he prepared the anthology titled “The Poetry of Africa” (“Поезія Африки”) which was published in Ukraine by the Dnipro Publishers and positively received by UNESCO Between 2000 and 2019 he published 10 books of poetry including the book of translations of and scientific commentaries on the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud (Kyiv He is currently preparing books of translations and commentaries on the poetry of William Shakespeare He was also the Founder and Editor-in Chief of the literary journal “Yatran” (2002-2009) For his publications and books he was awarded the Grygory Skovoroda International Literary Prize in 2008 the International Literary Prize “Triumph” in 2008 and the Volodymyr Vynnychenko International Prize in 2010.  Sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum and the Amherst Center for Russian Culture.  AMHERST — New sprinkler and fire alarm systems and accessibility enhancements are among $2.8 million in improvements planned for the Bangs Community Center — upgrades that fall short of addressing calls from members of the Council on Aging and senior residents to improve Senior Center facilities and immediately provide more space for activities The Town Council was presented on Monday with an overview of the work on the 37,000-square-foot building that could start this summer along with a review by the Finance Committee in advance of a possible vote on the spending March 24 and fitness space are likely to be pushed off to the future Town Manager Paul Bockelman told councilors the work that would get underway should be seen as the first phase of meeting the needs of senior services and the town’s climate action goals “I think it’s a project that if we were to delay it and it would just delay everything that we are hoping to accomplish,” Bockelman said But the scope of the project has been scaled back with the main focus being on how to address required health and safety code upgrades to the building which hasn’t seen a significant overhaul in 35 years and will make the building more comfortable for those who use it Bockelman said it also sets the stage for providing senior citizens additional space later Though the town will fund the project using free cash the $2.8 million originated as federal American Rescue Plan Act money Town officials strategized to preserve the money in anticipation of possible changes by a new federal administration turning it into what is known as revenue replacement “This would secure those funds and not make them vulnerable to any kinds of clawback activity by the federal government,” Bockelman said Those set-aside funds will move to free cash as of July 1 Building Commissioner Rob Morra explained that in addition to housing the town’s Senior Center includes the Musante Health Center; a room dedicated to the town’s Civil War tablets and an associated exhibit; and the offices for the Health Department Morra said the building has not had major systems upgrades The town spent $335,000 from ARPA money to contract with EDM Studio Architecture of Farmington “This project is now ready to go to bid,” Morra said it should be complete in the summer of 2026 there are also several add-ons that might be considered including an expanded restroom that would be located near the Large Activity Room; moving the nurse’s office to the main floor near Room 101; and creating a fitness center A memo from Bockelman explains the challenges of doing more than this: “It should be noted that reallocating space within the Bangs Community Center has raised significant concerns regarding the function of the various departments that would need to share space in the building and further consultation and consideration is needed before plans are finalized.” Morra said future projects can be done from conceptual layouts to do a total kitchen renovation add more storage space and install better signs “This project does not modify the Senior Center space or expand it,” Morra said “It gives us the opportunity to look at doing that.” Until the Civil War tablets find a new home possibly at the expanded and renovated Jones Library like setting up exercise equipment now that there will be better ventilation Bockelman said significant discussion is still to come on whether a commercial kitchen should be part of future work but what historical and cultural traces of Russia remain in Alaska inspired by a recent fieldwork experience with undergraduate students considers the echoes of colonialism that bind 19th-century Alaska with today’s Russia and reflects on the research possibilities afforded by pedagogical innovation and embodied learning as seen in Bryn Mawr’s 360º Program José Vergara is Associate Professor of Russian on the Myra T Cooley Lectureship in Russian Studies at Bryn Mawr College He is the author of All Future Plunges to the Past: James Joyce in Russian Literature co-editor of Reimagining Nabokov: Pedagogies for the 21st Century and project director of Encyclopedia of the Dog: An Annotated Edition of Sasha Sokolov's Between Dog and Wolf His current projects include studies of representations of Alaska in Russian culture and contemporary Russian prison literature as well as “Paul Thomas Annotated: In the Margins,” a set of digital annotations for P His public writing and interviews have appeared in Literary Hub, Asymptote, Words Without Borders, Music & Literature AMHERST — Despite changes and enhancements at the Amherst Family Center designed to better meet the needs of all students including more direct support provided at the elementary and regional school buildings some families and community advocates are expressing concern “The staff of the Family Center were the voice of silent invisible and marginalized families in our town,” Martha Toro told the Amherst School Committee during public comments Tuesday “Latinos are the second largest group represented in the district and are the group with the least support and have suffered dearly trying to improve their lives.” Toro was among individuals who presented comments responding to an article in the Gazette this week outlining the adjustments being made to the Family Center and a focus on addressing absenteeism among students said absenteeism is coming down across the board for all students including those from marginalized families “My point was in firm support of Amherst Family Center Diaz said that he learned about the “invisible people” concept through the Family Center that some of those who live in Amherst and have children in the schools aren’t seen because they work two or three jobs or are immigrants Xiomara Herman walked the School Committee through the reimagined Family Center where the hope is to shift to a more direct-impact model will continue to provide various tiers of support services but restructuring will affect and benefit hundreds of students and “expand the services to meet the needs of our students.” The center’s student and family engagement liaison is spending three days at the Amherst elementary schools and two days at the regional schools each week Herman also provided data showing that among Hispanic students dropping from 60.5% in the 2022-2023 school year to 57.7% last school year those numbers are much higher than the overall student population where 41.3% and then 37.8% were chronically absent The absences may also be tied to lower scores on MCAS tests Other parents urged the school committee against the changes “Given the concerns I’ve been hearing from families who use the Family Center I would encourage the school committee to do more fact finding before making any changes to the way the Family Center is run or changing its funding or staffing,” wrote Amber Cano-Martin “The dispersal of the Family Center is also confusing and negatively impacts our most marginalized students,” wrote Allegra Clark Toro told school committee members that Herman’s plan is not workable “The plan is unrealistic and an impossible task for one person in one school a day and another person a couple of days in a school,” Toro said a parent of a former public schools student asked the school committee to address “historic and systemic issues of the marginalization of Latino/a/e/x students and their families in our schools Such issues are serious and longstanding and require sustained analysis.” Davila also appealed for the public release and discussion of the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s inclusion of the Amherst schools on a list of districts across the state with an over-representation of Latino students in special education also known as “significant disproportionately” in special education “There are many more steps to be taken in analyzing the marginalization of Latino students,” Davila wrote He said criticizing specific programs in the media and singling out the Caminantes Program for cuts and public criticism are not productive avenues to pursue Caminantes is the dual-language program at Fort River School Herman said equity means providing what children they need and noted that any changes to the Caminantes program are not intended to regress it but to strengthen it and ensure student success Amherst’s new Student Center & Dining Commons is set to open in Fall 2026 The building will be a transformative space that will redefine student life and community at Amherst The construction photos and architectural renderings offer a sneak peek into the building and show the range of new spaces that will make the new Student Center & Dining Commons a vibrant and welcoming campus hub for students and the entire Amherst community The new Student Center & Dining Commons provides many impressive views of campus but the sweeping views of the Holyoke Range from the outdoor terrace on level four are sure to be a highlight for students the third level will house suites for affinity groups and cultural resource centers The rendering shows a study lounge area with rooms for affinity groups visible on either side and the third-level terrace visible in the background Architectural rendering of affinity groups suite Situating a theater within the Student Center gives performing arts a central location on campus With high ceilings and a large northern window this multi-purpose arts space can host film screenings Architectural rendering of the theater and screening room The "Den Lounge" and adjacent outdoor terrace will offer a comfortable homey place to relax and visit with friends This lounge on level four will feature a fireplace and spectacular views of the Holyoke Range and the Pelham Hills Note the view of the Holyoke Range visible through the window The fourth level of the new Student Center & Dining Commons will house several student activity spaces such as the Den Lounge a large group movement and fitness room and an interfaith gathering room The group movement and fitness space can be used for yoga dance and other fitness classes and features a sprung floor—and more spectacular views Architectural rendering of the group movement and fitness space The current view of the entry area and terrace gardens when approaching from the Main Quad Ford Hall is visible in the background and the Holyoke Range beyond The building is designed to quietly and effectively bring out the best in its surroundings and affirm the connection between the built environment and the natural world The Winter Garden provides that connection to nature and natural light even from the center of the building Architectural rendering of the Winter Garden The third level will offer ample student lounge and study spaces interspersed with the cultural resource center rooms The main lounge and third level as a whole function as a large indoor piazza that will be a hub of activity where people come and go Architectural rendering of the "Living Room" and study space The main lounge is seamlessly connected through large glass windows and doors with an expansive terrace that circles the third level and provides breathtaking views The new Dining Commons on the second level will include the Central Stairs open dining area and serveries and a large flexible space that will offer faculty and staff dining The Dining Commons will seat 900 people (nearly 50% more than Valentine Hall’s capacity) in a variety of configurations that accommodate different sizes and types of gatherings and events Architectural rendering of the Dining Commons seating area The new Dining Commons will have the infrastructure necessary to meet and exceed standards set across our peer institutions New culinary offerings will honor Amherst’s ongoing commitment to locally produced high-quality food and provide kosher and halal meals as well as allergen-free dining areas Architectural rendering of the Dining Commons the central stairs provide a dramatic grand boulevard linking the outdoor areas of the Quad and the Greenway with seating on either side and an adjacent elevator The new crossroads between upper and lower campus this area encourages chance encounters and casual chats Architectural rendering of the central stairs area WAMH 89.3 Amherst College Radio provides alternative radio listening in the Pioneer Valley Amherst students have benefited from the communication experience gained through radio programming and production since the 1950s talk shows and events throughout the school year the new location will also be a recording studio for musical performances and podcasts Architectural rendering of the WAMH radio station The “Alumni Pub” in the new Student Center & Dining Commons will provide a central and much-needed venue for alumni it will become a memorable place for conversation The multi-use Student Center & Dining Commons will become a campus crossroads essential to supporting and sustaining a vibrant student experience in ways that go beyond the classroom.  