West Springfield Mayor Will Reichelt laughs with a supporter at his election night watch party on Nov. 4.
Reminder Publishing file photo
2025 was a busy year for Agawam and West Springfield. Between the Big E and elections there is plenty to look back on as Reminder Publishing takes a look in the rearview mirror with 2026 just days away.
Reichelt wins reelection over O’Brien
Voters in West Springfield chose to stay the course on Nov. 4, with 71% casting their ballots to reelect Mayor Will Reichelt as the town’s leader. Town Councilor Daniel O’Brien ran a campaign to unseat Reichelt, who has been mayor for 10 years.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. and by 8:45 p.m., the vote tally showed a clear win for Reichelt, receiving 4,618 votes to O’Brien’s 1,783 per the unofficial results of the election. Ten votes were submitted for write-in candidates while 85 blank ballots were received for the mayoral race.
Reichelt ran for reelection on a platform of increasing the recreation and culture in the city, infrastructure and economic development, often pointing to the revitalization of Elm Street, with new small businesses and a rotary to better handle traffic.
From O’Brien’s perspective, there have been missed economic opportunities and future fiscal challenges that have not been addressed. He has encouraged a renegotiation of the agreement with The Eastern States Exposition to increase the percentage of profits from the Big E that the town receives each year. The increase would offset the future loss of Gaming Commission’s Community Mitigation funding.
Reichelt and O’Brien also sparred over raising taxes, which the incumbent said was necessary to prevent a $6 million shortfall, resulting in the loss of 60 municipal employees. The two also debated the closing of Mittineague School with O’Brien preferring renovations over its closure.
Agawam High School construction
Reminder Publishing file photo
The construction of a new Agawam High School is ongoing with the new building expected to incorporate innovations in learning once completed.
In September, Mayor Christopher Johnson told the School Committee that the project was on time and on budget. A month later, he and Agawam High School Principal Jim Blain highlighted Johnson the latest technology that while Blain explained how a new learning vision is being developed as part of its grant-based partnership with the Boston-based Barr Foundation.
The building’s shell — with temporary heat — should be finished sometime in January or February. The community wing is scheduled to be completed by December 2026, after which contractors will start the next phase of the building.
Agawam unveils new police headquarters, West Side’s on the way
Reminder Publishing file photo
The Agawam Police Department opened its new headquarters and dispatch center this year at 1070 Suffield St., replacing the old school building that housed the department since the 1980s.
The building the town purchased from HUB International for $2.17 million in 2022. With the extensive renovations that were required to bring the building in line with police needs, the project cost about $13.6 million. Mayor Christopher Johnson said that it was about half the cost of a newly constructed station.
A ribbon-cutting took place on Dec. 13 to formally introduce the public to the new space.
Also this year, West Springfield acquired the property at 99 Westfield St. in order to build its new police station after the Town Council approved a supplemental appropriation of $2 million from free cash to execute the purchase.
The current police station, which occupies part of the Town Hall on Central Street, was built in the 1970s and is considered cramped and outdated, according to Mayor Will Reichelt.
The town had been trying to pinpoint a new location for a while, with a Police Station Siting Committee was formed in early 2024, and the town’s original plan based on a feasibility study was to move the DPW out of its current 430 Westfield St. location, and build a new police station there. The move, the town thought, made sense since the DPW was also considered outdated.
That plan, however, did not work. Instead, the committee shifted its focus to the 99 Westfield St. parcel after Walgreens announced it was closing its doors. The location officially shuttered in March.
Report touts Big E’s economic impact
A study found that the Eastern States Exposition economic impact on Hampden County was $235 million in gross regional product and a “record-breaking” $1.167 billion across New York and New England in 2024.
Eastern States Exposition President and CEO Gene Cassidy said that the agricultural fair is one of the top economic engines in the region, creating over 8,000 jobs across New England that generate $439 million in personal income and $19 million in tax revenue for Massachusetts alone.
The numbers were unveiled at a July 8 press conference inside the Eastern States Exposition’s Brooks Building in front of community stakeholders and officials.
SNAP halt in November/response from community and municipalities
With a halt in federal funding for SNAP program leaving food insecure people scrambling to feed themselves and their children during the government shutdown, local officials and organizations worked hard to fill the need and ease anxiety, but found their own resources stretched in many cases.
