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By AL NORMAN

Solar facilities and battery storage have been protected in Massachusetts from local zoning by-laws since 1985. “In codifying solar energy as a protected use,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has written, “the Legislature determined...

By AL NORMAN

On Wednesday evening, the Greenfield City Council will consider an update of the city’s Open Space Cluster Development (OSCD) zoning ordinance. This cluster development has been described as a way “to build more houses on less land.”The open space...

By AL NORMAN

On March 31, 2023, the federal government declared the COVID public health emergency over. That created another national health emergency. It was called the Medicaid “Unwinding”— a massive “disenrollment.”During COVID, the federal government put in...

By AL NORMAN

On Dec. 29, 2021, Mitch Speight and Joan Marie Jackson had a letter dropped on their front porch in Greenfield by the county sheriff’s office. It was a “Notice to Quit” from a local law firm. “You are hereby notified and requested to vacate the...

By AL NORMAN

In October 2023, Gov. Maura Healey introduced a “$4 billion plan to jump-start the production of homes and make housing more affordable.” Her bill, H. 4138, titled the Affordable Homes Act, was touted as “the largest proposed investment in housing in...

By AL NORMAN

On July 9, 1998, acting Gov. Paul Cellucci signed into law An Act Establishing A City Or Town Aid To The Elderly And Disabled Taxation Fund. The proposal reached Greenfield 26 years later.Chapter 166 of the Acts of 1998 added Section 3D to Chapter 60...

By AL NORMAN

I met attorney Steven Schwartz in 1972. We were working in Greenfield as VISTA volunteers for Franklin Community Action Corporation. The following year Steven created the Greenfield office of Western Mass Legal Services, and a second office in...

By AL NORMAN

A public drama was performed on April 11 in Greenfield City Hall. The script ran for 90 minutes without intermission.Act I: A marijuana cultivator,15 Arch Street, LLC, asks for a “change of use” to add marijuana product manufacturing to their special...

By AL NORMAN

Tonight, voters in Wendell will act on a new general bylaw regarding licensing requirements for battery energy storage systems. Last Saturday, Shutesbury voters adopted a very similar bylaw. By voting “yes” on this bylaw, Wendell residents will...

By AL NORMAN

There are elderly and disabled individuals in Greenfield who are struggling to pay their property tax bills. At-large City Councilor Wahab Minhas wants to keep them out of the foreclosure pipeline, and in their homes.When property owners fall behind...

By AL NORMAN

Our rural Franklin County landscape has attracted large energy companies — from Tenneco in the 1970s to FirstLight today — seeking to own our woods and rivers to make electric power. Each of these corporations has green-washed their mission....

By AL NORMAN

Decades before Ben & Jerry’s, the Blake brothers of Springfield slipped some magic ingredient into their ice cream products that stimulated longevity. Pres Blake lived to the age of 106, and his brother Curtis lived to 102. According to Friendly’s...

By AL NORMAN

‘It’s really messy. And I don’t like messy.”Greenfield City Council President John Bottomley was chairing his first council meeting on Jan. 17. Three hours into the meeting, Marianne Bullock, new chair of the Economic Development Committee, wanted to...

By AL NORMAN

“The greatest threat to our national security is our nation’s debt,” said Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson in his first speech in November after being elected Speaker of the U.S. House. “Tough decisions will have to be made, but the consequences if...

By AL NORMAN

On Sept. 29, 2021, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey sent a letter to the town of Shutesbury disapproving one sentence from a bylaw passed at their annual Town Meeting. The Shutesbury bylaw allowed associate members of the town’s Planning...

By AL NORMAN

Property tax relief for senior citizens in Massachusetts has never been better. In early October, Governor Maura Healey signed into law a wide-ranging tax relief bill, including a provision more than doubling the refundable property tax credit known...

By AL NORMAN

On April 19, 2019, a HAZMAT team was called to an energy facility in Surprise, Arizona. A large metal container was leaking milky white smoke. It was a 2-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS). According to one account, “Hundreds of the...

By AL NORMAN

On Oct. 12, state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, invited me to testify on legislation she filed to allow spouses to be paid caregivers for the elderly and disabled in the Medicaid program. In Massachusetts, you can hire any friend or relative to be...

By AL NORMAN

Over the past six months, tax collectors in 14 Franklin County municipalities have purchased legal ads in this newspaper announcing their “intention to take” 146 parcels of land/homes for non-payment of taxes. Greenfield had the longest list of...

By AL NORMAN

On Sept. 12, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised “everyone 6 months and older to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 illness this fall and winter. ” The updated...

By AL NORMAN

Citizens on Turnpike Road jammed the Montague Planning Board hearing on Aug. 22, opposing a town plan to rezone 15.6 acres of forest land for an undisclosed Franklin County industrial user. On a 3-2 vote, the Planning Board supported the rezoning.It...