AMHERST — An overhaul of the Amherst Family Center is underway to provide better intervention and support for families of children missing a significant amount of school days and causing them to struggle academically As part of a continued effort that’s being driven by data to streamline and improve public school services Xiomara Herman explained in an interview this week that she is concerned with the future of the center housed at the middle school now known as the Family and Student Services Center “Our data is not showing that the Family Center is affecting students most in need,” Herman said students with IEPs (individual education program) are not benefiting high-needs and low-income students are not benefiting.” The Family Center has a mission to connect students their families and the community to partner for academic achievement and overall success with much of the focus on students with severe and chronic absences which typically means 18 or more absences in a school year But Herman said not only are these problems not being addressed adequately there is also a stigma that the Family Center isn’t serving the full diversity of students and there need to be ways of engaging with more families so the changes are to build a bridge and connection to the schools the Family Center is continuing to work with the current caseload instead of being stationed at the middle school This includes two support liaisons to engage with families doing training and facilitating family meetings a support liaison is at one of Amherst’s three elementary schools and that person also spends two days at the high school; while another Family Center liaison is assisting families at Pelham Elementary The centralized hub has been operating from the middle school across from the central offices but services should happen at the schools for what the Family Center calls Tier 3 supports with those supports mostly about being more proactive in addressing absences and other problems that may prevent a student from graduating This has mostly been done through the school’s Steps to Success program Tier 1 supports have been available to all families through the Family Center’s website while Tier 2 supports have typically been referred by teachers and principals with concerns over student performance “We have to do it with the school in tandem,” Herman said “Our data clearly shows that our absenteeism rates are not going down our students who are the most in need are not receiving those needs are not showing the growth rate we would need,” Herman said Herman said she asked for data regarding Family Center programs and which are original to its mission She learned that many programs are collaborations Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts; and VELA an after-school program partnering with the Collaborative for Educational Services “One of the clear things that was brought to my attention a lot of the programs that are are being pushed by the Family Center are not directly district-sponsored programs they were actually programs sponsored through grants or another entity through sponsorship But she is supportive of continuing those programs as well as reprogramming to meet current needs “How do we meet needs and have our own programs?” Herman said As she seeks to get the services into the schools and administrator Mildred Martinez remain at the middle school office Herman said there is a need to provide school support and training “Let’s stop being reactive and saying we’re addressing the problem after it has arisen and start dealing with the problem ahead of time,” Herman said Herman said she wants to ensure that what is needed in the schools is actually in the buildings “One of the things I’ve found coming in is a lot of processes that belong to the schools were sitting at the central office and a lot of the processes that belong to the central office may have been sitting at the schools,” Herman said When in the early 1860s a group of young Siberians convened in Saint Petersburg to critique the government’s course of action concerning their homeland given the territory’s ambiguous political and economic status within the Russian Empire Met with harsh retaliation from the government the Siberian Regionalists (oblastniki) had to continuously rethink the manner in which they communicated their discontent with the center’s policies toward its contiguous colony left a rich and largely unexplored body of literature dedicated to the mistreatments to which Siberia was subjected not least of which was the detrimental effect caused by the state’s haphazard exilic practices This talk explores the laborious process through which Iadrintsev arrived at the topic of exile and penal servitude While the ideological underpinnings of Iadrintsev’s work remained intact throughout the years I argue that the shifting tone and narrative structure of his writing on exile suggest that he actively reconsidered how best to articulate the Siberian self to the imperial readership Tracing the development of Iadrintsev’s writing likewise foregrounds the complex Ani Abrahamyan is an Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at Hamilton College Her researchfocuses on the development of social sciences in Imperial Russia the impact of ethnographic inquiryon realism and the representations of alternative communal configurations in literature Her currentbook project examines the legal and aesthetic underpinnings of collective transgression in late ImperialRussia as well as the role of ethnography and criminal anthropology in literary depictions ofmarginalized communities including urban criminals and criminal exiles to Siberia This event is sponsored by the Lurcy Lecture Fund.  What did it mean to die when the Soviet Experiment itself was living out its last days What kind of immortality could one imagine after losing faith in  both a spiritual rebirth after death and in the promise of communism A great poet of the Soviet neo-avant-garde Sosnora came to interpret his clinical experience as a poetic death in the numerous literary and artistic works he produced over the subsequent decades Replete with grotesque bodily imagery and accompanied by highly theatrical actions Sosnora's "posthumous" work became a singular intervention into the late-Soviet and post-Soviet culture of death and survival.  Ivan Sokolov is a poet and translator from St Petersburg currently finishing his PhD in Slavic at UC Berkeley Sokolov will present some of his own poetry in English translation AMHERST — Senior citizens active with the Council on Aging are renewing appeals for town assistance to modernize and improve the Bangs Community Center As part of this effort to support programs and activities which has included public comment appeals to the Town Council this month a fundraising letter and envelope from the Friends of the Amherst Senior Center is` included in the annual town census Dennis Vandal, vice chairman of the Council on Aging, said to supplement that letter, the Friends group has also put together a fundraising website for the first time that allows anyone to donate throughout the year. That website, which outlines what is happening at the Senior Center, is at www.FriendsASC.org Vandal spoke of concerns that $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act money set aside for upgrades at the Bangs last year has taken a back seat to other priorities exercise facilities and staffing to meet the needs of Amherst’s growing elder population “I hope the renovations of the Bangs Center will finally put the entire Senior Center on a single floor the same floor where it is located right now,” Vandal said “I also hope we will finally see a kitchen facility that is clean and safe to use I hope to see an exercise room that is open and available for use.” Similar sentiments were brought forward this week by Jeanne Horrigan who said it is essential the building have a community bathroom that will allow seniors to get assistance from a caregiver “I implore you to keep on the list a number of the accessibility issues,” Montgomery said a mural in the Mill District in North Amherst is being unveiled at the Mill District Local Art Gallery on Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m The mural showcases feminism from the early 19th century to 2025 as depicted in five panels produced by members of the Amherst Young Feminist Party The concept for the mural is a collaboration between Ada Paessel taking the four waves concepts from a feminist mural she designed in 1986 The Amherst Young Feminist Party is the local chapter of a national intersectional organization fighting to enshrine legal gender equality into the U.S Constitution and ensure bodily autonomy for everyone Refreshments will be provided by Carefree Cakery Futura Coffee and the Mill District General Store An assessment team from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission is in Amherst this week to examine policies procedures operations and facilities at the Amherst Police Department Amherst police became the second department in the state to be accredited in 2000 meaning the department meets the commission’s 274 mandatory standards and 55% of the 120 optional standards The department successfully maintained its accreditation in 2004 and has done so every three years since Jennifer Shiao is chairwoman of the Amherst School Committee following a reorganization at the committee’s Jan Shiao was narrowly elected to the position in a 3-2 vote over previous Chairwoman Sarah Marshall and committee member Deborah Leonard cast the deciding vote for Shiao Shiao said in her fourth year on the committee she brings professional experience managing meetings and values the opportunity to take on a leadership role “I think I have a good grasp on seeing the big picture as well as the details of how the committee runs and how meetings run,” Shiao said Marshall said she brought a good relationship with committee members and the superintendent and kept committee members well informed and prepared recently hosted a meeting of the Governor’s Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council in her 3rd Hampshire District at the Yiddish Book Center on the Hampshire College campus the council is charged with examining ways to create economic opportunities in the arts and culture sector and recommending to Gov Maura Healey a cultural development and jobs plan for Massachusetts Domb was joined by fellow members of the council including Amherst Cinema Executive Director Yasmin Chin Eisenhauer Mass Cultural Council’s Michael Bobbitt and Sarah Stanton undersecretary of Economic Strategies in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development as well as a tour of the Yiddish Book Center’s exhibits UMass Amherst’s Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (CAFE) is now enrolling a range of classes on everything from pruning fruit trees to managing pollinator friendly habitats These online classes are open to the public Spring is around the corner — which means that many of us are thinking about the planting maintaining and harvesting that we’ll be doing imagining beautiful tomatoes and crisp apples To help make gardens and orchards as productive and healthy as possible the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Center for Agriculture Food and the Environment (CAFE) is offering a range of seminars and webinars Mass Aggie Seminars: Through this series of Zoom seminars and workshops the Fruit Team provides a platform for small-scale backyard growers and agricultural enthusiasts of all types to come together to learn the latest developments in fruit production Pests and Beneficials: Join Extension faculty member Jaime Piñero in an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) workshop and learn how to make beneficial insects and insectary plants your garden’s best allies Discover eco-friendly pest control tips that blend nature’s own predators with smart gardening strategies including cultural controls like trap cropping you can keep your plants thriving with little to no insecticides Perfect for homeowners and orchard enthusiasts hands-on session will show you how to create a healthy (Some materials will be mailed to participants for them to implement IPM at home.)  Ecological Weed Management in the Home Orchard: Weed origins and management will be discussed during this workshop that will help you to identify weed species and understand the tendencies of some of the species you see in your own orchard Ecological weed management and the different strengths and weaknesses of several weed control methods will also be covered March 1, Orchard Sustainability Through Integrated Pest Management: Join Extension educator Elizabeth Garofalo to discuss what sustainability means within the context of orchard production Finding the balance of orchard sustainability in the space where community environment and economic health come together will also be discussed.  