Among the initiatives to keep the community fed in Springfield was a coalition formed by Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi, Bishop Talbert Swan of the NAACP and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
Springfield is home to 53 food pantry programs, operated by nonprofits, churches and civic organizations. At a press conference on Nov. 3, Sarno said that 47% of Springfield residents receive SNAP benefits.
Westfield Food Pantry Program Director Melissa Cahalan described their program as “slammed” and “as busy as we’ve ever been.”
During the Town Meeting on Nov. 4, the Longmeadow Food Pantry announced that they were close to running out of supplies. Jamie Walker, food pantry coordinator for the Longmeadow Food Pantry, told Reminder Publishing that the food pantry improved quite a bit since the Town Meeting due to a large community outreach, but as the need grows drastically, it was hard to say what will bring them back into a comfortable position.
In Chicopee, with 29.6% of the population receiving SNAP benefits, hosted a food drive in early November and publicized a list of area soup kitchens and food pantries.
Huntington Food Pantry Director Laura Gavioli said that when it leastn Oct. 30, at least one-third of those seeking food assistance were new and many exhibited “complete fear.”
Additionally, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and Gov. Maura Healey visited the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts on separate occasions to urge President Donald Trump’s administration to release SNAP payments and commend the work of those working to fight hunger in Massachusetts.
Earlier in the year, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts received notice of its first federal funding cut this year which was that the United States Department of Agriculture canceled some food deliveries to the Food Bank through August, amounting to approximately $440,000 worth of food.
While this loss of federal food represented only 1% of the Food Bank’s total distribution last year, the nonprofit needed to make up for this shortfall by drawing on its emergency reserves to purchase food.
Former Healey aid Lamar Cook arrested on cocaine trafficking charges
LaMar Cook was arrested and charged with cocaine trafficking after nearly 8 kilograms of the drug were allegedly delivered to the Springfield State Office Building, 436 Dwight St., where Cook worked at the deputy director of Gov. Maura Healey’s Western Massachusetts office. Cook’s employment has since been terminated.
Trafficking cocaine, a Class B substance, is a felony. After the initial probable cause hearing on Oct. 29, Judge William Rota ordered Cook to be held until a full hearing on Friday, Oct. 31, to provide his attorney, Kedar Ismail, time to acquaint himself with the case. Cook will enter a formal plea at that time. Rota imposed a $25,000 cash bail upon release after the hearing.
Cook’s arrest was the result of an investigation by the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team and the State Police Detective Unit, with help from Homeland Security Investigation.
Baystate Health to offer buyouts in bid to cut costs
In an effort to cut costs, the largest employer in Western Massachusetts, Baystate Health, has announced that it is offering severance packages to some of its 1,300 employees who opt for “voluntary separation.”
Baystate Health operates hospitals, specialist clinics and primary care offices, including the flagship campus at 759 Chestnut St. in Springfield, Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield, Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer and Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield.
The Baystate Health system serves 800,000 people throughout the Pioneer Valley.
In a Nov. 14 press release, Baystate Health stated that the employee buyouts were an effort to “sustain our momentum through continued financial transformation.” It cited “rising labor costs, inflation and reimbursement challenges” as factors in its decision. It also called out the federal One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July, for “creating additional headwinds for health systems across the country.”
The separations will affect Baystate Health and its subsidiaries, including Health New England, but the company stated that the positions being targeted by the voluntary separations were “non-direct patient care areas.” Rather, Baystate said it is recruiting and hiring physicians, advanced practice providers and bed-side caregivers.
Western Mass. natives among Gaza flotilla detainees reportedly released
Two men with ties to Western Massachusetts who were part of an all-volunteer humanitarian aid flotilla intercepted by the Israeli Navy in waters outside of Gaza were released from Ketziot prison in the Negev desert of Israel on Oct. 7.
Sons of independent congressional candidate and Sheffield resident Nadia Milleron, the two Western Mass natives, Torleif and Adnaan Stumo, joined the initial 50-vessel Global Sumud Flotilla in Barcelona, Spain, in August with the hopes of establishing a humanitarian corridor to bring food and medicine to the besieged people of Gaza.
The two brothers had been in Israeli custody since Oct. 2. A prerecorded message posted on Toleif’s Instagram page late in the evening on Oct. 1, Eastern time, announced he had been captured by Israeli forces.
On Oct. 6, Milleron shared with Reminder Publishing that representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem had visited her sons to determine that they have adequate food and water, and that medical attention has been requested for Torleif, who had injuries to his hands and wrists. At that time, Milleron added her two sons were taking part in a hunger strike to protest the interception of the flotilla.
