Editor’s note: Here’s a collection of quotes harvested from the front pages of the Greenfield Recorder in 2019. This is the first of two installments. The second will be in the weekend edition.
■“The craft community — I think we’re all aging out, buyers and craftspeople. If they can retire and so can my customers, then so can I.” — Lisa Cocco on closing Opus, her longtime Main Street, Greenfield store, after 30 years.
■“The way things are happening, with the nasty people that are calling for the ‘yes,’ I don’t think I can vote ‘yes.’ As far as taxes not going up, I talked to a lot of people and they said, ‘What? Is the mayor going to pay my extra taxes?’” — Precinct 1 City Councilor Verne Sund following the mayor’s financial analysis showing a new library would not increase the city’s tax rate.
■“The biggest conundrum with sex offenders, and this is not only housing but supervision in general, is no one wants them around but everyone wants them supervised.” — Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan in a story about a homeless twice-convicted sex offender who died in a tent in January and the outrage over expressions of sympathy for his death. Clayton Aaron Wheeler, 51, and Kathleen Grady, 50, perished from carbon monoxide poisoning from a heater, it was later discovered.
■“Kids will stuff their pockets with food so they can bring it home to their families.” — Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, the former director of The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, during a tour with Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, and others of Newton Elementary School in Greenfield to learn more about how breakfast in the classroom is working and why they see it as a necessary policy across the state.
■“This kind of deal could only happen in the Trump Era.” — Al Norman, a Greenfield resident known nationally as the “sprawlbuster,” on a proposed compromise among city councilors for approval of a new library in exchange for relaxed development rules on the French King Highway and elsewhere. He called it a “hostage deal” and Greenfield’s version of the Mexican border wall.
■“In the evening, I just rested. Getting off my feet was about as much as I could do (to recover). But that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.” — Jeremy Williams, who walked 500 miles and 1.2 million steps through Franklin County while holding signs to thank volunteers.
■“It was like opening up a fire hydrant and watching all the dirt come out.” — Fred Steiner, of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, about a ravine that had opened along the edge of the plateau at the Franklin County Fairgrounds.
■“I’m fine with runner-up. He served until, I think, he was in his 90s.” — Virginia “Ginny” Knowlton, who retired in March as the Conway town clerk after serving 40 years. She noted the record in Conway was set by Henry Billings, who served 54 years, from 1861 to 1915.
■“The idea of being shot in school is terrifying.” — Ella Parker, a student at Four Rivers Charter Public School, who organized a walkout and march to the Greenfield Common with fellow student Gina Magin to protest gun violence.
■“Yes, I am concerned. Because it’d be a big box place. I don’t think anybody would want to buy a house next to one of them.” — Ralph Gordon Jr. testifying at the trial at Franklin County Superior Court, in which the neighbors were challenging a special permit for a big-box store that the Greenfield Planning Board approved in 2011.
■“All of us adults always need to be reminded what’s the most important thing: the kids in our community.” — Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan at an April 5 ceremony in which a flag was raised in honor of child abuse awareness month.
■“When you have this image of a Plains caricature, you’re talking and compressing 560 different cultures into one image, and we’re all so different.” — Rhonda Anderson, a member of the Inupiaq Athabaskan tribe, speaking about the mural on the Mohawk Trail Regional School gym wall.
■“They don’t want to give us the fair part of the pie.” — Frank Podelesny, an employee of Stop & Shop, speaking during the strike in April.
■“The brutal murder of my daughter has left a hole in my life that can never be filled.” — Lynette McCreary, the mother of Amanda Glover, at the sentencing of Lewis Starkey III who was convicted of her first-degree murder at a trial in April.
■“It’s a time to get the family together. Why horseradish? We’re bored.” — Tom Zimnowski, speaking at the annual grinding of horseradish roots at his Sunderland home.
■“Get up, get down, Greenfield is a union town. Contract — or else.” — Fifty people chanted in the pouring rain April 26 while they picketed Kennametal of Greenfield.
■“People keep asking me when I’m coming back. I think it’s a good time.” — Dan Guin, a former Greenfield town councilor announcing in May he would be running for the Precinct 2 City Council seat.
■“What are our options? To hang onto something we can’t afford? If we keep this building, our tax rate is going to go up. And those are the facts.” — Heath Planning Board Chair Calvin Carr speaking about the town’s empty elementary school May 12. In two separate Town Meeting votes, a sale to a pot farm was denied.
■“A young lady, wrong place, wrong time. Serving her country, her life ahead of her. Unbelievable. But you can see the turnout of a small community.” — Charlie Ramon, of Deerfield, one of the community members who lined the streets of that town May 14 to honor the late Meaghan Burns, a 23-year-old active duty U.S. Navy corpsman who was shot to death near her station in Portsmouth, Va.
■“The bottom line is we want people to vote on this. We want as many people as possible to vote on this. It’s the right thing.” — City Councilor At-Large Isaac Mass on placing funding for a new public library on the Nov. 5 ballot. The ballot question, which was approved at the May 25 City Council meeting, was prompted by a petition led by Steve Ronhave.
■“It’s the kids. Just being with kids. You couldn’t write a book about how I coach or anything, but I think the kids know how I feel about them.” — Joe Chadwick, Mohawk Trail Regional School’s longtime track coach, on leading the track team to more than 1,250 wins, the most in the state in May.
■“The more unpredictable the season is, the harder it is to have a successful harvest. Not knowing makes it really difficult.” — Helena Farrell, the land use and natural resources planner for the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, in a May story about the late asparagus season.
■“I couldn’t be more excited about Yves. You belong here as GCC’s 10th president.” — Robert Pura, GCC’s ninth president, at the inauguration of Yves Salomon-Fernandez.
■“Not only do we want to acknowledge how far we’ve come, but we still have a ways to go.” — Jamie Pottern, president of the board for Franklin County Pride, at the third annual Pride parade and rally held in June.
■“We had a record number of fatalities because of the deadly presence of fentanyl. After we saw some modest decline, it has come roaring back with vengeance in 2018.” — Debra McLaughlin, coordinator of the Opioid Task Force, in an interview in June.
■“It’s been humbling. The employees have been as worried about management and the Bete family as we have been about them.” — Michael G. Bete, president of Channing Bete Co., which employed 105 people in South Deerfield and closed June 30.
■“She handed me a standard rental application and I got to the part I was afraid of, which was your last three residences. What I had was: a sober house I lived in for four months, a halfway house I lived in for six months, and really didn’t want to put the third … the jail.” — Shawn Hayden, now CEO of the social services organization GAAMHA Inc., at a meeting held by the Opioid Task Force for people in recovery or transition seeking housing.
■“What am I supposed to do? Sit in the house all day?” — Walter Kownacki, of South Deerfield, who is still haying at age 90.