March 22, Orchard Pruning: The joy of growing apples in the home garden is enjoying a renaissance One of the key steps in successful apple growing is the act of pruning the trees This can seem daunting and complicated but is not once you understand the principles involved Join Extension educator Jon Clements online and learn how to properly prune fruit trees (primarily apples) The concepts discussed also apply to pears March 29, Home Orchard Establishment: Horticultural topics covered include the basics of planting apple trees While the focus of this session is primarily apples the concepts discussed also apply to pears CONTACT: Elizabeth Garofalo, egarofal@umass.edu                    Daegan Miller, drmiller@umass.edu  The Amherst Indy welcomes your comment on this article. Comments must be signed with your real, full name & contact information; and must be factual and civil. See the Indy comment policy for more information Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. A still from Hryhorii Hrycher-Cherykover’s Crystal Palace Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s iconic film Earth premiered in 1930 showcasing a Ukrainian film style that blended expressionism with national epic and pictorial traditions. In the same year Stalin’s forced centralization of the film industry subordinated previously independent Ukrainian cinematography the newly established state film production and distribution monopoly Ukrainfilm worked to preserve the remnants of cultural and artistic autonomy until it was shut down in 1938 This film series showcases the best examples of their efforts.  and Severe Young Man—are today considered masterpieces of the world film avant-garde and I Love—have recently been rediscovered after decades of bans and have never been screened in the U.S. Crystal Palace will be screened for the first time since its premiere in 1934 These masterpieces of Ukrainian film expressionism in the 1930s feature the work of brilliant cinematographers such as Yurii Yekelchyk and set designers among whom the genius Moritz Umanskyi still awaits recognition The program complements the exhibition The Juncture: Ukrainian Artists in Search of Modernity and Identity on view at the Mead Art Museum until October 13 an exhibition of photographs documenting everyday life in wartime Ukraine on view in the gallery of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture until November 1 The films will be shown at Amherst College’s Keefe Campus Center Theater with the exception of a double feature at Amherst Cinema on September 26 at 7pm Keefe Campus Center Theater 1934Runtime 88 minutes; in Ukrainian with English subtitles Hrycher-Cherykover became famous as a director of mostly Jewish-themed films He was also known for shooting adventure films featuring "capitalist countries”—Crystal Palace’s propagandistic plot unfolds in Nazi Germany Hrycher brought in the cinematographer Yurii Yekelchyk one of the most outstanding Ukrainian avant-garde cameramen The film is memorable for its expressionistic setting its painstaking portrayal of totalitarianism and the alienated performance of the actors Oleksandr DovzhenkoVUFKU 1930 (Restored 2014)Runtime 84 minutes; silent in Ukrainian with English subtitlesMusic score: DakhaBrakha (2012) For decades Earth was rated the best Ukrainian film ever made and is still considered an avant-garde masterpiece worldwide It is the most famous film of Oleksandr Dovzhenko one of the central figures of the 1920s Ukrainian cultural renaissance The film’s controversial topic is collectivization which Dovzhenko managed to saturate with Ukrainian mythopoetic imagery rooted in a national visual tradition the film was censored for “bourgeois nationalism” and “biologism.” Mykola ShpykovskyiVUFKU 1930 (Restored 2012)Runtime 44 minutes; silent in Ukrainian with English subtitlesMusic score: PortMone (2013) Mykola Shpykovskyi moved back to Ukraine after spending several years in Moscow in 1927 as a well-known comedian After the critical failure of his comedy Shkurnyk (1929) ridiculing Bolshevik dogmatism from the point of view of an apolitical common person he turned to depicting “war communism,” the period of the violent introduction of Soviet power in Ukraine Shpykovskyi gives an epic treatment of a simple propaganda plot by means of avant-garde editing and innovative shooting methods The limited release film was soon banned and was shown to the public only in 2012 Double Screening @ Amherst Cinema Mikhail KaufmanVUFKU 1929 (restored 2012)Runtime 60 minutes; silent Music score: Oleksandr Kohanovsky (2012) After the filming of Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) the aesthetic rivalry between the brothers Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman reached its climax after which the brothers did not communicate for many years To showcase his version of the “Cine-Eye” (Kino-Eye) Kaufman filmed his own urban symphony In Spring he departs from Vertov's aesthetics of the machine in favor of a Ukrainian poetics in Ukrainian with English subtitlesMusic score: Son Sovy (2019) Dmytro Dalskyi’s avant-garde city symphony is dedicated to Kharkiv one of the most sophisticated cinematographers of Ukrainian cinema of the 1920s makes use of the Ukrainian film avant-garde’s complete toolset In addition to the iconic diagonal angles and points of view Dalsky uses filters and lenses to create a sfumato effect a key feature of the Ukrainian cinematographic school of the 1920s and 30s 1935In Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles Aerograd is the first film Dovzhenko made after fleeing Ukraine for Moscow Harassed by the local Ukrainian authorities and trying to escape the wave of repressions launched against the Ukrainian cultural elite Dovzhenko wrote a letter to Stalin seeking his protection which ultimately turned Dovzhenko into a primary Kremlin court filmmaker and official propagandist he retains the epic pathos and polytheistic fascination with nature elaborated in Earth for the portrayal of which Dovzhenko was especially famous and significantly softened avant-garde techniques eventually laid the foundation for “socialist realism” in film – the official artistic method of Soviet totalitarianism for the next half century 1936Runtime 82 minutes; in Russian with English subtitles After making a series of colorless propaganda films dedicated to the Young Communists League 25-year-old Leonid Lukov finally received a quality script about pre-revolutionary Donbas Lukov showed the story of a peasant family whose social oppression takes place against the background of the chaotic and primitive industrialization of the mining region Like a carelessly piled stack of coal or a hastily erected hut the illusions of the inhabitants of Sobacheivka—a mining village whose outlines resemble Dante's Inferno rather than a space of human interaction—fatally crumble The brilliant work of cinematographer Ivan Shekker and set-designer Moritz Umanskyi made this film one of the great masterpieces of Ukrainian cinema of the 1930s and certainly the magnum opus of Lukov who displayed his newly discovered hyper-realistic style and soon became a troubadour of socialist realism 1935 (restored 2012)Runtime 102 minutes; in Russian with English subtitles After the Ukrainian film school was shut down in the 1930s Moscow filmmakers were sent to Ukraine to “restore Ukrainian cinematography.” The director of this film treated the local artistic tradition with respect To help realize the phantasmagoric script by writer Yuriy Olesha – an Odesa native recently moved to Moscow – he invited the outstanding duo of cinematographer Yuriy Yekelchyk and set-designer Moritz Umansky who had proven themselves on the set of Crystal Palace In his effort to render the utopianism of the script Room unfolded expressionist imagery within neoclassical settings creating one of the most evocative Ukrainian films The films are shown courtesy of the Dovzhenko Center (Kyiv) the Faculty Research and Publication Award Program and the Amherst Center for Russian Center.  an Amherst College student taking a Public Art and Collaborative Practices class works on a mural the class is creating at the Amherst Senior Center an Amherst College professor teaching Public Art and Collaborative Practices talks to a student while the class works on a mural at the Amherst Senior Center an Amherst College student taking a Public Art and Collaborative Practices class works on a mural at the Amherst Senior Center both Amherst College students taking a Public Art and Collaborative Practices class work on a mural the class is creating at the Amherst Senior Center AMHERST — Represented on a mural taking up an entire wall in the Senior Center lounge at the Bangs Community Center an Amherst senior citizen is shown portraying singer Elvis Presley with musical notes flowing from his guitar displayed against a rainbow and traveling skyward from below a large maple tree “I had to pose for it,” says Lee Williams of his participation in creating the large mural which is in the final stages of being painted by more than a dozen Amherst College students Williams is one of several Amherst elders whose images are included in the semester-long project of the Public Art and Collaborative Practice class taught by Lucia Monge The project brings ideas for what should be included in the mural from each of those in the class at the beginning of the school year said she appreciates that many art classes involve painting in a solitary way but this one brings many students together on a joint project and had never done a painting on this scale before and never been in such a collaborative setting,” Banner said “Learning how to be in a collaborative environment means to compromise and work together You’re definitely working with a different part of the brain.” Banner said being at the Senior Center is also reminiscent of a time in high school meeting with individuals with dementia and she has enjoyed getting to talk and interact with senior citizens in town That has also been inspiring for other students and it’s been awesome watching this come to life,” said Claire Holding Holding said the project began with students making individual mural designs then modifying these in small groups and finally coming together as an entire class for a final design the students then translate the mural design from the laptop turning the digital art into real-world art The class also included a field trip to Holyoke to see murals in the city in addition to brainstorming and meeting with senior citizens and Senior Center Director Hayley Bolton with Holding getting onto a ladder to paint the large tree many of the students look at their cellphones to show precisely where they should be applying paint inside the boxes on the grid Monge said the class worked with the college’s Center for Community Engagement to identify the site for the mural after a previous class did a similar project inside a campus building practically holding class here twice a week,” Monge said “This class is interested in forms of art made outside of museums and galleries and that involve the public more broadly,” Monge said “It’s exciting and fruitful to make art with other people.” with students bringing in their own expertise with some better at drawing people and others better at doing landscapes “The challenge is how do we find consensus exchange ideas and represent shared ideas,” Monge said Much of the mural focuses on the natural environment including the Connecticut River and the surrounding mountain ranges as well as the voices of the senior citizens who wanted to be depicted including at least two others who asked to be drawn in the mural “They want to be presented as active people and also wanted to see the intergenerational connections,” Monge said The rainbow reflects the Rainbow Coffee Hour the LGBTQIA+ social coffee group that gathers monthly at the Senior Center the students are learning to use mural paint such as mixing the colors and attempting to get the right matches for skin tones making sure blue jeans worn by one of the figures in the mural aren’t just blue and that the dark red color showing the exterior of the Bangs Center is made of bricks Bolton said she was elated about the project when approached by the college knowing the lounge needed to be livened up with a splash of color on the gray walls “All the folks coming into the lounge have remarked how bright and welcoming the space looks “The impact has led to seniors feeling more visible Bolton adds that it also represents Amherst’s diversity and is A formal reception for the completed mural Williams said he will be back for that ceremony and at that time may come as the King of Rock and Roll “They want me to dress up for the unveiling AMHERST — A prominent shopping plaza’s Newton-based owner is pledging to preserve the Big Y Supermarket even if the property is included in a new overlay district aimed at encouraging more residential development With concerns from some members of the Town Council about adopting an overlay district that would run the length of University Drive from Route 9 to Amity Street and might impact the viability of the 165-183 University Drive shopping plaza the Planning Department recently learned in an email that the company’s intent is to keep intact the Amherst Shopping Center “The shopping center is currently 100% occupied and the high-performing tenants have long-term leases in place with control of their premises for the next 20 