EAST LONGMEADOW — East Longmeadow is working to close the digital divide in town with the help of a $55,994 grant from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute’s Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program. A steering committee made up of residents and town staff is working with the consulting firm Kimley-Horn to identify inequities in the ability of residents and businesses to use the internet.
WILBRAHAM — Wilbraham first began exploring alternatives to existing commercial internet options in late 2012. By 2014, voters had approved the creation of a Municipal Light Plant, a structure required to operate town-owned utilities under state law. Ten years later, Wilbraham does not yet have a municipally owned broadband internet network, but that might be changing.
WEST SPRINGFIELD — At the North Pole, an elf is having trouble and a K-9 named Fitzgerald makes it his mission to help.
AGAWAM — Residents and town officials got a look at the latest designs for the new Agawam High School at a public meeting on Nov. 20. Agawam Mayor Christopher Johnson, who also serves as the chair of the Agawam High School Building Committee, highlighted the state-of-the-art features, while emphasizing that decisions were made based on the lessons other schools learned in their school builds.
WILBRAHAM — After an exhaustive search, the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee authorized Superintendent John Provost to hire Douglas Slaughter to be the district’s new assistant superintendent of Finance, Operations and Human Resources.