Here are brief thoughts on some of the events taking place around Franklin County and the North Quabbin area.
Regardless of how Greenfield residents feel about the City Council’s decision to approve a new $19.5 million library, and in a compromise deal, relaxed commercial zoning, one has to admire the turnout at Wednesday’s meeting.
Not only was Greenfield High School’s cafeteria standing-room only, but the fire chief also had to find overflow space for people who wanted to see the action first-hand.
Yes, this was not your ordinary council meeting, but we encourage this kind of citizen interest and participation in the city’s other concerns.
Police say a man’s life was saved when passers-by stopped to give assistance after he was involved in a recent two-vehicle crash on Route 2 in Shelburne.
The good Samaritans helped the man escape his pickup before it caught fire.
Three or four people got his truck back on its wheels, and then one used a hammer to break a window so the man could escape. A passing truck driver put out the fire with an extinguisher.
These people did the right thing at the right time for someone in trouble. Kudos for them.
Thanks to a grant through the Montague Police Department, shop teachers at Franklin County Technical School learned how to apply tourniquets and pack a wound in a recent workshop.
How valuable is this training? Here is a grim fact: it would take six or seven minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the school. Yes, that is a fast response, but in actuality, it would take under five minutes for a person to bleed out after sustaining a life-threatening injury.
As Greenfield firefighter Brian Godin told the shop teachers, “We want you to be able to save someone’s life, and, like the title of this course, stop the bleed.”
We hope it never comes to that, but we are pleased shop teachers would be prepared should a serious injury occur in class.
Orange will go Hollywood once again when actors and film crews for the “Castle Rock” television series return sometime this year, and it is transformed into the mythical Maine town created by novelist Stephen King.
Last week, Hulu released who will be in the cast and a bit about the plot. Season 2 draws on King’s novel, “Misery,” which featured Annie Wilkes, a nurse gone bad who kept author Paul Sheldon prisoner in her house. This time Annie pays a visit to Castle Rock aka Orange.
It’s not every day a town gets to have a starring role in a television series. And we hope its production will benefit the Orange community, including its businesses.
For the past several weeks, we’ve printed stories about the educators who have been singled out for Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Since 2003, the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation annually honors outstanding western Massachusetts teachers in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties. The administration of each school district makes the nominations.
We are impressed at the quality of work these teachers do, often for students who need more specialized education.
Many of us have had teachers who were a big influence on our lives. We have fond memories learning in their classrooms.
So, we are glad the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation recognizes the accomplishments of local teachers with a cash prize, course tuition and other rewards, plus a gala reception.
Along with longer days, steam rising from area sugar houses is a sure sign of spring.
We admire the fortitude, dedication and optimism of maple sugarers who are at the mercy of Mother Nature. After all, sugarers need a consistent run of daytime temperatures above freezing and nighttime temperatures below, so the sap from maple trees flows just right.
Sugarers also have to contend with varmints gnawing on the tubing that collects sap from the tapped trees and long hours, sometimes well into the night, as they boil sap into syrup.
Some sugar houses even have restaurants serving breakfast and the syrup they’ve made. Others sell their bottled syrup and other maple products.
We encourage folks to support local sugarers and buy local. Keep that tradition flowing.