years,” Jonathan Hueber managing principal for Crosspoint Associates Inc. the vast majority of the properties that Crosspoint owns and manages are grocery anchored shopping centers similar to the Amherst Shopping Center and Crosspoint does not intend on diverging from this business model.” being reviewed by both the council’s Community Resources Committee and the town’s Planning Board would set design guidelines and conditions for mixed-use buildings that could rise to 65 feet along the entire length of the road as a way to encourage housing and economic development 75% of the ground floor space facing University Drive and Northampton Road would have to be non-residential in use acquired the 11-acre property for $18.5 million in late 2019 though a portion of Big Y is also in Hadley The plaza opened in the late 1970s and was entirely rebuilt in 1998 which replaced a Price Chopper supermarket three years earlier The standalone CVS opened at the same time a year after a 15,000-square-foot addition was put onto the main building Other businesses in the plaza include a Goodwill store and a Resonance yoga studio Members of the Town Council have worried about whether Big Y might be pushed out in favor housing that could be rented to local college students Hueber explained that Crosspoint would support the rezoning even if it would have to work with the largest tenants on making potential residential developments on the site happen “We do believe that it is important given the constantly changing face of retail that we have flexibility in the future to add a mixed use component if for some unforeseen reason we sustain any large static vacancy,” Hueber wrote who sits on the Community Resources Committee 4 hearing on the zoning change that it’s wonderful to receive a letter from Crosspoint that it could benefit from the rezoning DeAngelis said this reduces her concern about the rezoning possibly compromising residents’ food security if a supermarket were to close or move from town and I’m hoping we can move it forward,” DeAngelis said District 4 Councilor Jennifer Taub said she is concerned about smaller businesses thriving on University Drive wondering if there was a way to encourage below market rental rates for commercial tenants to incentivize developers Taub said many of the businesses removed from the downtown Carriage Shops never returned to town when they left to make way for the One East Pleasant mixed-use project “They were never able to afford the rent and come back to downtown,” Taub said Those who spoke at the meeting included Gabriela Horvay of Greenleaves Drive who praised using University Drive for more housing and this town frequently doesn’t find any place that is acceptable for housing Martha Hanner of Alyssum Drive said she would like to see University Drive become more student housing but thought carving out the shopping plaza site would guarantee a major grocery store and pharmacy for residents said the hope is allowing more apartments on the street close to the University of Massachusetts campus might encourage UMass to develop more housing along its portion of University Drive in the way UMass did a public-private partnership on Massachusetts Avenue The hearing on the zoning change will continue to Dec Source: amherstma.gov and Amherst Area Chamber of CommerceDue to forecasted weather the Amherst Global Village Festival will be movingt indoors to the Amherst Regional Middle School Address 170 Chestnut St and activities will still take place as planned at this new location The inaugural Amherst Global Village Festival wiil be held on Saturday (Rain Location: Amherst Regional Middle School Hosted by the Town of Amherst and many community partners this free and family friendly event is dedicated to celebrating cultural diversity and promoting inclusivity within the community The festival will feature a vibrant array of activities including: Among the Food trucks and vendors participating are: For more details about the event, including the full schedule of activities and list of vendors, visit our website: www.amherstma.gov/GlobalVillageFestival please contact the Department of Diversity and Inclusion by calling 413-259-3198.    Read more about the origins of the Amherst Global Village Festival. This event is organized by the Town of Amherst and Black Business Association of Amherst Area This event is also made possible by the generosity of many local businesses and community partners Generous contributions from community partners and local businesses make this event possible Sponsors include Amherst Center Cultural District / Amherst BID Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Town Council This was a hybrid meeting, held in person at Town Hal and over Zoom. It was recorded Bob Hegner and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5).  Bangs Center to Receive Upgrade in HVAC and Fire SystemsCapital Projects Manager Bob Peirent, Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek, and Building Commissioner Rob Morra presented the $2.8 million in repairs recommended for the Bangs Center to be funded by remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds Peirent said that the Bangs Center is a solid building but has not been updated in decades It does not have a sprinkler system and its fire alarm system is out of date and the building is not up to code as far as accessibility is concerned Peirent said that although the town would like to make many other improvements to the building such as installing an industrial grade kitchen and enlarging the Senior Center the existing money will be used to bring the building up to code Peirent listed five additional upgrades that might be undertaken should there be money left over after doing the necessary repairs: an enlarged conference room on the second floor a reconfigured health department with the nurse’s office and companion restroom on the first floor; a new companion restroom near the multipurpose room; and a conference room and fitness room across from the nurse’s office Needed improvements for the future are: total renovation of the kitchen reconfiguration of the atrium and open stairs addition of storage spaces throughout the building improved wayfinding via updated building signage and continued assessment of space needs for all of the organizations that use the building The public forum on the budget allocation prompted favorable comments from several residents noted that many departments use the Bangs Center but it has not been renovated in decades and does not meet building codes.  Trish Montgomery said she hopes all the building’s needs will be addressed in the coming years and that none of the $2.8 million will be diverted elsewhere.  Ivette Palacin and Amber Casey expressed appreciation for the Senior Center programs at the Bangs Center.  Melanie Rhodes noted that the Bangs Center is a focal point in town for many activities.  Ted Mone stated that the Bangs Center is a tired building that is not accessible with automatic doors that often don’t work He hoped that the renovations will include additional  accessible parking spaces for the Senior Center and Musante Health Center The council’s Finance Committee unanimously supported allocating the ARPA funds to the project at its February 20 meeting Finance Committee Chair Cathy Schoen (District 1) suggested that the town apply for grants to accomplish some of the deferred improvements The council voted 13-0 in support of the $2.8 million allocation as well since the current policy would allow a third term if there were no qualified applicants for a position Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5) emphasized the need to give preference to new qualified applicants as opposed to those who have served for a long time She thought it was important to support new people on boards and committees Several councilors pointed to the difference between choosing a council president and selecting residents for multi-member bodies.  The proposal was to have been referred to the Governance with Hanneke and Freke Ette (District 1) voting for it Ette said he would welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue at a GOL meeting.  Public Again Voices Concerns about Loss of Positions in the SchoolsSarah Johnson and Elizabeth Pretel decried the projected loss of staff in the elementary and regional schools if the proposed FY2026 budget is enacted They noted that they moved to Amherst for the schools and yet the school services are cut every year Pondview House Fire and Work on Massive Ice Buildup Bring Praise for Fire Department and DPWTown Manager Paul Bockelman praised the Amherst Fire Department and neighboring communities for their work battling a house fire on Pondview Drive early Saturday morning Crews from Hadley and Northampton helped battle the blaze while Pelham officers managed calls to the Central Fire Station and South Hadley EMS responded to an unrelated call the electrical inspector disconnected the power to the house and DPW turned off the water and cleared the water from the street The Red Cross has found temporary quarters for the family of three and neighbors in Orchard Valley are helping meet their needs noted that the fire department had difficulty accessing the fire hydrants near the house because they were buried in snow and ice She urged snow removal crews to be mindful of not burying hydrants when they plow Bockelman encouraged residents to clear hydrants near their homes if they are able Devlin Gauthier thanked DPW crews for their extra work during the ice storms and frigid weather over the past weeks Bockelman termed the Presidents’ Weekend storm a “taco storm” with ice followed by snow followed by another layer of ice Tibetan Uprising to Be Commemorated March 10 through 17Amherst will commemorate the 66th anniversary of the Tibetan National uprising by raising the Tibetan flag in front of Town Hall at 9 a.m March 12 will mark the 66th anniversary of the Women’s uprising against the “brutal annexation of their country.” More than one million Tibetans lost their lives in the struggle for freedom The proclamation was sponsored by Councilors Pat DeAngelis and Lynn Grisemer (District 2) Announcements and Committee ReportsThere will be a District 2 meeting on Tuesday Construction of the new elementary school at Fort River is expected to begin in March Periodic opportunities for the public to visit the site during construction will be arranged The Jones Library Building Committee has not met since it participated in the Section 106 review on January 27 for preservation of historical features Council representative Rooney stated that the committee has not received feedback on the outcome of the 106 meeting or any reports on the status of fundraising or donations Bockelman said that a new Memorandum of Understanding is being drafted to be signed by the consulting parties involved in the 106 review and that a third extension is being requested from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners—this time for another 30 days Devlin Gauthier noted that the state transfer fee included in the Affordable Homes Act would barely benefit Amherst since few homes in town would be sold at the level that triggers it The proposed Amherst fee would go to affordable housing by Trent Levakis | Dec 16, 2024 | Amherst, Hampshire County, Local News, Photo Slider Students from Amherst College pose with members of the Senior Center in front of new mural Reminder Publishing photo by Trent Levakis AMHERST — The Senior Center was the gathering spot for an unveiling of a new mural within the center’s community room on Dec 10 in thanks to a partnership with an Amherst College Public Art and Collaborative Practices course students from Professor Lucia Monge’s course have been meeting with seniors brainstorming designs and painting the mural Many features included in the final product came directly from the ideas and requests of seniors who are regular visitors of the center “We are so thrilled to be able to unveil this beautiful mural,” said Director of Senior Services Hayley Bolton Bolton explained when she was first approached by the college about the mural she had to seize the opportunity and was committed to help Monge and her students in any way possible to add the art to some of the center’s space “When I walk into the building and I see this I think it represents a fantastic collaboration with the students and it represents a brighter and bolder future for Amherst seniors,” Bolton said “I’m going to stop there because I could cry It’s absolutely beautiful and I really want to thank all of you for making it possible and making sure their voices were heard throughout the process.” Monge added much gratitude for the center allowing her course to coordinate the project and partnering on this addition to the Senior Center She explained her students would visit the center twice a week over the last 15 weeks and was great experience and community engagement between students and seniors and I think that’s a beautiful point about what we were trying to do having an intergenerational communal space as a classroom,” Monge said Some of the students involved broke down details of the mural and where certain inspirations came from They explained that learning about recent mural projects in Holyoke it showcased to students the value of public artwork in local communities “[Murals] bring color and novelty into