Editor’s note: Many media outlets write about the year’s top national and international news stories and newsmakers. As a community newspaper, the Greenfield Recorder chose to focus on local news. This is the second installment of the 10 Top News Stories of 2025, which are presented in no particular order.
Hope Street parking lot declared surplus
One of the year’s most controversial decisions was over whether to declare the Hope Street parking lot in Greenfield as surplus and authorize the mayor to sell it to a housing developer.
In November’s biennial election, Greenfield residents defeated a ballot measure that would have reversed City Council’s July decision to declare the 53 Hope St. parking lot as surplus and sell it to a developer. Residents voted 2,254 to 1,711 to reject Question 1, a measure that Franklin County Register of Probate John Merrigan petitioned to place on the ballot in August. The vote allows the city to move forward with drafting a request for proposals (RFP) seeking a developer to construct housing or a mixed-use building at the site.
According to Jonathon Weber, communications director for the Mayor’s Office, the city plans to hold two informational sessions in February and March, in which the public can weigh in on the RFP. He said Mayor Ginny Desorgher hopes to publish the RFP shortly thereafter.
Alongside the community meetings, Weber said Desorgher intends to hold smaller-scale meetings with residents who live near the lot.
Orange voters reaffirm five-member Selectboard, ratify seven years of board’s decisions
Voters in October opted to reaffirm their 2017 decision to increase Selectboard membership after it was discovered that the expansion had been made improperly.
Residents at a 2017 Special Town Meeting voted to boost Selectboard membership from three to five, and the next election that added new members was held the following spring. But state law does not allow towns to increase Selectboard membership without special legislation, which the approved 2017 warrant article did not request. As a result, an article was placed on a Special Town Meeting warrant in 2025 to ratify all actions the board has taken since its first five-member meeting in the spring of 2018 and permit current members to fulfill their terms.
As a crucial safeguard, the article also authorized the Orange Selectboard to file special legislation for an act to increase its membership.
“You’re voting to ratify the vote that was taken at the October special meeting in 2017, which increased the board from three to five,” Town Counsel Donna MacNicol told the audience at Orange Town Hall in October. “The procedure wasn’t exactly right, and so we’re correcting that procedure. If you don’t vote for this, then we’ll come back again and do it, because it needs to get passed to ratify the actions and ratify the Selectboard.”
MacNicol had taken responsibility for the initial error because she had reviewed the 2017 Special Town Meeting warrant.
Idaho woman arrested on charges in Orange fraud case
An arrest was made in May in connection with the fraudulent invoices that drained $338,000 from Orange’s coffers in the summer of 2023.
Jennifer Grasmick, 51, of Nampa, Idaho, was taken into custody in her town by area authorities on suspicion of defrauding Orange out of $68,000. The arrest warrant was based on a felony larceny indictment in Franklin County Superior Court.
Police Chief James Sullivan said in May that there was a great deal of satisfaction and relief regarding the arrest, though he “would feel better if she could just cut a check to us.”
At the time, Sullivan said the FBI, which assigned an agent to the fraud case, was still investigating another suspect believed to have been responsible for the theft of the remaining $270,000 through fraudulent invoices.
The fraud has had a devastating financial effect on Orange, which as a result nearly had to close its two libraries to save money.
Kennametal closes Greenfield facility
The Kennametal plant at the corner of Sanderson and North streets in Greenfield closed in 2025. Operations at the plant ended in April, leaving workers wondering what was next for them.
The corporation, headquartered in Pennsylvania, announced in January that it was shuttering the Greenfield facility as part of a plan to significantly reduce its structural costs. This strategy, reportedly meant to support the manufacturing company’s long-term stability and competitiveness, included consolidating two Spain facilities into one building by June 30.
“This decision … is in no way a reflection on the dedicated workforce at Greenfield,” Ashlee Parker-Osborne, the company’s business communications director, said in an emailed statement. “We are committed to working closely with our local union to support affected employees during this transition.”
Kennametal bought the 34 Sanderson St. plant in 1997, according to Greenfield Recorder archives. Before the arrival of Kennametal, however, the facility was home to the former Greenfield Tap & Die.
According to Chief Shop Steward Shawn Coates, the plant had 500 employees when he started in 1988 and that number was down to about 55 when workers were informed of the closure in January.
Two South Deerfield residents arrested on federal charges
Two South Deerfield residents were arrested in 2025 on federal charges — one for allegedly telling police at the U.S. Capitol that she wanted to kill top Republicans, including billionaire investor Scott Bessent who was tapped as President Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, and another for allegedly spitting in a federal agent’s face during a search in connection with the U.S. Capitol investigation.
Riley Jane English, a 24-year-old transgender woman who is identified in some court documents as Ryan Michael English, was taken into custody in January when she approached a Capitol Police officer to surrender near the south entrance of the U.S. Capitol. English allegedly said she had multiple knives and two Molotov cocktails in her possession, according to an affidavit filed by a U.S. Capitol Police special agent. Police say they found a folding knife and two 50-milliliter bottles of vodka with a gray cloth affixed to the top, as well as a lighter.
English was arrested on charges of unlawful receipt, possession or transfer of a firearm, and of carrying a firearm, a dangerous weapon, an explosive or an incendiary device on Capitol grounds.
One week after the first arrest, James Gerard Pepe III, also identified in court documents as Judith Pepe, allegedly spat in a federal agent’s face and was taken into custody while federal agents executed a search warrant for a bedroom inside a South Main Street apartment connected to the U.S. Capitol Police investigation, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court and a news release from the Department of Justice. Pepe has been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees.
According to recent court documents, Judge Mark Mastroianni has ordered the government to provide the court all body camera footage of Pepe’s interactions with law enforcement personnel as well as certain sections of the FBI’s body-worn cameras policy guide. He also ordered the government to identify for the court any portions of the body camera footage supporting the assertion that the on-scene commander “directed all agents to deactivate their body-worn cameras.”
Pepe and English are scheduled for status conferences at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22.