Stan Moulton

Municipal budget After nearly four hours of public hearings last week, the City Council on Thursday unanimously approved the $126,026,677 budget proposed by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra for the fiscal year beginning July 1. That is 4.07 percent higher than the city's current budget for the year ending June 30. The [...]

Memorial Day parade The traditional Memorial Day parade in Florence will begin at 10:10 a.m. Monday, May 30, from Trinity Row. Organized by the Veterans Council of Northampton and Central Hampshire Veterans Services, the parade will proceed to the Park Street Cemetery for an 11 a.m. ceremony honoring fallen service [...]

Fair Share Amendment The City Council on May 5 unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Fair Share Amendment on the Nov. 8 state election ballot. If approved by voters, it would levy an additional 4 percent tax on the portion of a household's annual income above $1 million and dedicate [...]

Ranked-choice voting The proposal to have the city move ahead with adopting ranked-choice voting will be discussed during a joint virtual meeting of the City Council committees on City Services and Legislative Matters at 5 p.m. Monday, May 2. The Ranked-Choice Voting Committee appointed in May 2021 presented its report [...]

The Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School Board of Trustees tonight voted unanimously to approve building an animal control facility for the city on its campus. The city no longer plans to construct the facility at the site of the former Moose Lodge at 196 Cooke Ave. Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra [...]

Form-based zoning code The City Council on Thursday voted unanimously to approve a package of 14 zoning ordinances related to the so-called "form-based" code, which affects the central business district in downtown Northampton, as well as Florence village center. The changes, which the Office of Planning & Sustainability worked on [...]