the spaces they embellish while also bringing people together in the process They serve as testaments to collaboration and community which are designed to remain present in their location for many years to come,” said Lily “We’ve observed the joy of collaboration firsthand in the Senior Center This project brought college students and older adults together to create something with a lasting impact.” Portions of the new mural inside the Senior Center Director of Senior Services Hayley Bolton presents the new mural Reminder Publishing photos by Trent Levakis I would like to receive emails from The Reminder April Fool’s Day will also be the opening day for the Amherst Oyster Bar the long-planned restaurant in Amherst center that will replace Judie’s Restaurant While there had been recently announced opening dates of February and March the websites for the 51 North Pleasant St. both the official amherstoysterbar.com and Archipelago Investments the development company for several mixed-use buildings in town Amherst Oyster Bar had originally been scheduled to open in fall 2022 but that date was pushed back due to extensive deterioration of the porch and front facade when the interior had been taken back to its studs though the neon sign for the former Barselotti’s bar which Judie’s expanded into several years ago by late winter 2024 it appeared Amherst Oyster Bar might be ready open last summer located in the One East Pleasant building a short distance to the north served oysters at the Amherst Business Improvement District’s December Sip ‘n Shop Stroll offering a sneak peek to what Amherst Oyster Bar will have on its menu We are now accepting applications for the NYS Trooper Entrance Exam! Please visit joinstatepolice.ny.gov to learn more By: ACRC Intern Merrick Lawson ’25Date: August 1 I have been working as an intern at the Amherst Center for Russian Culture primarily organizing some of the massive collection of works from Russian Futurist poets Ry Nikonova (real name Anna Tarshis) and her husband Sergei Segay I have been organizing and cataloging her “Tonezharl’” and “Spetsifikatsium” projects Both of these projects spanned decades and were not one continuous project and other miscellaneous writings all connected through either a primarily artistic lens (“Tonezharl’”) or a more poetic perspective (“Spetsifikatsium”) Am glad that you got the copies of ND and are satisfied with the interview fragment 5 which has your artwork Should finally be out in August so you will of course be mailed a copy He does various recordings of cities’ insects and other types of sounds His music and work is on fragment 5 along with Stefano Musso Italy Think you will like the way it will look so hope all is well with you and your work Also many thanks enclosed a little help for you I hope you can change Swiss francs in Eysk Here in Switzerland it’s springtime now in the GUS One of the categories within the “Tonezharl’” project was Nikonova’s “architectural treatments,” which she would apply to letters she and her husband received These letters are in both English and Russian The majority of this work was done in 1992 and 1993 although she revised much of it up until the 2010s 1992 and revised for the architectural treatment on August 28 Dreaming in a better scenario that a slice of my music will be performed in Eysk I cannot introduce that night that you arranged because all night I would blush from such attention I hope that your remarks were not without a point Right: One of the few letters that is from Rea It is difficult to read and understand beyond the first line in which she thanks Poste for their letter Applying the architectural treatment first consisted of connecting all of the similar letters with lines “Thank you for the gift,” all three of the ts Similar words (those with the same letters in the same order must and mustn’t) and identical words would be connected in columns This would create a structure dependent on every word in the letter the letter would resemble an architectural design that emphasized the importance of every word said The letters would usually be pretty short (only about two or three sentences) but they would take up an entire page with this treatment Nikonova would create architectural structures that took on a particular structure resembling the blueprints of a building and though she never explicitly intended the latter she would apply this treatment to letters she sent herself as it is bisected by an abstract fissure and Nikonova’s artistic seal pressed in the middle of the page These letters fall more under the mail-art category of Nikonova’s work The text itself oftentimes isn’t of lasting interest at first glance but the way that she connects the words to create an architectural structure is Nikonova did not only apply this treatment to letters but occasionally to more substantial texts that inspired her One instance that I found while sorting through her archives was this treatment of J which reads: “We must destroy the rigid context of language and restore the meaning the aesthetic sublime meaning the genius of all information We must destroy the language of civilization the civilization as defined by Spengler.”1 Left: This is another work that is not a letter but a literary text by Nikonova titled “A Gesture of Square Freedom”: I believe that energy is a valuable quality of sense The orientation of this energy is of paramount importance The black square by Malevitch can sprout out the energy of its vectors both in pain ting [sic] and fiction as in vector poetry Vector poetry reveals the lines of force which pierce the world of fiction These lines of force show even stronger on the micro level Other than in the world of words grammar rules are the commonest manifestation of such lines of force compose his verses of these lines only without attaining the verbal terminal points Who knows where the terminal points of energy lies 1992 and the architectural treatment dated October 25 falls more into the “art” category rather than the more structural architectural treatments Nikonova decided to begin these architectural treatments but I did find a text from her about her mail art where she described it as a deeply difficult and expensive process to do given that she was living in the Soviet Union (later in Russia) she went through such a lengthy process to replicate and preserve these letters because of the amount of effort it took for them to reach her Nikonova’s “architectural treatments” struck me because of the simultaneous spontaneity and careful revision that went into each work Nikonova would work on these letters for years at a time revising them over and over again (as she did with most of her work) yet the banality of their contents leads me to believe that the authors probably wrote them as routine letters These letters live on because of the substantial amount of work that Nikonova put into her revisions of them even though their original authors likely meant them to be read this is written in all capital letters (with the exception of the first two words and punctuation has been added for readability (WKBW) — An Amherst Central Schools teacher is facing multiple child exploitation charges Testa of Amherst was arrested on Friday on multiple felony child exploitation charges out of Fairfax he was taken to the Erie County Holding Center on an arrest warrant Testa is a teacher with Amherst Central Schools The school administration is working with State Police on this incident Anyone with information should contact New York State Police at (585) 344-6200 We want to hear what’s going on in your community Share your voice and hear from your neighbors Amherst youngsters ride the Scrambler during the annual Amherst Rotary Town Fair on the Town Common in 2019 Rotary Club of Amherst Secretary Ellen Carey puts together backpacks and supplies that will be distributed to Amherst public school students on Aug along with University of Massachusetts hockey players and coaches prepare backpacks and supplies that will be distributed to Amherst public schools on Aug AMHERST — An annual tradition since the 1950s the Rotary Club of Amherst Town Fair returns to the Town Common for three days beginning Aug Bringing amusements including a Ferris wheel food booths with cotton candy and caramel apples and other activities to the Amherst green previously put on in the spring and in recent years held toward the end of August is one of two late summer fundraisers organized by the Rotary Club including a payment from Fanelli Amusements to have the fair staged in Amherst supports scholarships for area high school seniors and contributions that benefit local nonprofits “Rotary coordinates with Fanelli and will have a booth set up selling drinks and handing out information,” Michaud said with its motto of “service above self,” has made around $927,000 in charitable gifts since 1993 including a $25,000 gift to the Amherst Survival Center; a $50,000 gift to the Hitchcock Center for the Environment that assisted in constructing their new buildings; $5,000 for creating the Amherst Dog Park; and $25,000 tpward a new playground at Crocker Farm School The fair comes two weeks before the Rotary Club’s Connecticut Valley Century (COVAC) ride which takes bicyclists through Massachusetts New Hampshire and Vermont and offers routes from 25 to 100 miles in length Proceeds from the ride benefit the Good Works Fund following their twice-monthly noon luncheon beneath a large tent outside the Inn on Boltwood were joined by players and coaches from the University of Massachusetts hockey team in filling backpacks with supplies binders and pencil cases for young students The backpack project is considered the first activity of the new year for the club The club then brought the backpacks to the school district’s central office at the middle school for distribution before the first day of school the assistant district governor of the broader Rotary region Michaud said new members are always welcome and current members can bring guests we encourage anyone to join,” said Thad Dabrowski Dabrowski pointed to other club activities that support children in town including providing Merriam Webster dictionaries to third graders and partnering with Amherst Family Outreach to get gifts for children and gift cards for families during the Christmas season The organization also offers annual awards through its community grant program and has a partnership with Kestrel Land Trust for the annual breakfast fundraiser on behalf of Puffer’s Pond While some events have fallen by the wayside like the once famed Teddy Bear Rally and an antique show and flea market The fair’s irst day will run from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Tickets can be bought in advance at fanelliamusements.com/events/16 New York State Senator Sean Ryan and Assemblymember Karen McMahon announced that they are once again partnering with Kaleida Health to present the 2024 Family Health Fair on Saturday The annual event is free and open to Western New Yorkers of all ages This year’s event will feature over 70 organizations providing a wide range of free health and wellness-focused services including various health screenings Event co-sponsor Kaleida Health will provide a variety of healthcare informational resources as well as free blood and cholesterol screenings for attendees The American Red Cross will provide free CPR training from at 10 a.m. and will also host a blood drive throughout the event Donors are encouraged to make an appointment by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS or by visiting redcrossblood.org and typing “AmherstSr” in the Find A Blood Drive search bar Donors will receive a Red Cross branded giveaway Senator Ryan will be teaming up with GObike to give away free bike helmets to both children and adults while supplies last The event will include activities for all ages including an art project hosted by the Burchfield Penney Art Center a visit from the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s “Library on Wheels” bookmobile Other featured organizations at the 2024 Family Health Fair include Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center The University of Massachusetts Amherst's center in downtown Springfield now bears the name of one of its biggest advocates a leader whose passion and commitment to young people have had a profound and lasting effect and impact on the University of Massachusetts and his home city of Springfield,” said UMass President Marty Meehan Tuesday Meehan praised the legacy of Thomas during a special dedication ceremony Tuesday recognizing the former longtime head of the Springfield Urban League and now namesake of the university’s center in his hometown Previously the Urban League affiliate’s president and CEO for decades – part of some 50 years of community service - Thomas also served on the UMass Board of Trustees for 13 years where he advocated expanding the university’s footprint in the City of Homes the university opened a 26,000-square-foot center in the city’s center offering programs and classes in Tower Square he and his family were on hand for its formal renaming in his honor Meehan called the now-retired Thomas “unwavering” in his pursuit of UMass being “a force for good throughout the Commonwealth.” “It was Henry's deep appreciation for the impact that UMass has on its students and its communities that fueled