Rate Hikes Seen as Long-Term Step to Generate Cash Needed for Major Upgrades to City’s Crumbling Infrastructure. NORTHAMPTON – City water and sewer customers will see a jump in their quarterly bills starting in July. On Wednesday, the Board of Public Works (BPW) voted unanimously to raise the price of municipal water by 9.03 percent [...]

The Board of Public Works is considering setting aside $1 million a year in water and sewer enterprise funds to tackle infrastrucure repairs and upgrades that have been ignored over the years. NORTHAMPTON – Water and sewer rates for the next fiscal year could rise from 7 to 12 percent – or even more – [...]

Option One: Keep Glendale Road and Locust Street transfer stations open; households may opt for private collection Supporters: Council President David Narkewicz, Ward 6 Councilor Marianne LaBarge, Ward 6 resident Mimi Odgers, task force co-chairs Wendy Foxmyn and Mark Carmien Option Four: City-wide curbside pickup; keep Glendale Road transfer station open only for bulky and [...]

Public Works Officials, Mayor Opt To Push Ahead with Phase One of the Project, Pegged at $16 Million. NORTHAMPTON – The price tag for modernizing and constructing a reconfigured public works facility on Locust Street is now estimated at $26 million, almost three times the figure the mayor and other public officials pitched last summer, [...]

Despite 11th-hour pleas by a group that wanted to save the 127-year-old dam, the BPW opted to tear down the leaky stone structure and restore the stream above it. *      *      * NORTHAMPTON – In a 5-0 vote last night, the Board of Public Works (BPW) dashed the hopes of dozens of vocal city residents who [...]

When the BPW meets Oct. 28, it will likely vote to remove the failing Upper Roberts Meadow Dam. That’s five days before the City Council votes on a resolution to save the dam. Is the resolution too little too late? NORTHAMPTON – A resolution to use hydropower to save a Chesterfield Road dam comes up [...]

“LANDFILL HOUSE” SALE APPROVED NORTHAMPTON – The city-owned home at 981 Park Hill Road will soon be occupied by VA administrator Richard Tremaine and his family, although he will be renting the house, at least for a while. On Monday, the Board of Public Works voted 6-0 to accept Tremaine’s high offer of $381,500 for [...]

BPW chairman Terry Culhane wants his board to decide, once and for all, whether to take down the Upper Roberts Meadow Dam. And he’s scheduling a meeting before the City Council takes its final vote on a resolution to save the dam using micro-hydro. Has time run out for the Friends of the Dam? NORTHAMPTON [...]

City councilors agreed Thursday to postpone until Oct. 21 the first reading on a resolution to save the Upper Roberts Meadow Dam by Using Micro-Hydro Power ____________________________ NORTHAMPTON — The Friends of the Upper Roberts Meadow Dam turned out in force Thursday night, hoping for a City Council expression of support for their efforts to save [...]

VA administrator Richard Tremaine and Caterer Seth Mias are among four parties submitting bids on the Park Hill home Sept. 13 NORTHAMPTON – Four prospective buyers submitted offers Monday to buy a city-owned house at 981 Park Hill Road, despite a judge’s order delaying the opening of the bids for two weeks. Three of the bidders [...]

  NORTHAMPTON – The Board of Public Works stuck to its guns Wednesday when it refused to reverse a July 28 vote that tossed out all five bids for the notorious “landfill house” at 981 Park Hill Road. In 2009, the city purchased the home for $545,000 as part of a legal settlement with a [...]