his determination to bring UMass to the heart of this community,” the university president said Thomas spent three years as its chair - the first person of color to do so he and the Urban League have also been credited with running and improving Camp Atwater in North Brookfield the oldest African American youth camp in the country Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal of the 1st district described Thomas as tireless “His work at the Urban League deserves high praise bringing about a significant change in the Mason Square neighborhood today when you when you consider the challenges that were faced there,” the former mayor of Springfield said and how do we make sure everyone has access to the transformative power of education shaping dedication to justice in every space he has occupied,” Harris said the center offers “economic development opportunities” and includes a teacher certification graduate program Thomas has also been credited with advocating for the UMass Chan Medical School’s establishment of a Springfield campus in 2016 - part of a collaboration with Baystate Health He would depart the UMass Board of Trustees in 2020 and retire from his role at the Urban League a few years later decades after becoming the youngest president and CEO of a National Urban League affiliate in 1974 at the age of 25 Be one of the first to know what's coming up on WAMC See additional subscription options the student speaker at the Community Breakfast at UMass Tuesday morning UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes claps as Lupe Davidson gets introduced during the Community Breakfast at UMass on Tuesday morning chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst speaks during Community Breakfast at UMass Tuesday morning at the Community Breakfast at UMass Tuesday morning AMHERST — A storefront for the University of Massachusetts that will serve as both a place to welcome students and families and stage microevents such as lectures will be coming to Amherst center during the new academic year At the 57th annual Community Breakfast on Tuesday morning UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes announced the creation of UMass Downtown and managed by the Office of Community Relations and University Events with assistance from UMass Auxiliary Services emphasizing the relationship between the university and the town “We’re putting words into action with UMass Downtown.” described as a hub of town-gown interaction “will be an important place for connection between the campus and community introducing and inviting area residents to be a part of the campus experience,” Reyes said UMass Downtown will have other campus partners Admissions and the UMass Amherst Foundation which celebrates the partnership between the university and the business community with the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce a cosponsor The breakfast filled the Student Union Ballroom to capacity bringing out elected and appointed officials from Amherst numerous public safety officials from area communities and most of the local legislative delegation along with Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan Smith College President Sarah Willie-LeBreton Mount Holyoke President Danielle Holley andHampshire College President Ed Wingenbach as well as former state Senate President Stan Rosenberg Reyes began his address by referencing the flagship campus’s “troubling times,” and the events last spring in which 134 students faculty and community members were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest and encampment on campus “This will be a place where freedom of speech is championed every day,” Reyes said He said UMass wants people’s voices to be heard no matter what side of the Israel-Hamas war “It’s one I want us to continue to champion but understand it’s a deeply polarizing issue,” Reyes said calling the university a research powerhouse with over $250 million in research grants won in the last year and ranking 32nd out of 200 public universities There are also partnerships to celebrate with local communities such as tutoring public school students or helping towns to plan for a better tomorrow Reyes also noted programming that will bring events at the Fine Arts Center and Mullins Center alongside ones at The Drake and Amherst Cinema in downtown Amherst Even with the FAFSA federal student aid difficulties and Supreme Court rulings that have limited how students are selected UMass got over 50,000 applications and has been able to admit classes with increasing of racial He also expressed gratitude for the kindness The student speaker was Jibrael “Jibs” Harrell who chose to enroll at UMass after his mother told him A sports management major at Isenberg School of Management and a film studies major in a bachelor’s degree program Harrell said he has built his interpersonal skills at UMass He is also a regular at Amherst Cinema and appreciates the slices at Antonio’s Pizza “There’s always a memorable experience to be had in Amherst,” Harrell said During his internships with professional sports teams he met several UMass alumni and knows that they will have his back when he begins his post-UMass career said that “a tapestry of community and campus engagement enriches us all.” The breakfast marks a “renewal of a cherished partnership with UMass,” said Heidi Flanders board president and owner of Integrity Development and Construction helping to reinforce a bridge that creates a “beacon of opportunity and innovation.” but a home where everyone is proud to be part of executive director of community and strategic initiatives served as emcee for what he believes is a record 11th time He spoke about the UMass Amherst Community Campaign which last year collected nearly $400,000 from employees for area nonprofits put forward the vision of downtown presence for UMass after consultation with campus leadership After identifying the space most recently used as a Greenfield Savings Bank branch UMass commissioned Kuhn Riddle Architects and Designers “One of our goals is to draw people to UMass Downtown through frequent events of 40 or fewer people,” Buffone said in a statement “Our goal is to develop programming that will also positively impact our local restaurants and downtown businesses.” There will be direct business-to-business partnerships and participation with programming by the Amherst Business Improvement District and Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the university’s storefront will ensure UMass is viewed as a core presence in Amherst “This is something the town has been hoping for for a long time,” Bockelman said “UMass Downtown will reinforce the primacy of the campus in Amherst.” Maroulis observed that with students returning this week to the Five Colleges with lines to soon be wrapping around downtown bars He also noted the arrival of specialty food store Aster + Pine downtown and Herrell’s Ice Cream in the Mill District in North Amherst we’re still waiting on oysters,” Maroulis said the long-planned restaurant for the space long used by Judie’s Restaurant but which has repeatedly missed its projected opening date But there were no chuckles from the filled ballroom concluded with a performance by the UMass Minuteman Marching Band This month, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center reopened its location on College Parkway in Amherst with a new focus — providing essential survivorship and wellness care. This location — 100 College Parkway — was previously a treatment center, but those services are now offered in the new and larger Scott Bieler Amherst Center nearby on Park Club Lane “As more people survive their cancer than ever before, the need has become obvious,” says Tessa Flores, MD, Medical Director of Cancer Screening and Survivorship “Patients often have many more years ahead of them and we want to help them make their life after cancer the best that it can be.” Cancer treatments are harsh on the body, and cancer survivors face unique ongoing medical and other needs. Our Survivorship program provides focused medical care to detect and manage any complications or side effects from cancer or its treatment and restore body and soul with rehabilitation services mental health support and wellness activities Establishing this location as a survivorship and wellness hub brings these important services closer to patients helping to make this part of their healthcare more convenient and in a comfortable Services provided at this location include:  As you transition to survivorship care after completing active cancer treatment your care team will ask whether you prefer to have your appointments at our downtown Buffalo campus or the reopened location on College Parkway Cancer survivors do not need to have been treated at Roswell Park to seek survivorship care here Patients in active care may opt to receive rehabilitation and dermatology services, as well as participate in wellness activities, at this convenient location, too. New patients should call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) for an appointment We're taking holistic cancer survivorship care to a new level in establishing an entire center to focus on achieving optimal wellness Learn more AMHERST — A year-long trial by University of Massachusetts Transit and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority is expanding weekend bus service on Route 31 bringing riders on the Amherst-to-Sunderland buses directly to the shopping malls in Hadley The agencies recently announced the change that will extend the bus routes from The Boulders apartments stop on East Hadley Road to the malls on Saturdays and Sundays during the academic year This extension will operate during UMass full semester weekends as part of a collaborative pilot program It emerged during discussions between UMass students and administration officials as a way of reducing the time to get to both Hampshire Mall Barnes & Noble and several other stores direct ride will be provided from Sunderland’s Cliffside Apartments and Sugarloaf Estates to Cowles Lane in Amherst and the apartment complexes on East Hadley Road with the extension heading to the Hadley retail and shopping centers This eliminates the usual bus transfers for major residential portions of PVTA’s Amherst and Sunderland service areas “This service extension offers fast and dependable transportation significantly improving access to shopping and recreational destinations making it more convenient and accessible for many area residents,” Brandy Pelletier residents who depend on public transportation have been concerned about transferring to Route B43 to get to the Hadley malls a nonprofit collaborative looking at how people get around the region identified those living on East Hadley Road as having to take a circuitous route through downtown Amherst to a second bus that goes to the malls to do some of their shopping That prompted seven in 10 families to cut through a cornfield using that to walk or bike to the malls instead of riding the bus This was done even though one of the users called it “hair-raising” to get to the bike path because of the difficult terrain UMass Transit and the PVTA say they will continue to work collaboratively on assessing the pilot program’s operational feasibility the extension may be considered for future inclusion into the PVTA network available resources and a vote by the PVTA Advisory Board UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes listens as Lupe Davidson is introduced during the Community Breakfast at UMass on Tuesday morning Mount Holyoke President Danielle Holley and Hampshire College President Ed Wingenbach who chose to enroll at UMass after his mother told him to “go where you are loved.” NY (WKBW) — Thousands of registered voters are taking advantage of early voting ahead of the November 5 general election at early polling sites and by mail-in ballots The New York State Board of Elections shared data with 7 News showing that 705,700 have voted by mail-in or in-person Long line at the Amherst Senior Center for early voting. ⁦@WKBW⁩ pic.twitter.com/8CnAyd0R9n more than 33,000 voted in Erie County and more than 8,000 in Niagara County Lenoci was among the many people standing in this long line outside the Amherst Senior Center on the third day of early voting But the long line didn't act as a deterrent for the voters I spoke with eager to make their voices heard in this historic election “Are you surprised by the long lines for early voting?” I asked voters I’m a little older and never had I had such controversy about this year I wait in line here – you’ve got to do what you've got to do,” Lenoci noted "I’m surprised to see the line as massive as it is I never experienced that far,” remarked John I’ve got to do it by next week,” commented Lee Adriatico We've been here about 40 minutes,” said Rachel Beason Erie County Board of Election leaders set up 38 voting sites across the county "The first day was the busiest first day of early voting that we've ever had but it seems to be on par with four years ago as a presidential campaign,” explained Jeremy Zellner The board of elections also increased the amount of equipment in some of the larger towns "But it's really important to let folks know they can use any of these 38 sites across the county and I diverted a number of folks I diverted to other areas that didn't have any lines so they could drive 20 minutes and get right in and vote instead of waiting for 40 minutes here,” described Zellner Zellner noted that at each early voting site a ballot is printed out for “every single voter." It could take up to 40 seconds to print the ballot Zellner reminded voters they can bring in their quick scan card to the board of elections mailed to registered voters to check in quickly or show their driver’s license “54% of the voters who voted on Saturday used some form of a quick scan and I think that really helped us with our speed,” Zellner said About 26,000 absentee ballots were also received at the Erie County Board of Elections Voters told me it's so important to have your voice heard through your vote Issues most important to voters casting early ballots in Amherst Monday: "My most important causes are women's reproductive rights and just our health care rights in general and the LGBTQ+ community rights,” Beason reflected I believe we're controlling how our country is going to be run for the next four years you really have nothing to complain about,” replied John but I say make the best one win,” responded Lenoci Some voters told me the economy and abortion are important topics to them in this presidential election I worry about my children and my grandchildren – what they’re going to have to face I just hope that the right person wins and that we get back on our feet,” answered Adriatico Early voting will continue through November 3. Click herefor early voting sites in Erie County. Click here for early voting sites in Niagara County AMHERST – The American Red Cross recently celebrated the opening of its second blood and platelet donation center at 123 Milford Rd The Amherst location is the second Red Cross facility in New Hampshire that accepts platelet donations Defined as “colorless cell fragments in blood that form clots and stop bleeding,” platelets are needed every 15 seconds and are only viable for five days Platelets are given to cancer patients as well as to those with chronic diseases Sharon Curole of Manchester shared her story of how blood donations have allowed her to keep her quality of life she woke up and could not feel her left side Curole was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis The diagnosis led to her being on five medications for the next 15 years “All five medications did not work for me,” she said adding that basic household tasks became nearly impossible That was until her neurologist suggested intravenous immunoglobulin Curole had finally found a treatment that worked “I get antibodies from donated blood,” she said adding that she receives IVIG at home every two weeks “I want to hug every single blood donor there is It means that I can stay out of a wheelchair Imagine being in the hospital and being told that you need a blood transfusion fixed sites director for American Red Cross Biomedical Services said blood is needed every two seconds in the U.S “The blood products collected here can help accident and burn victims organ transplant patients and those receiving treatment for leukemia or sickle cell disease,” she said “To meet the growing and changing demands for blood products this Amherst facility is one of many new blood donation centers the Red Cross is investing in across the country This new site is a sister site to our Manchester Blood Donor Center and will provide lifesaving blood to more patients in New Hampshire donors will also have the option of making a Power Red donation During this procedure a specialized machine is used that safely allows donors to give two units of red blood cells while returning the donor’s plasma and platelets Power Red donations are usually reserved for trauma patients patients with sickle cell anemia and those suffering from blood loss “This new location in Amherst was strategic It’s located between existing Red Cross Blood Donation Centers in Danvers and Manchester,” said Stephanie Couturier regional CEO of American Red Cross of Northern New England “Through the generosity of blood donors this site is expected to collect an additional 8,000 platelet units which can only be collected at fixed site locations – and 6,000 red blood cell units annually after three years of operation This increases our platelet collection by nearly 60 percent in New Hampshire.” The site is open on Wednesdays from 11 a.m Copyright © 2025 Ogden Newspapers of New Hampshire LLC | https://www.nashuatelegraph.com | 110 Main St (WKBW) — An Amherst Central Schools teacher is among seven men arrested for seeking sexual acts with minors Fairfax County Police said they targeted individuals who were using digital platforms to initiate inappropriate conversations with minors seven men arrived in Fairfax County intending to commit sexual acts with minors but were met by detectives and now face a total of 25 felony charges Testa was charged with four counts of solicitation of a minor and production of child sexual abuse material He's currently being held at the Erie County Correctional Facility and will be extradited to Fairfax County The Amherst Central Schools administration is working with New York State Police on this incident. You can watch the video below or read more here Parents are encouraged to monitor their children's online activity Anyone with information is asked to call the Major Crimes Bureau at (703) 246-7800 Anonymous calls can be made through Crime Solvers at (866) 411-8477 The University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst is offering students different activities throughout Election Week to cope with stress related to the 2024 presidential election.  The programming which is offered by UMass Amherst’s Center for Counseling and Psychological Health featured a “Managing Election Stress Drop-In Group.”  [RELATED: University of Oregon employee placed on leave after telling Trump voters to ‘Jump off of a f-ing bridge’] the associated news and social media posts are leaving you confused you are not alone,” the event description reads “And election week in particular might be a time when all these emotions come together If you’d like a space to come in and talk about these emotions with others please join our election stress drop-in groups The week also featured several sessions of “Pet Therapy” with the Center’s “therapy dogs,” Rosie students had the option of watching a “Movie for Queer Joy” titled “But I’m a Cheerleader,” which centers on a “high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to ‘cure’ her lesbianism” but who “realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and despite the ‘therapy,’ comes to embrace her sexuality.” students went to “Island Vibes Yoga,” an “Art Therapy Activity,” and more “Pet Therapy.”  Other activities included “Painting Rocks,” a “Forest Walk and Guided Meditation,” and “creating a gratitude tree.”[RELATED: Gen Z voters surge right in 2024, helping propel Trump to victory] Many other colleges and universities have been offering students activities to deal with stress before, during, and after the election. For example, Virginia Tech organized de-stressing programs on Election Day Campus Reform contacted the University of Massachusetts Amherst for comment Brendan McDonald is a student at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack He has interests in writing and communication and is also a reporter at NewBostonPost she can’t resist the impulse to collect vintage cookie and cracker tins — thousands of them — which are impressively arranged on shelves throughout her Dedham condo “My husband doesn’t like them and the kids hate them,” Clingan says with a sigh “They’re going to call 1-800-JUNK if I don’t find something to do with them.” But there’s an upside to her single-mindedness Clingan has devoted herself to the recovery and relocation of a century-old mural languishing in the attic of a North Adams apartment building Motivated by an intense interest in all things Jewish which had been commissioned in the 1890s by a congregation of Berkshires-based Lithuanian Jewish immigrants and then abandoned “She’s a force to be reckoned with,” says David Towler who first mentioned the mural’s existence to Clingan in 2015 It took a while, though, because Clingan had to enlist a team of experts and raise nearly a half-million dollars by herself. Yet the fragile artwork was finally rescued and, earlier this month, it was installed at the Yiddish Book Center the Amherst nonprofit dedicated to preserving and celebrating Yiddish books and culture It wouldn’t be accurate to describe Clingan as retired. At 81, she’s always up to something, often related to her synagogue, Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, or the infinite rabbit hole known as genealogy, which became one of her compulsions after watching “Roots,” the 1977 TV miniseries based on author Alex Haley’s book exploring his family history (Clingan is now on the board of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston.) Her first major genealogical endeavor was ascertaining her own origin story beginning with both sets of Russian grandparents whom she’d always felt connected to but didn’t know much about “I knew my father’s mother was one of 12 children and I just said to myself ‘I’m going to find out who all those 12 children were,” Clingan said Meatier still when you consider she embarked on the research in the pre-internet ‘80s But Clingan was steadfast; she tracked down birth certificates and marriage licenses and even hired a man in Minsk to do legwork there (“I’m chicken,” she said of her decision not to travel to her ancestral homeland Clingan was able to locate all 44 of her father’s first cousins and organized a reunion attended by 180 people in Burlington “It was such a gift to him,” Clingan says proudly She learned about the mural while working on a genealogical project of a different sort: She was asked to compile an index of Massachusetts synagogues and then gather photographs of their yahrzeit plaques the memorial nameplates displayed on temple walls To get information about the Lithuanian Jewish congregation in Berkshire County who’s a North Adams native and the unofficial historian of the city’s Jewish population He told Clingan the congregation formed in the 1890s but left its Francis Street synagogue for a larger space in 1920 “He says to me there’s this mural he’s been suffering over,” Clingan said She drove out to see the wall art and was horrified to find it stranded in a dark, empty space on the top floor of the former synagogue, which had been converted to apartments years ago. Clingan wasn’t sure what to do, but knew about another mural that was rescued from a former synagogue in Vermont in 2015 so she figured reclamation was at least possible a Lithuanian artist brought to America by the congregation and two American flags representing the immigrants’ enthusiasm for their new home One of Clingan’s first calls was to Judith Cannon who had been a project manager for many years before taking an administrative job at Clingan’s synagogue Clingan asked if she’d assemble a team to figure out how to extricate the art without damaging it “I didn’t know anything about saving murals but I do know about hiring professionals,” said Cannon I grew up with Yiddish-speaking parents and grandparents The world this entered me into was important to me on an emotional level.” Clingan committed to saving the mural without knowing where it would go, or if anyone even wanted it. “And I didn’t have any idea who to ask,” she said. Ultimately, the Yiddish Book Center agreed to take it, but with the caveat that Clingan raise all the money. “It’s very compelling,” said Susan Bronson, executive director of the center, whose focus is primarily the recovery and preservation of Yiddish literature “But it’s not really at the center of our mission.” Clingan needed to come up with $450,000 to conserve and stabilize the mural; design the custom crib that would be its shipping container; hire a crane to hoist it through a large hole cut in the building’s facade; and fashion a special frame for the installation at the Yiddish Book Center People helped her create a glossy handout that she passed around at her synagogue She also had the names of 70 men who signed the 1906 charter of the North Adams congregation and Clingan tracked down their descendants and hit them up for donations “I take an online Talmud class on Friday mornings and there was a guy in the class who sprinkles in Yiddish,” said Clingan I went to see him and he was absolutely captivated by the mural.” Sheldon Buckler is a former research scientist and senior executive at Polaroid who shares Clingan’s exuberance for Jewish culture Buckler was so impressed with Clingan’s persistence that he made a substantial contribution to her cause (Neither Buckler nor Clingan will say how much money he donated.) “I grew up in the southeast Bronx and when I was a boy Eleanor Roosevelt came to our neighborhood and welcomed us People cried and hollered in Yiddish,” Buckler said in a phone interview “This beautiful item is an expression of what coming to America meant to the Jewish people of Eastern Europe.” on a sunny October afternoon with neighbors and passersby watching the mural was at last liberated from the dreary attic on Francis Street As the crane lowered the artwork into the back of a box truck “It’s like the birth of a baby or a NASA landing,” Cannon said For her part, Clingan said she’s relieved that her perseverance paid off and a cultural artifact discarded all those years ago is finally safe and on display at the Yiddish Book Center. She’s also looking forward to resuming her search for a specific Byrd’s cookie tin she needs to complete a set It’s a chocolate mint cookie,” Clingan said “I’ll turn myself inside out until I find it.” Mark Shanahan can be reached at mark.shanahan@globe.com. Follow him @MarkAShanahan. Home Delivery Gift Subscriptions Log In Manage My Account Customer Service Delivery Issues Feedback News Tips Help & FAQs Staff List Advertise Newsletters View the ePaper Order Back Issues News in Education Search the Archives Privacy Policy Terms of Service Terms of Purchase Work at Boston Globe Media Internship Program Co-op Program Do Not Sell My Personal Information (WKBW) — MusicalFare Theatre announced it is pulling out of the Amherst Central Park project and will renew its search for a new permanent home for its theatre MusicalFare cited a lack of funding from the town for its share of the costs and an ongoing legal challenge to the park project from residents MusicalFare Artistic and Executive Director Randy Kramer tells 7 News Senior Reporter Eileen Buckley it is now “clear” it's time to walk away because there is no financing and the project is stalled due to a lawsuit “It feels like a lost opportunity to me when it comes to the community when it comes to Amherst,” Kramer commented But Amherst taxpayers are celebrating that MusicalFare is leaving the project I was so excited,” declared Shelly Schratz We were so enthusiastic and excited about this coming,” responded Andrea Morgante a pure victory for taxpayers?” Buckley asked Nothing against the arts and the culture -- it was the money that was being spent without our voices being heard,” answered Morgante In February, the town board approved a lease agreement with MusicalFare to bring a public theatre to Amherst Central Park In April, Amherst Concerned Citizens filed a petition and voiced their frustrations over the plans to bring the public theatre to the park The group collected signatures to stop the $11 million bond for the project until a town-wide referendum was held The group said they wanted to make sure residents had a say in what to do with taxpayer money Residents said the 30-year contract to redevelop the former Westwood Country Club wasn't fair or equitable for the town About a week later, a town spokesperson told 7 News there would be a special election to decide the future of the project But in May, the town board voted to rescind the bond resolution and announced there would not be a special election "And the reality of it is not a dollar of that tax increase was going to the MusicalFare project but somehow that got connected and that became a rallying cry and we became what is the very definition of collateral damage,” reflected Kramer It's never been about MusicalFare,” noted Schratz Both Schratz and Morgante tell me this fight was not against the new theater “It all had to do with PUD zoning and how the people are left out of the process,” Schratz stated currently housed on the Daemen University campus The theater’s lease expires with Daemen in May of 2025 so it's imperative that they find new space “It’s incumbent on us to make sure that the future MusicalFare is solid for the next 35 years,” described Kramer But Kramer could not say what new locations he's considering “There’s nothing we can talk about publicly but I can tell you for a number of months now we have been having conversations and looking at various possibilities and that's continuing,” Kramer explained Town of Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa released the following statement in response to MusicalFare's announcement: This rendering depicts the new five-story mixed-use building attached to the back of the former Hastings shop at 45 South Pleasant St. which will now be entirely leased by Amherst College The foundation for the new mixed-use project rising behind the Hastings Building in downtown Amherst An advertising sign on a construction fence for a new mixed-use building rising behind Hastings Building in downtown Amherst AMHERST — An Amherst developer’s intent to turn a five-story mixed-use building under construction into housing exclusively for 63 Amherst College students is raising concerns for some observers adjusted conditions in its previous decision and accepted a modified management plan for the 45-55 South Pleasant St development proposed by South Pleasant LLC which is managed by Amherst developer Barry Roberts terrible idea,” Ken Rosenthal of Sunset Avenue told both the Planning Board and Planning Department staff “This change in Barry’s plans means that this is a dormitory for 60-something students in Amherst center.” Rosenthal said he has high regard for both Roberts and the college from which he graduated but that new buildings in the town center should be prioritizing housing for year-round residents who will be paying excise taxes on their vehicles and supporting downtown businesses “This is one more nail in the coffin for Amherst as a residential community for people who live and work in town,” Rosenthal said an Amherst attorney with Bacon Wilson PC representing Roberts said the changes come under an expanded lease agreement with Amherst College that goes beyond the street-level space which became the Amherst College Store last spring and at least one residential life professional residing on site,” Reidy said of the apartments The new building is being attached to the historic Hastings Building at 45 South Pleasant will be renovated into additional apartments Planning Board Chairman Douglas Marshall said he didn’t view most of the proposed changes as necessary for Roberts to execute the transaction with the college “This could have happened without any public hearing tonight,” Marshall said The only Planning Board member who expressed worry was Karin Winter who said she is nervous about the “sterile sort of Amherst College presence” and trends of families leaving town “As much as we love having Amherst College in town I think it’s very sad that they’re taking over one of the prime spots that could really be a vital part for the town of Amherst,” Winter said Planning Board member Jesse Mager said he is not sad about what is happening and that until a lot more housing is up in town it is known such developments would target students “I don’t really have a problem with it at all — I think it’s pretty good solution and it may be managed better than if it were students from all around,” Mager said The changes to the site plans include reducing and moving the electrical meters and transformers so that individual tenants don’t get individual meter bills Amherst College will perform maintenance of the building and do landscaping and snow removal and will also provide off-site parking for the tenants Among the changes in conditions include possibly waiving registration with the town’s rental registration bylaw and not providing the town details of lease agreements Senior Planner Nate Malloy said the change in conditions require a public hearing but the site plan changes are minimal and could have been handled administratively and details about the management company aren’t often specified in board approvals in agreement with the Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust agree to allow the developer to make a payment of at least $1.1 million to the housing trust instead of providing three affordable apartments that would be reserved for those making up to 80% of the area median income that would have been required for approval of the project otherwise Reidy said Roberts has two other projects that will provide other types of housing downtown including the long-anticipated possible redevelopment of McMurphy’s Uptown Tavern with eight apartments; and refurbishing the 336 North Pleasant St site closer to the University of Massachusetts campus Amherst College spokeswoman Caroline Hanna said the college worked with Roberts to lease the Hastings residential space in addition to the adjoining commercial space that was already being rented providing living spaces for students and residential life staff members “We believe the arrangement presents an excellent opportunity to expand our business connection to downtown Amherst beyond the Amherst College Store and foster further engagement of our students with the town,” Hanna said said the Amherst College connection should be seen as a vote of confidence in a vibrant downtown and will also mean significant tax base enhancements for Amherst just as Archipelago Investments developments have done for other parts of the town center and I would just ask that the board looks at it from a positive light of Amherst College willing to invest in downtown and bringing students downtown,” Reidy said Ohio — The Lorain County Public Health Department is keeping a close watch on the Amherst Manor as it has been cited with 10 health code violations this week Amherst Manor was cited with eight critical and two non-critical health code violations on July 8 and 9 The Lorain County Public Health Department first received complaints on July 6 Susan Lukachko told me that although she was not surprised there were violations found she said her husband had nothing short of a good experience while staying at Amherst Manor for a few weeks “He almost didn't want to come home because they were always kind to him and he actually enjoyed the food quite a bit.” Lukachko said the only reason she’s not shocked over the health code violations is that she has seen it happen before to numerous other businesses Amber Sanchez said she was a patient at Amherst Manor for 12 days in March of this year She also claimed to have a good experience but they made me feel welcome and cared about," said Sanchez "The therapists were good to me and the administration people I dealt with were I can't speak for dealing with corporate or current administration though I've been told there have been changes for the negative since I left The allegations submitted to the health department range from employees using sanitizer bottles to spray serving trays and bowls to the Amherst Manor not having the proper equipment to clean dishes and utensils “The criticals are obviously the more important ones,” stated Lorain County Public Health Department Director of Environmental Health Greg Putka.Putka said the facility developed a plan of action but during the health department’s July 9th visit “We did observe things that they weren't following that plan they gave to us.” “[The Amherst Manor is] lucky they only caught them with those little ones It should have been a lot more,” said Ramonita Cabral Cabral said she was a patient at the Amherst Manor for several months earlier this year She said her stay should have only been a few weeks causing further infection in her left foot and negligent behavior when it came to employees maintaining her well-being and living space “They don't care what they do,” added Cabral said that the food served at the facility is "horribly portioned and never cooked thoroughly [There were] so many cases of UTIs since they weren't getting proper care resulting from pressure wounds They have been known to cut up sheets to use them to clean up patients after bowel movements due to no supplies since they cut funds so much Amherst Manor will not only have random health inspections conducted by the Lorain County Public Health Department but every five to six months The plan of action states Amherst Manor must use single-service utensils and dishware for the time being as well as take cooking utensils to a nearby facility for sanitation “[Amherst Manor] gave us a timeline of roughly at the end of the month that it should be completed The dish machine and the three-compartment sink should be in the facility hopefully at the end of the month to make sure that they have that all taken care of and it's all operational and in place,” stated Putka the Lorain County Public Health Department inspected the Amherst Manor again on Thursday and there were zero violations found “The Amherst Manor kitchen is undergoing a scheduled repair The local health department was out and identified some issues with the process Our staff was able to receive further education and our food service operations continue to run smoothly.” Sprenger Healthcare added the Ohio Department of Health visited Thursday and did not observe any dining-related issues “No residents were affected by any issues brought forth by the local health department and as always it is Amherst Manor’s priority to provide excellent resident care,” stated Sprenger Healthcare Thursday afternoon While Cabral isn’t quick to give the Amherst Manor grace for the health code violations “We're all humans and people make mistakes.” If you suspect a health code violation in Lorain County, click here to file a complaint Putka also encourages anyone who has questions relating to health codes or simply wants to be more educated on the subject to contact the Lorain County Public Health Department Bringing Roswell Park's comprehensive cancer care closer to you Make an appointment creates a convenient Williamsville hub for our patients in communities north of Buffalo to receive many of their cancer care services chemotherapy and infusions and 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